Archives



Girls’ Friendly Society Lodge

The Girls’ Friendly Society Lodge was opened by the Church of England Girls’ Friendly Society at Kermode Street, North Adelaide in 1913. It provided a home for country girls working or studying in the city. In 1916 the lodge moved to Pennington Terrace, North Adelaide. During World War II it provided accommodation for female munitions…

Farr House

Farr House was the new name given to The Orphan Home in 1935. It was situated on Fullarton Road, Upper Mitcham and operated as a Home for girls of primary school age. In later years it also accepted teenage girls. Farr House was run by an independent management committee that reported to the Anglican Diocese…

State Library of South Australia

The State Library of South Australia is the largest public reference library in South Australia with a collection focus on South Australian information. The Library’s archival collection includes manuscripts, photographs, oral history recordings and film. The Library has a collection of newspapers and general reference books and journals. Researchers can have access to documents and…

Diocesan Archives Centre, Anglican Diocese of Adelaide

The Diocesan Archives Centre, Anglican Diocese of Adelaide was established in 1998. The Archives collect, preserve and make available historical records of the Anglican Church in South Australia. The Diocesan Archives Centre manages access to records related to former Church of England and Anglican Children’s Homes and Social Welfare Bureau’s. The Archives also manage access…

The Babies’ Home Walkerville

The Babies’ Home at Walkerville was established by the Church of England in Walkerville in 1912. It cared for, and often adopted out, babies born at the House of Mercy, a refuge for unmarried mothers. After the home closed in 1945, babies were placed at St Mary’s Mission of Hope. The Babies’ Home at Walkerville…

Lutheran Archives

The Lutheran Archives, based in Bowden, South Australia, is the official repository of historical material relating to the activities of the Lutheran Church of Australia. The Archives holds records of the present Lutheran Church as well as records of earlier Lutheran synods in Australia. These synods amalgamated to form the present day church. Access Conditions…

Commonwealth Child and Youth Migration Records

The National Archives of Australia (NAA) holds many records which provide information of interest to former child migrants. The records relating to individual child and youth migrants are essentially those concerned with their entry into Australia rather than the day-to-day care once they had arrived. The NAA also holds a number of policy and administrative…

Eugenics

Eugenics was an influential doctrine popular from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. Eugenics refers to the philosophy and practice of selective breeding of humans with desirable (or “superior”) hereditary traits. While not discounting the role of environmental factors, it placed considerable emphasis on heredity in shaping an individual’s characteristics. The ideas within eugenics…

Closed Adoption

Closed adoption refers to the practice of sealing an adopted child’s original birth certificate and issuing a new birth certificate when the child was adopted. This new certificate included the name of the child and their adoptive parents. The identity of the adopted child’s original parents was hidden. This practice meant that many people didn’t…

Good Shepherd Archive

The Good Shepherd Archive was established in 1983 and is located in Abbotsford, Melbourne, Victoria. The Archive cares for the records of the Good Shepherd Sisters in Australia and New Zealand. The records, from Good Shepherd institutions around Australia, date from 1863 to the present day. The Good Shepherd Archive’s collection includes many records about…