Padbury Farm 1946 The first buildings and home garden, 1988, courtesy of Perth Diocesan Trustees, Anglican Church of Australia, Please see page 140.
Details
The Padbury Boys' Farm School was run by the Anglican Orphanages Committee as part of Swan Homes from 1946 to 1955, on land owned by the Anglican church in Stoneville. Boys were sent there to gain training and experience in farm work.
The Padbury Boys' Farm School at Stoneville was part of the Swan Homes complex, established in 1946 to provide agricultural training to boys from Swan Homes. It was named in honour of two benefactors of Swan Homes: Mr Walter Padbury and his nephew, Matthew Padbury. Boys old enough to be 'trainees' were at first accepted to Padbury, but after 1948 'schoolboys' were also sent there. Boys cleared the land, erected buildings, worked on the farm, and helped put out bush-fires in the community.
School-age boys attended the Mt Helena Area School.
In 1955, the Padbury Boys' Farm School was closed, for financial reasons.
The Padbury Boys' Farm School was mentioned in the Lost Innocents Report (2001) as an institution involved in the migration of children to Australia.
Sources used to compile this entry: Information Services, Department for Community Development, 'pp.400-401, Table 16: Historical Notes and Numbers of Young People at Hillston, Certain Years between 1952 and 1984', 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; Peterkin, A. Roy, The Noisy Mansions : the story of Swanleigh 1868-1971, Perth Diocesan Trustees, Anglican Church of Australia, Midland, Western Australia, 1986. pp. 99-101, 148. The relationships between Padbury Farm, Hillston, Swanleigh and Parkerville are explained at pages 208-210..
Prepared by: Debra Rosser
Created: 15 March 2011, Last modified: 25 October 2017