Hunter ACS was a New South Wales Aboriginal Children's Services organisation that began in Newcastle in 1984 as a sub-project of the Aboriginal Legal Service, who had identified a need for an Aboriginal service to take responsibility for fostering Aboriginal children of the Hunter with Aboriginal families. By August 2013 it had closed.
Hunter Aboriginal Children's Services was committed to providing quality out-of-home care for Aboriginal children; protecting them from emotional, physical and sexual abuse and neglect; and to implementing the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child and Young Person Placement Principles.
It favoured foster care over residential care and supported Aboriginal families with a Family Support Program. It received funding from the New South Wales Government.
In 2012 the former CEO of Hunter ACS was jailed for possessing child pornography, child sexual assault, fraud and falsifying his employment record.
In August 2013 the case was considered by the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse.
Sources used to compile this entry: About Us, Hunter Aboriginal Children's Services, http://web.archive.org/web/20130430091834/http://www.hunteracs.org.au/home/about-hacs/; Armitage, Catherine, 'Abuser who got away with it to be focus of hearings', The Sydney Morning Herald, 15 August 2013, http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/abuser-who-got-away-with-it-to-be-focus-of-hearings-20130814-2rwtc.html; Callinan, Rory; Hall, Louise, 'Bungle allowed paedophile to take care of children', 29 September 2012, http://www.smh.com.au/national/bungle-allowed-paedophile-to-take-care-of-children-20120928-26qoa.html; Thinee, Kristy and Bradford, Tracy, Connecting Kin: Guide to Records, A guide to help people separated from their families search for their records [completed in 1998], New South Wales Department of Community Services, Sydney, New South Wales, 1998, https://clan.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/connectkin_guide.pdf.
Prepared by: Naomi Parry
Created: 17 March 2011, Last modified: 25 September 2014