Sisters of the Church

The Sisters of the Church were an Anglican religious order of women who arrived in Australia, from England, in September 1892. The Sisters focused on religious education and out-of-home care establishing schools in Adelaide and Hobart and a school and orphanage in Sydney. Arriving in Perth in 1901, they established children’s homes, schools and a crèche in Western Australia.

The Sisters of the Church, also known as the Kilburn Sisters, was a Church of England religious order of women, headquartered at St Michael’s Convent in Richmond, England. They operated the Orphanage of Mercy in Kilburn, England.

In 1892 a group of Sisters departed for Australia. As quoted in the South Australian Register (15 July 1893) from the Sisters’ 1892 annual report “…seven Sisters, two ladyworkers, and five orphans embarked for Australasia.” The Sisters arrived into Hobart and separated between Adelaide, Hobart and Sydney and it is not known where the orphans went.

In 1893, the Sisters established the Church of England Orphanage in Surry Hills in a building they also used as a used-clothing depot. Within months they moved to Waverley House in Waverley, where the Sisters ran the orphanage and a school on the site. The Orphanage continued to move locations operating in rented properties in Chatswood and Paddington before moving permanently to Burwood in 1905.

A group of three Sisters arrived in Perth from England on 20 November 1901, with a second group arriving shortly after.  The Sisters brought with them 22 children from the Orphanage of Mercy, Kilburn,11 boys and 11 girls aged 7-10 years. Four young women aged 14 to 22 also accompanied the Sisters to assist them with their teaching.

Whittington (1999, p. 63-69) discusses the Sisters’ arrival as a response to an 1890 plea for assistance with the girls’ orphanage, however upon their arrival in Perth eleven years later this assistance was not required. Instead, they began by establishing Church of England day and boarding schools.

The Sisters rented Tower House in Russell Square, West Perth and lived there with the English children while they established the schools. As the Sisters’ operations expanded around Perth and surrounding areas, they separated and moved to oversee the new endeavours. The children they had brought from England were regularly moved with them. The children did not remain as a single group. The boys and girls were often moved separately, as well as being split by ages at various times.

Opening in early 1902, the Sisters established Perth College as a boarding and day school for girls, and a boarding and day school for boys was opened at Tower House. Some of the English children were moved to Perth College.

On 26 May 1902, the Sisters opened a crèche at 133 William Street, Perth. Working mothers could leave their babies at the crèche during the day. Whittington (1999, p.75) quotes Sister Kate Clutterbuck’s memoir that the crèche “was really the beginning of our Children’s Home (Waif’s Home, Parkerville), as many of these babies came to us afterwards”.

Around July 1902, Whittington (1999, p.74) states some of the older English boys for whom Sister Kate was responsible were “installed in a house in James Street close to the State school they were attending”. On Christmas Day, 1902, three more boys arrived from England with another Sister.

In March 1903, nine of the English girls moved to Kalgoorlie where the Sisters had taken over the running of a Church of England High School. To accommodate the girls, a makeshift building on Ward Street was erected with everything from windows, doors and furniture donated by locals. This was known as Girls’ High School, Kalgoorlie. Whittington (1999, p.112) reports that these girls returned to Perth to complete their schooling at Perth College.

During 1903, Whittington states that the English boys moved to temporary accommodation at Perth College, before relocating to the old St Peter’s Boys’ School in High Street, Fremantle. Whittington (p.78) writes that at this time Sister Kate had charge of “thirteen English boys between seven and ten years of age, and three or four babies less than two years old”.

The Sisters purchased a 10-acre property in the bush at Parkerville, in the Darling Ranges, to establish a babies’ home. In May 1903, six of the older boys and two Sisters arrived at the property. The babies remained in Fremantle with a nurse until July 1903 when a suitable building had been erected, they were transferred to the Waif’s Home, Parkerville. The boys slept in a barn, worked the land and supported the running of Home. Some of the English girls were later brought to work at the Home for no pay.

In The West Australian in February 1906, Sister Vera discussed the reception they received to the English orphans they had brought with them.

You brought some orphan boys and girls from England with you. Are they included in what is called the Waifs’ Home? “No,” answered Sister Vera; “I wish this to be very clearly understood and widely known. We brought out with us eleven boys and the same number of girls. Being told that population was wanted here, we thought these children, who wore under our care, might grow up useful and reputable citizens and would be welcomed. We soon found, however, that such was not the case, and on every side we found opposition to these children. We immediately made up our minds that the charitable people of the State would not be one penny poorer, because of our charges, so from that day to this we from our own private incomes have totally supported the boys, and the Kalgoorlie school has supported the girls.

On the 16 May 1907, The Evening Mail reported that “Within the last few weeks a receiving home for infants has been opened at 37 Malcolm Street, Perth, and has already 10 inmates.” According to Whittington (1999, p.135), the Home was likely opened because the infants could not be accommodated at the Waif’s Home, Parkerville due to space issues. Whittington also quotes from the 1907 Report of the Select Committee of the Legislative Council on the State Children’s Bill “the committee of the Waifs’ Home have boarded-out children that were in the Malcolm Street Home…two were taken by the nurses at the home and the remainder were boarded out. That was quite recently.” No further mention of this Home is known, and it seems it was temporary measure.

Also in 1907, the Church of England Orphanage in Burwood transitioned to being run by a Committee and the Sisters ceased their involvement, instead focusing on education and running schools in NSW.

In 1908, the Sisters of the Church were renamed the Community of the Sisters of the Church.

In 1909, the Waifs’ Home, Parkerville became a subsidised institution under the State Children Act 1907 and was renamed Parkerville Children’s Home. The Sisters ran Parkerville Children’s Home until 1925, when Parkerville Children’s Home Incorporated was established to run the Home. The Sisters continued to be involved in the day-to-day operations managing it from 1925 to 1933. In 1933, due to a declining number of Sisters to support the Home, the Sisters of the Society of the Sacred Advent were brought from Queensland to manage the Home in their place.

The order included Sister Kate Clutterbuck, who after being retired from Parkerville Children’s Home in 1933 went on to found her own children’s homes including the Children’s Cottage Home from 1933 to 1935, and Sister Kate’s Children’s Cottage Home which opened in 1935.

In 1941, the Sisters of the Society of the Sacred Advent left Parkerville Children’s Home and the Community of the Sisters of the Church managed the Home again until 1949. This was their last formal involvement in out-of-home care in Australia.