Mount Paradise Reformatory for Boys at Pakenham opened in 1896 to accommodate approximately five Roman Catholic boys. It was a private reformatory, established by Mr James Joseph Millane and run by him, his mother, and his siblings. It experienced problems with those who attempted to abscond and by 1911 no boys were accommodated there.
Mount Paradise Reformatory was deemed to be an approved Reformatory School by the Department for Reformatory Schools under the Juvenile Offenders Act of 1887. The Department sent state wards to the school, and provided financial support for each boy sent there. The Superintendent, James Millane, provided annual reports to the Department, and the school was periodically inspected by government inspectors.
Boys at Mount Paradise performed farm work at the reformatory, including ploughing fields, fencing, cutting hay, growing and harvesting fruit and vegetables, tending to livestock, slaughtering and butchery. They received basic education for one hour a night, three nights a week at the home, including religious education. They attended church each week. The 1896 annual report for the reformatory, published in the Report of the Department for Neglected Children and Reformatory Schools, stated that some boys had been visited by their parents while at the reformatory. Once boys had spent some time at the reformatory they were sent to local farms to work.
Many of the boys at the reformatory came from Melbourne, and according to the Superintendent’s 1897 report some had trouble adjusting to country life, and wished to return to the city, which resulted in boys absconding. By the end of 1910 there were only 2 boys at Mount Paradise, and none by the end of 1911 when it appears to have closed. The Departmental Annual Report cited issues with preventing boys from absconding as being an ongoing problem for Mount Paradise and other similar small farm reformatories, which may have contributed to its closure.
From
1896
To
1911?
1896 - 1911?
Mount Paradise Reformatory for Boys was situated at Gembrook-Pakenham Road, Pakenham, Victoria