The Westbrook Youth Centre, run by the government, was situated at Westbrook, 15 kilometres south west of Toowoomba. It was previously called the Westbrook Training Centre and in 1993 the named changed to the Westbrook Youth Detention Centre.
According to the 1999 report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Abuse of Children in Queensland Institutions, 'the 1990s reflected an unstable and volatile period for Westbrook', due to management instability as well as regular changes to the departmental structure within which juvenile detention was managed (p.139).
The report stated that in the early 1990s: 'There were … increasing concerns that the geographical isolation of
Westbrook caused problems for parents and relatives wanting to visit detainees, and made transportation to and from courts and other services in Brisbane difficult. The utility of providing tuition in farming skills for a detainee population that was predominantly urban was also being questioned.'
Westbrook Youth Centre was mentioned in the Bringing Them Home Report (1997) as an institution that housed Indigenous children removed from their families.
1871 - 1881 Reformatory School for Boys - Hulk Proserpine
1881 - 1899 Reformatory School for Boys, Lytton
1899 - 1900 Diamantina Reformatory School for Boys
1900 - 1919 Westbrook Reformatory for Boys
1919 - 1966 Farm Home for Boys, Westbrook
1966 - 1987 Westbrook Training Centre
1987 - 1993 Westbrook Youth Centre
1993 - 1994 Westbrook Youth Detention Centre
1994 - 2012 Darling Downs Correctional Centre
Sources used to compile this entry: Commission of Inquiry into Abuse of Children in Queensland Institutions, Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Abuse of Children in Queensland Institutions, Queensland. Department of Families, Youth and Community Care, Brisbane, 1999. pp.139-140.; Department of Families, Missing pieces: information to assist former residents of children's institutions to access records, State of Queensland, 2001. pp.21-23..
Prepared by: Lee Butterworth
Created: 17 February 2013, Last modified: 5 September 2017