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The Church Rescue Home was established in 1885 and run by a committee associated with the Church of England Temperance Society. It opened as a Home for the “rescue” of “intemperate”, “inebriate”, and “fallen” women (‘Church Home for the Intemperate and the Fallen’, published in The Sydney Morning Herald, 13 September 1884), including teenage girls. While the Home was associated with the Church of England, it accepted women from any denomination. The Home was officially opened in an eight-roomed rented house at 242 Forbes Street, Darlinghurst, on the 6th March 1885, with 14 women in residence, and capacity for up to 20. This house quickly proved to be too small for the number of women in residence – by the end of March that year there were 25 women living there. On 5th May 1886 the Home officially opened in a larger building on the corner of Crown and Albion streets, Surry Hills. In 1892 the Home had relocated again to the corner of Norfolk and Suffolk Street, Paddington, wh

This is a photograph of the building known as Strathmore at Glebe. It shows a large three-storey stone building with a small front portico in the middle of a lower-storey verandah. The sides of the verandah appear to have been partially enclosed, potentially for use as additional rooms. Strathmore was bought by the Church of England in 1899 for use as a women’s rescue home, then as a girl’s home. In the 1930s, when this photograph was taken, Strathmore was used as accommodation for homeless families.

This is sketch of Strathmore at Glebe. It shows a grand three-storey stone building on top of a small hill. The first two floors of the building have verandahs, and the third is slightly smaller with large windows overlooking the grounds of the Strathmore estate.

Mt Lawley Reception Home was the new name given in 1973 to the government-run Child Welfare Reception Home. It gave temporary accommodation to children and young people who were: awaiting placement with foster parents or institutions; staying in Perth for medical or dental treatment; and referred from, or awaiting appearances at, the Children’s Court. In 1980 Mt Lawley Reception Home became the Walcott Centre. Stolen generations children who were forcibly removed from their families also stayed at the Home. The Mt Lawley Reception Home was run by the Department for Community Welfare. Mt Lawley Reception Home continued to be referred to by its previous name, Child Welfare Reception Home (or acronyms such as CWRH) in departmental files throughout the period 1974 to 1979. In 1980, the Mt Lawley Reception Home became the Walcott Centre.

Government Receiving Home was the new name given in 1935 to the Government Receiving Depot in Mount Lawley, which provided temporary accommodation to children awaiting placements with foster parents or institutions, including members of the Stolen Generations. In 1953 Government Receiving Home became the Child Welfare Reception Home. It also accommodated children who were awaiting medical or dental treatment in Perth, or who were scheduled for appearance at the Children’s Court. Private admissions were also accommodated.

This image shows buildings of the Church of England Girls’ Homes in Glebe.  The building in the foreground is Avona, then Tress-Manning behind it, and Strathmore in the background. Girls from the Home can be seen sitting on the steps outside of Avona. Avona and its grounds later became the Charlton Memorial Home. This image was published in The Sydney Morning Herald on 11 May 1928. The description reads: “The scattered and dilapidated buildings in which 150 girls are now housed. The building in the distance was formerly the residence of the late Sir George Wigram Allen.”

This is a photo of the Church Rescue Home at Glebe, also known as Strathmore. It shows a grand three-storey stone building situated on a slight hill.

Child Welfare Reception Home was the new name given in 1953 to the Government Receiving Home in Mount Lawley. It gave temporary accommodation to children and young people who were: awaiting placement with foster parents or institutions; staying in Perth for medical or dental treatment; and referred from or awaiting appearances at the Children’s Court. In 1973 Child Welfare Reception Home became the Mt Lawley Reception Home. The Home was run by the Child Welfare Department and had a number of functions. It was a temporary place for children coming into the child welfare system who went on to placement in an institution or foster home. Children from the country who had no family in Perth might also stay there while they had medical or dental treatment in Perth. The Reception Home also took children who had been referred from the Children’s Court. In 1954, the Home was criticised by an academic study which found that the facilities were old, inappropriate and depressing; that there

Fremantle Community Youth Services began in 1977 in a three-bedroom home on Quarry Street, Fremantle, offering short to medium term accommodation to young people. It was run by the City of Fremantle, and, between 1985 and 1989, it was run by Mofflyn Child and Family Care Services. In 2001 the service offered medium and long term housing to approximately 36 young people, some of whom have families, in up to 26 units. Fremantle Community Youth Services was a 3-bedroom house owned by the Fremantle City Council. In the early and mid-1980’s, the service was targeted to 15-18 year old males and females who were not yet able to live independently, and provided short to medium term accommodation. There was a back-up social worker support for young people requiring additional support. From January 1988 residential care was no longer provided at the Quarry Street house, and Fremantle Community Youth Services instead provided referral and support services from Quarry street, and accommodate

Dellahale House was established in 1964 to replace the Protestant Children’s Home in Geraldton. It provided residential accommodation for girls attending high school in Geraldton. Dellahale House was managed by Geraldton Protestant Children’s Homes Inc on behalf of the Country High School Hostels Authority. In 1981, the manager of John Frewer House was appointed to manage both Dellahale and John Frewer House. John Frewer House (boys) and Dellahale House (girls) were separated by the grounds of Geraldton Senior High School. The girls’ college closed as a residential facility in 2001, reopening in 2002 as the coeducational Geraldton Residential College on the Dellahale site. It was common for the Country High School Hostels Authority hostels to have an annual ‘jamboree’ and this was held at Geraldton in 1988. At a public hearing during the Special Inquiry into St Andrew’s Hostel, Katanning, the Manager testified about the behaviour of a staff member in 1993-94 and the way

Cornelie Home was the name given in 1898 to the Salvation Army’s rescue Home when it moved to North Perth (Highgate) from Perth (East Perth). It accommodated single mothers, pregnant women, elderly women and women who had been released from prison. The 1900 report of the Aborigines Department showed that the Salvation Army Rescue Home received grants of £3 5s. It is likely that this referred to the Cornelie Home. The Chief Protector, Henry Prinsep referred in the report (p.4) to the ‘occasional help in the care of children’ given by the Salvation Army’. The Cornelie Home was a fifteen-room house, purpose-built as a Rescue Home for women and maternity home for ‘unmarried girls’ on land granted by the Government in Highgate. In an overview written in 1984, Cornelie’s residents were described as ‘elderly, destitute or alcoholic women, un-wed mothers, deserted wives, women on release from prison or young offenders’. In 1899, the Kalgoorlie Miner reported there were nine ‘c

Cottesloe House was a cottage home established by the Salvation Army in Mount Lawley around 1973 which accommodated both girls and boys. Previously, the premises had been the Witnell House Girls’ Home (also known as Cottesloe House). By 1979 there were ten children living at Cottesloe House: five were wards and five were private admissions. In that year, Cottesloe House was described as providing longer term care for boys and girls aged 5-17 years but admitting children for shorter stays where necessary. Sibling groups were admitted. Cottesloe House had a garden, play area, trampoline, swings and slides, barbeque, cricket pitch, cubby house, one pet, bikes and a range of sporting equipment. Children went to church or Sunday school. There were 6 bedrooms – 1 single and 5 doubles; a lounge room; kitchen/dining; 3 bathrooms and 4 toilets; a study, playroom and office; a verandah and 3 staff bedrooms and 1 staff bathroom and toilet; a pool or table tennis table; TV, piano;

Collie Boys’ Home The Collie Boys’ Home was established by the Salvation Army in 1902 for boys aged from 4 years, outside Collie on land previously settled by the Pollard family,. It was one of three institutions set on 8,093 hectares of land held by the Salvation Army, the other being the Salvation Army Industrial School for Boys, Collie and the Salvation Army Industrial School for Girls, Collie.  The exact starting dat

This is a photograph of girls at the Church of England Home for Girls, Avona, at Glebe. It shows approximately 40 girls standing on a lawn in front of Avona, which is a large stone building with wrought-iron verandahs. Some of the girls are holding hands and standing in a circle, while others face the camera straight-on. Most of the girls are wearing dark dresses with large white collars, though a few of them are wearing white aprons. Two women in white aprons (presumably staff members) can be seen on the lower verandah of Avona, which is raised up several metres from the lawn. To the side of Avona there is a glass conservatory or green-house, and in the background the Girls Training Home ‘Tress-Manning’ can be seen.

The Church of England Training Home for Girls opened on the 9th August 1909 as a Home for girls between the ages of 14 and 16. The Home, also known as the Tress-Manning Home, was built at Forsyth Street, Glebe, on a site between the Church Rescue Home for Women (Strathmore) and the Church of England Girls Home (Avona). The home was established with the intention of separating the older girls from the younger girls under the care of the Church of England Homes. The first girls in residence were moved there from Avona. Other girls, often described disparagingly in newspaper articles as “uncontrollable”, were sent to Tress-Manning through the Children’s Court. An article published in the Sydney Morning Herald on the opening of the home described it as follows: “The home is cheerful and bright looking. There is a pretty little chapel, in which the Communion table and reading desk have been carved by the pupils in the home. Upstairs there are two dormitories, in one of whi

The Church of England Home for Girls, also known as Avona, was opened in 1904 at Glebe, on a site next to the Church Rescue Home (Strathmore). It had capacity for approximately 60 girls. Avona was opened to provide an alternative to housing young girls with older women at Strathmore, as the committee running the homes believed that the women would have a negative influence on the girls. Initially Avona took girls aged 3-16 years old, however from 1909 girls from the age of 14 were sent to the neighbouring Tress-Manning Home. In 1907 the annual meeting of the Church of England Homes committee reported that 65 girls had been admitted to Avona over the previous 12 months. The committee stated that the Home took “destitute” children. Many of these children came from the Children’s Court, but the Home also “searched out” deserted wives in the metropolitan area in order to take their children into Avona (‘Church Rescue Home’, The Daily Telegraph, 19 September 1907). Girls at A

This is a sketch showing the front of ‘Avona’, the building which was later purchased by the Church of England for use as a girls’ home. The sketch shows a large two-storey building with ornate dormer windows, large front verandahs, and a glass conservatory at one side. The building sits above large decorative gardens. This sketch part of material advertising the sale of the Avona estate in 1899.

This is a photograph of the Church of England Home For Girls at Glebe, also known as Avona. It shows approximately 25 girls standing on the lawn in front of a large two-storey house with ornate front verandahs, decorative dormer windows, and a glass conservatory on the side. The girls are all wearing white dresses with dark sleeves. A woman (presumably a staff member) can be seen standing on the lower verandah of the building, overlooking the girls.

Albany Residential College is a hostel for students attending high school in Albany. It is likely that the hostel was opened around 1974. According to evidence given in the St Andrew’s Hostel inquiry, the Albany Residential College was known as Amity House during the last decades of the twentieth century. Appropriate staffing at the Albany hostel in the 1970s was the subject of evidence in the St Andrew’s Hostel Inquiry in 2012. According to evidence given in this inquiry, the Albany Residential College was known as Amity House during the last decades of the twentieth century. The manager of Amity House 1987-2001 was Nicholas Finnbar (Barry) Christy. From 1977 to around 1979, a brother and sister-in-law of convicted sex offenders Dennis and Neil McKenna, were employed as supervisors at the Amity Hostel in Albany. While there were no allegations against them at Amity, Dennis McKenna was known to employ family members as children he abused “would find it difficult to confide in a p

Jesus People Welfare Services Incorporated was a Christian welfare service that was incorporated in Western Australia in 1974. Child welfare authorities made referrals to residential and youth welfare facilities run by Jesus People. It was also known later as Perth City Mission and in 1997 became part of Mission Australia. Mission Australia has inherited the records of Jesus People Welfare Services. Jesus People (Inc) as a legal entity was deregistered in 2006, but prior to that (in 1997) had become part of Mission Australia. Government reports (Signposts 2004, pp.344-345) and archival records show that young people (male and female) were placed in facilities run by Jesus People from at least 1975. A record from 1976 refers to ‘Jesus House’. The Perth telephone directory lists the ‘New Life Centre’ under the entry for Jesus People Inc and records the New Life Centre as located at 246 Adelaide Terrace, Perth. In 1978, the telephone directory records Jesus People Inc as l

The Young People’s Refuge opened as a crisis centre in Chippendale in 1975. It was linked with Stretch-A-Family. In 1991 it was based in Marrickville and offered 24-hour crisis accommodation to girls aged 13-17. In 2013 it has two refuges in inner-western Sydney and is linked to Detour House, a supported accommodation service that includes drug rehabilitation programmes and refuges. In 2016 Young People’s Refuge was renamed The Girls Refuge. The Young People’s Refuge (YPR) was opened in Chippendale as a youth crisis centre in March 1975. It was established as an alternative to the services offered by the State Government and traditional care providers, such as the churches. Initially viewed as a radical alternative (it was inspired by the Glebe Women’s Refuge, Elsie, set up by women’s liberationists), the refuge struggled to obtain funding for its operations. A newspaper article from July 1975 stated that “For the past five months the Refuge has scraped by on donations and help from

Clifton Lodge was established around the 1970s by Sydney City Mission as a residential youth service. It was in North Sydney. Sydney City Mission changed to Mission Australia in 1996. In the 1950s the North Sydney property was a Home for the Aged run by the Sydney City Mission, also called Clifton Lodge. A newspaper article from 1975 interviewing young people in a refuge referred to Clifton Lodge as a “shelter”. Bobby talked about “absconding” from Clifton Lodge which she described as “not as bad as an institution” but she objected to its “obligatory psychiatric therapy sessions” and was thrown out (Tribune, 29 July 1975). By 2004 Clifton Lodge had become an early intervention service, Clifton Youth Services.

The Metropolitan Boys’ Shelter was established as part of the Children’s Court at Albion Street, Surry Hills in 1911. It was a remand home and shelter for boys who were awaiting Children’s Court hearings. In 1974 boys aged 18 to 20 were transferred to Minda. The Children’s Court and the Metropolitan Boys’ Shelter closed in 1983. The Shelter was established at The Children’s Court on the corner of Albion and Commonwealth Streets, Surry Hills, in 1911. Although the instigator of the Children’s Court, Sir Charles K Mackellar, had great hopes that the new court would be airy and light and would reflect the humane intention of the new policies. However the Albion Street building, designed by Government Architect Walter Liberty Vernon, was much the same as other New South Wales Government courthouses. It was attractive on the outside, but gloomy inside. Mackellar was upset that there was no space for children awaiting court hearings to be separated from adults who were being tried in the

Lynwood Hall was established in 1939 in ‘Linwood’, a house that had previously served as the Guildford School for Truants. Lynwood Hall was initially called the Guildford Domestic Science Training School and was known as Guildford Special Training School by 1966. It closed in 1993. Lynwood Hall was first named ‘Linnwood’ and was built in 1891 by George McCredie, an architect and engineer. In 1917 Linnwood was leased to the Department of Education, which needed a new Truant School. The Department chose this house because it was in good repair, the grounds were spacious, the property had room enough for staff and it was located close to the railway. ‘Linnwood’ became the Guildford Truant School. On 28 November 1936 the Child Welfare Department took over the site, intending it to be fitted out as a domestic science training school. The Child Welfare Department seems to have changed the name of the property, from ‘Linnwood’ to ‘Lynwood Hall.’ After painting and the installation of he