Yarra Bay House, Phillip Bay, 7 August 2007, by Bar, J, courtesy of J Bar, Wikimedia Commons.
Details
Yarra Bay Boys' Home, also known as Yarra Bay House, was established at Phillip Bay (La Perouse) in the mid-1950s by the Child Welfare Department. Previously, the site had housed the Yarra Bay Truant School. Yarra Bay Boys' Home was used as a receiving home as well as a more permanent children's home. By the 1960s it held 40 primary school age boys. Yarra Bay Boys' Home closed in 1985.
A 1966 publication of the Child Welfare Department described the boys at Yarra Bay House as being 'mostly dull or educationally retarded', although 'many would be suitable for foster home placement if foster homes were available.' There was an internal school at Yarra Bay House. In 1977 the Yarra Bay House was listed in the Annual Report of the Department of Youth and Community Services as being 'prepared to provide special resocialization programmes for intellectually handicapped people who are under the Minister's guardianship'.
Sources used to compile this entry: Report of the Department of Child Welfare and Social Welfare for the year ended 30 June, Government Printer, Sydney, 1970/71-1972-73. Also available at https://www.opengov.nsw.gov.au/main; Report of the Department of Youth and Community Services for the year ended 30 June, New South Wales government, 1976-1988. Also available at https://www.opengov.nsw.gov.au/main; 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; Department of Child Welfare and Social Welfare, Child Welfare in New South Wales, Child Welfare Department, Sydney, c 1962; McLean, Donald, Children In Need: An account of the administration and functions of the Child Welfare Department, New South Wales, Australia: with an examination of the principles involved in helping deprived and wayward children, Government Printer, Sydney, 1955, 173 pp; 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: 18 August 2013, Last modified: 10 December 2014
Last updated: 4 August 2023
Cite this: https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/nsw/biogs/NE01375b.htm
First published by the Find & Connect Web Resource Project for the Commonwealth of Australia, 2011
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