Yokine Cottage

Yokine Cottage opened in 1972 when Mogumber was being replaced by a number of small homes in Perth suburbs. It is likely that Yokine accommodated Aboriginal school children until at least 1984. Yokine Cottage closed at the end of 1988.

Yokine Cottage began as a suburban branch of Mogumber in 1970, in a house at 180 Lawley Street. It was run by the Methodist Overseas Mission under agreement with the Department for Community Welfare (DCW), who owned the property. The first residents of Yokine Cottage were children from one family and their cottage mother who had transferred from Mogumber.

It is likely that Yokine Cottage was one of the Aboriginal Education and Employment Hostels in the metropolitan area, providing a base for Aboriginal children and young people to go to school and obtain other training in Perth.

Yokine Cottage was run by a number of Methodist and, after 1977, Uniting Church agencies under agreement with the DCW. From 1972, Yokine was run by the Methodist Overseas Mission. In 1974, after Mogumber closed, the Mogumber Training Centre (MTC) took over from the Methodist Overseas Mission and in 1980 Sister Kate’s Child and Family Care Services took over from the MTC. From 1985 until it closed on 31 December 1988, Mofflyn Child and Family Care Services ran Yokine Cottage.

It is possible that many of the children and young people who were placed at Yokine Cottage were wards of the State.