Archives



The Salvation Army, Australian Territory

The Salvation Army, Australian Territory was established in 1880 when the first members of the church came to Australia. From 1880 until 1907, the Salvation Army Australasian Territory comprised the church’s operations in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga. In 1907, the Australian Territory was separated from New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga. In 1921, the…

Dunmore Boys’ Home, Records

churches of Christ NSW & ACT holds a collection of records dating from 1936 to 1971 relating to the Dunmore Boys’ Home (also known as Dunmore House) at the churches of Christ Resource Centre in Rhodes. Access Conditions People wishing to access these records need to contact the churches of Christ in NSW and ACT…

Kurnell Gardens

Kurnell Gardens was run by the State Children’s Relief Department as a remand home for children from Broken Hill who had been charged with offences by the police and were awaiting court appointments or being sent to other institutions. It was officially opened in December 1937, however it had been running since November 1936 when…

Theresian Holiday Home

The Theresian Holiday Home, also known as Liseux, was opened at Padstow Park in 1938. It was run by the Theresian Club, an organisation of Catholic women closely associated with the Sisters of Charity. The Home provided short holidays in a bushland setting for disadvantaged children from Sydney. Children between the ages of three and…

Tuggerah Welfare Farm, Chittaway Point

Tuggerah Welfare Farm was established by the Salvation Army around 1954 as a training farm for young men between 15 and 25 years old. In 1959 there were two boys at the farm under the age of 16. Many (though not all) of the residents of the farm were sent there by the Courts following…

Infant Life Protection

Infant Life Protection was a program that emerged in response to rising concerns about ‘baby farming’ in the late nineteenth century – this was the practice of infants, usually born to single mothers, being placed in private homes to be nursed and boarded, for a fee. There was a very high mortality rate for ex-nuptial…

The Cottage Home

The Cottage Home was established in July 1879 as a private boarding-out home in Newtown, Sydney. The Cottage Home had capacity for approximately 10 children and was managed by an older couple acting as house “father and mother”. It was established as a trial of the boarding-out “family system” as opposed to the institutional system…

Mental deficiency

Mental deficiency is a term that was commonly used to describe intellectual or developmental disability in the first half of the twentieth century. It was regarded as a disease, and the popular belief was that people who were diagnosed as ‘mentally defective’ needed to be segregated from the community, to receive special ‘care’ and treatment….

House of Correction, Carters Barracks: registers of convicts

The Register of Convicts for House of Correction, Carters Barracks is a record held by Museums of History in the collection of the State Archives of NSW. It contains information about people incarcerated at Carters Barracks, including date entered the barracks, convict number, convict name, name of the ship they arrived on, original sentence, crime…

Visit of John Moss

In 1951, a British Home Office official named John Moss inspected and reported on Australian and New Zealand institutions where British child migrants were living. Moss spent July-December 1951 travelling around Australia and to New Zealand, inspecting institutions and making recommendations. His report, known as the Moss Report, was submitted to the British government in…