Archives



Challenge Foundation

Challenge Foundation was the new name for the Sub-Normal Children’s Association. The name change occurred in 1984, after conflict within the Association led to its collapse. The Challenge Foundation ran Crowle House from 1984 until 1993. The Crowle Foundation is a subequent of the Challenge Foundation, when the branches of the Challenge Foundation incorporated.

Sunnyfield School

Sunnyfield School, also known as Sunnyfield Children’s Home, was a special school for children with intellectual disabilities at Manly Vale. Children stayed over the school holidays, so it also functioned as a disability institution. It was started by the Sunnyfield Branch of the Sub-Normal Children’s Welfare Association, which became the Sunnyfield Association in 1956. It…

Presbyterian Adoption Agency

The Presbyterian Adoption Agency was an agency of the Presbyterian Church that may have been actively arranging adoptions from the 1950s until the 1970s. Its adoption records are held by the Department of Family and Community Services.

Sub-Normal Children’s Welfare Association (NSW)

The Sub-Normal Children’s Welfare Association of New South Wales (SNCWA) was formed around 1946 by a group of parents whose children had intellectual disabilities. The group first called themselves the Society for the Welfare of Mental Deficients, then changed it to the Psycho-Care Society, before settling on the title Sub-Normal Children’s Welfare Association. By 1962,…

Crowle House

Crowle House was a residential facility for children with intellectual disabilities that was set up by the Sub-Normal Children’s Welfare Association in Ryde in 1952. It was also known as “Once Upon a Time”. A school was attached until 1978. Many of the children at Crowle House became long term residents and stayed upon reaching…

Singleton Aboriginal Children’s Home

The Singleton Aboriginal Children’s Home was run by the Aborigines Inland Mission in the same rented house as the Singleton Home, which had been a girls’ home. Singleton Aboriginal Children’s Home was for both sexes and the children were aged from birth to 14 years. It was used by the Aborigines Protection Board as an…

Belmont Crippled Children’s Home

The Belmont Crippled Children’s Home opened in April 1952 in Belmont at Newcastle. It was a holiday home run by the NSW Crippled Children’s Association. The property was demolished in 1979.

Homefinder

Homefinders were people who worked to find places for children who needed foster parents or apprenticeships. The term was used in New South Wales, and was borrowed from American charities. George Ardill of the Sydney Rescue Work Society used the term in his publication The Rescue, and it was used by other Sydney charities. The…

Brewarrina Aboriginal Station Dormitory

The Brewarrina Aboriginal Station Dormitory was a dormitory for Aboriginal girls that was attached to the manager’s house at Brewarrina Aboriginal Station, an Aborigines Protection Board property 16 kilometres from Brewarrina township. Aboriginal girls from all over New South Wales were sent there for ‘training’ and discipline, usually from the ages of 14-18 when they…

Singleton Boys’ Home

The Singleton Boys’ Home was run by the Aborigines Protection Board in Singleton after the Board took over the management of the Singleton Home and St Clair Mission from the Aborigines Inland Mission in 1920. It was a home for boys aged from four to fourteen who had been removed from their families and NSW…