The Industrial and Reformatory Schools Act 1865 - with the full title "An Act to provide for the establishment of Industrial and Reformatory Schools" (Act no. 8/1865, 29 Vic No.8) set up special schools to educate and care for neglected children and young offenders under the age of 15 years. The Act allowed Indigenous children to be sent to industrial schools or reformatories on the ground of 'neglect'. Simply being Aboriginal was proof of neglect. For the purposes of the Act, missions were declared to be industrial schools or reformatories to which Indigenous children could be sent. The act was repealed by the State Children Act 1911 on the 30th of November 1911 (Act no. 2 Geo.V.No.13).
1865 - 1911 Industrial and Reformatory Schools Act 1865
1911 - 1966 State Children Act 1911
1965 - 2000 Children's Services Act 1965
1992 - Juvenile Justice Act 1992
1999 - Child Protection Act 1999
Sources used to compile this entry: To Remove and Protect: laws that changed Aboriginal lives, Queensland Legislation, 2009, http://aiatsis.gov.au/collections/collections-online/digitised-collections/remove-and-protect/queensland; Law Research Service, Melbourne Law School, Law Library, The University of Melbourne. 'Find and Connect Project - Queensland Legislation', 4 April 2013, held in the project files at the University of Melbourne eScholarship Research Centre.
Prepared by: Lee Butterworth
Created: 1 February 2011, Last modified: 24 January 2018
Last updated: 7 August 2023
Cite this: https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/qld/biogs/QE00005b.htm
First published by the Find & Connect Web Resource Project for the Commonwealth of Australia, 2011
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