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Dreadnought Trust

The Dreadnought Trust was one of the first organisations to be involved in child migration in New South Wales. It raised funds to bring British child and youth migrant boys to Australia. The first Dreadnought Boys arrived in 1911. The scheme ended around the time of the Great Depression, in 1930. The Dreadnought Trust was…

University of Newcastle Archives

The University of Newcastle Archives was founded in February 1975 to safeguard the permanent value records of the University of Newcastle. The University Archives within the Auchmuty Library at the University of Newcastle holds some 2,000 shelf metres of priceless manuscript material dating from the year 1826. The collection includes the records of the Anglican…

Government Agricultural Farm, Scheyville

Government Agricultural Farm, Scheyville, located at Pitt Town, was a training farm for youth from 1905, and, from 1911, a camp for British migrant boys and youth in the Dreadnought and Big Brother schemes. During World War II it was converted to a military training camp and after World War II became a Commonwealth migrant…

Salvation Army Girls’ Hostel

The Young Women’s Hostel was a Salvation Army Hostel for girls and young women that was opened in 1912 in Elizabeth Street, Sydney. It closed in 1924 and moved to Moore Park, where it held up to 130 girls. It operated until 1973 as a hostel for working girls.

Big Brother Movement

The Big Brother Movement (BBM) was established in 1925 by Richard Linton, a Melbourne businessman, to sponsor youth migration from Britain to Australia. It was one of several non-government organisations involved in immigration to Australia in the 1920s. The Big Brother Movement was originally conceived as a form of sponsorship, by which each youth migrant,…

Infants’ Custody and Settlements Act, New South Wales

The Infants’ Custody and Settlements Act (39/1899) was also known as ‘An Act to consolidate the law relating to the custody of infants and the settlement of the property of infants’. This Act brought a number of previous pieces of legislation, to do with custody, marriage settlements, and damages recovered on behalf of children, under…

Asylum for Destitute Children

The Society for the Relief of Destitute Children opened an asylum for children in Ormond House, a mansion in Paddington, in 1852. The Asylum held 150 children aged 3 to 10 years who were defined as needy yet had not been admitted to the Orphan Schools. Every child admitted (including voluntary admissions) to the Asylum…

Infant Convicts Act 1849, New South Wales

The Infant Convicts Act 1849 [21/1849 (13 Vic. No.21)], also known as ‘An Act to provide for the Care and Education of Infants who may be convicted of Felony or Misdemeanour’, allowed judges and magistrates to make custody orders, and send children into the care of other adults, when sentencing children convicted of crimes. It…

Custody of Children and Children’s Settlements Act 1894, New South Wales

The Custody of Children and Children’s Settlements Act 1894 enabled courts to refuse a parents’ application for the return of a child if the court was of the opinion that the parent has abandoned or deserted or neglected the child or otherwise so conducted himself or herself that the court should refuse to enforce the…

Randwick Asylum for Destitute Children

The Randwick Asylum for Destitute Children began in 1858, when the Asylum for Destitute Children relocated from Ormond House in Paddington to Randwick. It was run by the Society for the Relief of Destitute Children and housed up to 800 children at a time in large dormitories that are often called ‘barracks’. Most of the…