The Aborigines Welfare Board was created in 1940, under the Aborigines Protection (Amendment) Act 1940. It replaced the Aborigines Protection Board and was supposed to modernise Aboriginal welfare but it continued many of the Protection Board’s policies towards children. It was abolished in 1969 and replaced by the Aborigines Welfare Directorate. Responsibility for Aboriginal children…
The Australian Aborigines Progressive Association (AAPA) was formed in New South Wales in 1924, under the leadership of C.F. (Fred) Maynard. Mrs Elizabeth McKenzie Hatton, a non-Aboriginal woman, was secretary. The group demanded children no longer be separated from their families or indentured as domestics and menial labourers, and should have access to public schools….
The Aborigines Welfare Directorate replaced the Aborigines Welfare Board in 1969. It later became known as the Aborigines Services Branch, Youth and Community Services.
Warangesda Dormitory was established on an Aborigines Protection Association station at Warangesda, near Darlington Point, in 1893. It trained Aboriginal girls for domestic service and served as a welfare depot for younger children from other reserves and stations. In 1897 the Aborigines Protection Board took over managing Warangesda Mission and the Dormitory. Girls from Warangesda…
The Aborigines Protection (Amendment) Act 1918 extended the reach of the Aborigines Protection Act 1909 to include, specifically, ‘any person having apparently an admixture of Aboriginal blood’. This, in effect, meant that any police officer or employee of the Aborigines Protection Board could decide whether someone was Aboriginal by looking at them. It swept more…
The Community Welfare Act 1982 (76/1982) was an Act that modernised and consolidated the Child Welfare Act 1939 and other Acts that related to children. The Act stated that the welfare and interests of children were to be given ‘paramount consideration’, that children should be , and that there should be ‘no interruption of parental…
The Orphan School Estates Act 1826, also known as An Act for Vesting the Orphan School Estates in the Trustees of the Clergy and School Lands in the Colony of New South Wales and for duly governing the Children at School and in Apprenticeship (7 George 4, Act No 4, 1826), established rules for the…
The Children’s Protection Act 1902 (47/1902) was also known as ‘An Act to consolidate the enactments providing for the protection of children in certain cases’ and repealed the Children’s Protection Act 1892. It amended and consolidated the law regarding ‘baby-farming’, or caring for multiple infants for a fee. This practice was of great social and…
The Community Welfare Act 1987 (52/1987) was a significant revision of existing child welfare legislation and the Community Welfare Act 1982. It followed a number of Reports and Inquiries around Australia and the world. It is the Act that controls the functions of the Minister for community welfare and social development and some of the…
Requiring the consent of a child to the making of a community service order or restricting orders to children under fourteen.
Dec 18, 2024
Nov 15, 2024
