Archives



Probationary Farm Home, Branxton

The Probationary Farm Home, Branxton was established in the 1890s by the State Children’s Relief Board. It was a home for boys who were defined as being too ‘vicious’ or ‘too old’ to be kept at the Mittagong Cottage Homes, or in the boarding out system. Probationary Farm Home, Branxton closed around 1915. Rather than…

Riverina Welfare Farm for Boys, Yanco

Riverina Welfare Farm for Boys, Yanco was an industrial school, or juvenile detention centre, in the Riverina. It was established at the former Yanco Experiment Farm in 1928 by the Child Welfare Department and held up to 128 boys. It functioned as a training farm and the New South Wales Department of Agriculture trained the…

George Brown College

George Brown College at Haberfield was a hostel used to house 20 Aboriginal children who had been evacuated from Croker Island (Northern Territory) during World War II by the Church Missionary Society. While staying at George Brown College, the Croker Island children attended Haberfield Public School. The evacuees had left by 1946. Claire Henty-Gebert, one…

State Library of New South Wales

The State Library of New South Wales is the most important collecting institution in New South Wales. It is a deposit library, meaning copies of works published in New South Wales, including government publications, must be lodged with it. It holds a huge collection of manuscript items, journals, photographs and printed materials. A number of…

Dunmore Boys’ Home

Dunmore House at Pendle Hill was run by the Churches of Christ as a boys’ home from 1936 until the early 1980s. Dunmore House was opened as a boys’ home by Thomas E. Rofe, conference president of the Churches of Christ, on 5 April 1936. Dunmore House was also the name for the historic house…

Crusaders Camp Mission Hostel

Crusaders Camp Mission Hostel at Otford, near Sydney’s Royal National Park, was used by the Church Missionary Society in 1942 to house 98 Aboriginal children who had been evacuated from Croker Island, north of Darwin in the Northern Territory. The evacuees, who were accompanied by the Croker Island Mission staff, were wards of the Commonwealth…

Churches of Christ in New South Wales

Churches of Christ is a Christian church organisation that ran the children’s home Dunmore Boys’ Home at Pendle Hill and the Dundas Boys’ Home. Churches of Christ was first formed in New South Wales in 1851 and its first conference was held in April 1886, under the presidency of Dr Joseph Kingsbury. It is a…

Millions Club

The Millions Club was founded in 1912 with the aim of making Sydney the first Australian city to reach a population of one million. It was founded by Arthur Rickard, a property salesman and developer, who enlisted the support of a number of leading politicians and businessmen. It was linked to the youth and child…

Waterfall Sanatorium

Waterfall Sanatorium was opened on 14 April 1909 in Waterfall as a hospital for the treatment of patients, including children, who had advanced tuberculosis (TB). Patients were sent to Waterfall Sanatorium, often against their will, and were not released until cured. People who died there are buried on the site. Waterfall Sanatorium closed in 1958….

NSW Commission for Children and Young People

The NSW Commission for Children and Young People is an independent statutory organisation within the state government that advocated for the children and young people of New South Wales. It was led by a Commissioner for Children and Young People. It was set up by the New South Wales Government in the wake of the…