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New South Wales - Organisation

Yawarra Training School (1969 - 1979)

  • Kurri Boys Training School: Yawarra

    Kurri Boys Training School: Yawarra, 10 August 1976, courtesy of State Library of New South Wales.
    Details

From
1969
To
1979
Categories
Government-run, Home, Juvenile Justice Centre and Reformatory
Alternative Names
  • Kurri Boys Training School, Yawarra

Yawarra Training School was established at Kurri Kurri by the Child Welfare Department in 1969. It was for young men under the age of eighteen years transferred from Corrective Services. The School provided facilities to train the boys in a craft or trade. Yawarra closed in 1979 and was converted to a unit for males aged 18 to 21 for a year. It then became a Coal Training College.

Details

Yawarra was purpose-built by the Child Welfare Department and gazetted on 2 May 1969 under the Child Welfare Act as a school for the reception, detention, maintenance, discipline, education and training of children and young persons committed to such institution.

The new home provided accommodation for 200 boys aged 16-18 in four separate homes each of which housed 44 boys. The complex contained a privilege cottage for boys being prepared for return to the community. The program was aimed at vocational education with boys receiving training in semiskilled and technical trades, such as mechanics.

The Child Welfare Department made a point in its 1969 Annual Report of Yawarra being the first training school to be built with a pool, and the first to provide training in radio and television repair and maintenance.

Yawarra had its own radio station, 2YA, and exchanged programs with 2DA the radio station at Daruk Boys' Training School. School education was also available including remedial lessons and boys were prepared for the School Certificate or took technical courses by correspondence. There was also an emphasis on sporting activities.

Location

1969 - 1979
Location - Yawarra Training School was situated at Kurri Kurri. Location: Kurri Kurri

Publications

Reports

  • Boyle, Brian, The Child Welfare Schools: Recollections of these unique schools and the men and women who taught in them often under considerable difficulty, unpublished typescript, (618 pp. : ill., ports ; 32 cm), 1996. Details
  • Child Welfare Department, Annual Report: Child Welfare Department of New South Wales, New South Wales government, 1923-1970. Also available at https://www.opengov.nsw.gov.au/main. Details

Resources

Online Resources

Photos

A broadcast in preparation at station 2DA, Daruk Training School
Title
A broadcast in preparation at station 2DA, Daruk Training School
Type
Image
Date
1961
Publisher
New South Wales government

Details

A used car donated by a Kurri Kurri citizen is completely rebuilt by the lads in the Yawarra motor maintenance workshop
Title
A used car donated by a Kurri Kurri citizen is completely rebuilt by the lads in the Yawarra motor maintenance workshop
Type
Image
Date
c. 1969
Publisher
New South Wales government

Details

The radio and television repair and maintenance workshop. Yawarra is the first of its training schools to provide instruction in this trade
Title
The radio and television repair and maintenance workshop. Yawarra is the first of its training schools to provide instruction in this trade
Type
Image
Date
c. 1969
Publisher
New South Wales government

Details

The Assembly Hall at Yawarra can be used for indoor basketball or converted into a well-equipped gymnasium. The stage (at rear) will be used for concerts and dramatic productions
Title
The Assembly Hall at Yawarra can be used for indoor basketball or converted into a well-equipped gymnasium. The stage (at rear) will be used for concerts and dramatic productions
Type
Image
Date
c. 1969
Publisher
New South Wales government

Details

Yawarra was the first of the Boys' Training Schools to be equipped with a swimming pool at the time it was opened
Title
Yawarra was the first of the Boys' Training Schools to be equipped with a swimming pool at the time it was opened
Type
Image
Date
c. 1969
Publisher
New South Wales government

Details

Kurri Boys Training School: Yawarra
Title
Kurri Boys Training School: Yawarra
Type
Image
Date
10 August 1976
Source
State Library of New South Wales

Details

Sources used to compile this entry: Child Welfare Department, Annual Report: Child Welfare Department of New South Wales, New South Wales government, 1923-1970. Also available at https://www.opengov.nsw.gov.au/main; 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; 'Yawarra Training School for Boys', in State Records Authority of New South Wales website, State of New South Wales through the State Records Authority of NSW 2016, https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/agency/569.

Prepared by: Naomi Parry