The Children’s Welfare and Public Relief Department took over the functions of the State Children’s Department and the Destitute Persons’ Department in 1927. With the passing of the Social Welfare Act 1926-1965, the Children’s Welfare and Public Relief Department was renamed the Social Welfare Department on 26 January 1966.
The volumes in this series provide an index to the Registers of Admissions to the Magill Boys Reformatory (1877 – 1880 and 1891 – 1967) and the McNally Training Centre (1967 – 1975). Access Conditions A Research Centre Members card, obtainable at the Archives, is required to research records held at State Records. Although some…
The State Children’s Department took over responsibility for State children from the Destitute Poor Department in 1886 as a result of the passing of the Destitute Persons Act Amendment Act 1886. This Act created the term ‘State Child’ and separated responsibility for the care of State children from that of adults who continued to be…
The Destitute Poor Department was responsible for providing relief and care for destitute persons, including children, throughout South Australia. It ran the Destitute Asylum. As a result of the passing of the Destitute Persons Act Amendment Act in 1886 responsibility for state children was passed from the Destitute Poor Department to the new State Children’s…
The Destitute Persons’ Department was the new name given to the Destitute Poor Department in 1910. It continued to provide relief and care for destitute adults until it was replaced by the Children’s Welfare and Public Relief Department in 1927.
The Aboriginal Family Support Services Inc. (AFSS) was established in 1978 as the SA Aboriginal Child Care Agency Forum Inc. (ACCA) in order to have an Aboriginal organisation involved in matters relating to child welfare. It was renamed Aboriginal Family Support Services in 1998.
The Aboriginal Child Care Agency was established in South Australia in 1978. It was established as an Aboriginal community controlled organisation to recruit Aboriginal foster parents to take in Aboriginal children. Prior to 1978 many Aboriginal children were removed from their families and placed in institutions or with non-Aboriginal families. The Agency worked to place…
Family Homes were a type of ‘care’ in South Australia and the Northern Territory. In South Australia, Family Homes were established by the government after the passing of the South Australian Community Welfare Act in 1972. They provided smaller group care for up to ten children under the supervision of house parents. They were generally…
The Boarding Out Society took on the voluntary role of visiting and inspecting boarded out children in South Australia during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. It was officially formed in 1872 by Emily Clark and Catherine Helen Spence who had campaigned for boarding out since the 1860s. They believed that ‘unfortunate’ children would…
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare defines adoption as “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)”. In Australia, each state or territory has its own adoption legislation and its own policies and processes. In the…