Adoption is the legal process by which a person legally becomes a child of the adoptive parent(s) and legally ceases to be a child of his/her existing parent(s). The first adoption law to be passed in Australia was in the Colony of Western Australia in 1896, and other jurisdictions followed with their own legislation. However,…
Annexe is a term used to describe a smaller residential facility that is part of a larger institution. For example, the Victoria Park (Riverbank) Annexe was part of the youth detention facility, Riverbank, even though it was located many miles distant. Click here to see the full Find & Connect glossary
Custodial Care describes a model that was historically used on many people with intellectual disabilities or mental illness. In a custodial care model, a person was not given any treatment to help them improve from their condition at admission. Many children with intellectual disabilities in psychiatric hospitals up to the 1960s suffered as a result…
Receiving Agency was the name given to the organisation named as the custodian of children who were sent to Australia as migrants from the United Kingdom or Malta. The term is used mostly for post-World War Two migration, but includes some organisations that were responsible for children who came earlier in the century. Click here…
The Farm School was a model of residential ‘care’ for children, based in a rural area, which trained children (typically boys) in agricultural duties. A Western Australian newspaper article from 1935 described the purpose of farm schools: The policy has been to remove unemployed youth from the scrap heap of idleness, train them, and place…
A borstal (or borstall) was a reformatory for young offenders aged about 16 to 21. The term was used between about 1920 and 1970. Click here to see the full Find & Connect glossary
Emergency care, being short term, immediate care for children in need, was provided in different ways. Government and non-government Homes provided emergency care. Emergency foster care was also sometimes available. A state’s main children’s ‘depot’ or receiving Home was sometimes used for emergency care. Click here to see the full Find & Connect glossary
Lying-in Home was a term to describe a maternity home from the late nineteenth century, a place ‘for the accommodation of females during their confinement and lying-in’, to quote the Western Australian State Children Act 1907. At a lying-in home, a mother could give birth with the help of a midwife (who might not have…
Approved Children’s Home was a term applied to Homes that had been certified for the care of children under the relevant state legislation. In Tasmania, under the Child Welfare Act 1960, Approved Children’s Homes were run by volunteers on a not-for-profit basis. The government paid Managers maintenance for each child accommodated in the Home. In…
Group Home was a term used in the late 1970s to refer to a Home for children and young people who required ‘therapeutic care’. Group homes could be either scattered (ie in the community) or clustered (located with other group Homes on a campus, usually where there had previously been a children’s Home). This type…
Dec 18, 2024
Nov 15, 2024
