The Fitzroy Crossing Hostel was run by the United Aborigines Mission from around 1956. By 1971 there were 80 primary school age Aboriginal children at the hostel. It was run by the Department for Community Welfare from 1972 until 1976 when it was replaced by the Fitzroy Crossing Group Homes (Burawa Hostel).
The Fitzroy Crossing Hostel was established by the United Aborigines Mission (UAM) possibly in 1956 in the Fitzroy Crossing township. It is likely that the first students were from the UAM's Fitzroy Crossing Mission.
By 1971, there were 80 primary school age children at the hostel.
In 1972, the UAM decided to hand the hostel over to the Department for Community Welfare and in 1976 it was replaced by the Fitzroy Crossing Group Homes (Burawa Hostel). The DCW reported at the time that this was to enable smaller groups of children to live with Aboriginal house parents.
In 2008, as part of a history of the Mowanjum community, Penny Bidd remembered being flown by plane to the UAM hostel at Fitzroy Crossing and only being allowed to see her family 'for two weeks each year'.
1956? - 1976 Fitzroy Crossing Hostel
1976 - 1987? Fitzroy Crossing Group Homes
Sources used to compile this entry: Information Services, Department for Community Development, 'pp.208-209', Signposts: A Guide for Children and Young People in Care in WA from 1920, Government of Western Australia, 2004, https://signposts.communities.wa.gov.au//pdf/pdf.aspx; Jebb, Mary Anne, Mowanjum 50 years : community history, Mowanjum Aboriginal Community and Mowanjum Artists Spirit of the Wandjina Aboriginal Corporation, Derby, Western Australia, 2008. p.205.; Longworth, Alison, Was it worthwhile?, An historical analysis of five women missionaries and their encounters with the Nyungar people of south-west Australia, Murdoch University, Murdoch, Western Australia, 2005, http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/163/2/02Whole.pdf. pp.298-299..
Prepared by: Debra Rosser
Created: 15 March 2011, Last modified: 15 May 2014
Last updated: 17 October 2023
Cite this: https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/wa/biogs/WE00075b.htm
First published by the Find & Connect Web Resource Project for the Commonwealth of Australia, 2011
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