Royal Park Industrial School [Girls]

The Royal Park Industrial School opened in Parkville in 1875. It accommodated girls until around 1879 when the girls were transferred to the Industrial School at Geelong, and boys from Sunbury’s Industrial School came to Royal Park. At about this time the Industrial School became known as the Royal Park Depot.

The Royal Park Industrial School opened in 1875, in Parkville. With a capacity of 800, it accommodated girls until around 1880. At this time, anticipating the end of the industrial school system, the government transferred girls from Royal Park to the Industrial School at Geelong. At the same time, boys from Sunbury’s Industrial School came to Royal Park, to await boarding-out placements. From 1880, Royal Park was a “depot”, where children came before being boarded out or placed in a reformatory.

In the early 1880s, the Boys’ and Girls’ Depots at Royal Park were still being referred to as ‘industrial schools’.  In 1879, departmental reports referred to the ‘Melbourne Industrial School and Receiving House’. The Receiving House, situated on Flemington Road, was a predecessor to what became known as the Royal Park Depot. This term had stopped being used by 1887 (when new terminology came into use with the passage of the Neglected Children’s Act).

Children were housed at Royal Park before the formal establishment of the Industrial School. Due to overcrowding, children were housed at the former Royal Park Asylum in 1867. Children were later moved out of Royal Park when a small-pox epidemic necessitated that the buildings be used as a hospital. After the industrial school was closed, the buildings were used by the Immigrants Aid Society for aged care purposes (Swain, 2008).

The Royal Park Industrial School closed in 1880, when the girls were moved to the Geelong Industrial School.