Seaforth Salvation Army Boys' Homes, Gosnells

The Seaforth Salvation Army Boys’ Home, Gosnells (Kelmscott) was established in 1920. Boys from the Salvation Army Homes at Collie were transferred to Seaforth, and lived in different ‘sections’, including a separate facility for boys and young men with intellectual disabilities (1922-1950). Seaforth Boys’ Home closed in 1955 and remaining boys were transferred to either the Salvation Army Boys’ Home, Nedlands, or the Anglican Farm School, Stoneville. Those adults who had been in the ‘backward’ section remained on the Seaforth property which continued to be used by the Salvation Army as a residential care centre for adults.

The Seaforth Salvation Army Boys’ Home was established around 1921, on a parcel of land held by the Salvation Army and shared with the Seaforth Salvation Army Boys’ Reformatory and Seaforth Salvation Army Girls’ Home. The Boys’ Home had two sections: a general section for children who were described in 1925 as ‘orphans or semi-orphans’ and a ‘backward’ section for boys with intellectual disabilities. The general section was also called the ‘probationary’ section. All Children’s Home sections at Seaforth had ceased operation by 30 August 1955.

Seaforth continued to be used by the Salvation Army as a residential facility for adults. Known as the Harry Hunter Rehabilitation Centre in 2014, the site remained active.

A brief overview of the ‘general’ and ‘backward’ sections follows:

General section

In 1925, the ‘general’ section at Seaforth accommodated 50 boys aged from 5 to 14 years. A large brick building in the centre of the property held the boys’ dormitories. The Seaforth Boys’ Band, which had been established in 1923, drew its members from this section of the Home. The band not only played at functions in the Home, but was also gave public performances and in 1926 went on a tour of the south-west. The boys’ band seems to have been an important part of the Salvation Army’s fundraising campaigns.

In 1942, boys from the Salvation Army Boys’ Home, Nedlands were evacuated to Seaforth so the army could make use of the Nedlands site. They returned after the army no longer needed Nedlands.

In 1953, the Premier of Western Australia commissioned RH Hicks, Director of Child Welfare and Social Services in New South Wales, to review Western Australian child welfare facilities, including the Seaforth Boys’ Home. Hicks’ report was never released by the government but certain elements were published in the press, including information that condemned the conditions at Seaforth.

On 30 August 1955, the Seaforth Boys’ Home, general section, closed. All remaining boys were transferred to the Salvation Army Boys’ Home, Nedlands.

‘Backward’ section

The Salvation Army opened a section for boys with intellectual disabilities at Seaforth in 1922. At the time this section opened, there were a range of terms used to describe children with disabilities – and boys with physical disabilities may also have been sent to this Home. Previously, these children would have been sent to the Claremont Hospital for the Insane. By 1925 there were 50 boys in this section of the Home, and they went to a school run by the Education Department on the Seaforth site. The dormitories, playgrounds, gardens and dining-room of the ‘backward’ section were separate from the other sections of Seaforth, and, apart from the Manager, had its own staff. Young men as old as 25 years were reportedly resident in the Home in 1929. Boys and young men were trained and worked in raffia and basket-making, embroidery, rug-making, toy-making and cabinetry. Not all boys stayed in the ‘backward’ section. Those who were deemed suitable for work in the general community were placed with employers.

The ‘backward’ section closed on 29 July 1950. Some residents, who were no longer children, remained on the Seaforth property which, after August 1955, continued to be used by the Salvation Army as a residential care centre for adults.

The Seaforth Home was mentioned in the Lost Innocents Report (2001) as an institution involved in the migration of children to Australia.