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National Redress Scheme, Australian government

The National Redress Scheme was established by the Commonwealth government in response to the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. It is administered by the Commonwealth Department of Social Services. The NRS was established in 2018 and was announced that it would run for 10 years. The National Redress…

Colonial Surgeon’s Office, State Government of South Australia

The first Colonial Surgeon of South Australia was appointed in 1836. The duties of the Colonial Surgeon’s Office of South Australia include overseeing and advising the Government in relation to public health matters and sanitation, managing the Public Hospital, and acting as superintendent to the Lunatic Asylum. The Colonial Surgeon’s Office was also called the…

Inspector General of Hospitals Office, State Government of South Australia

The Inspector General of Hospitals Office was established in 1914, replacing the Colonial Surgeon’s Office. The Inspector General conducted visits and inspections of the public hospitals, asylums, and mental hospitals, and the superintendents of these institutions reported to the Inspector. In 1940 the Inspector General of Hospitals Office was replaced by the Hospitals Department.

Training Home

Training Homes (also known as Training Schools) were institutions where children and young people could learn habits of hard work and respectability, as well as skills suited to the workforce. In the early twentieth century, the work skills usually involved domestic service for girls and farm labour for boys. Later on the occupations considered suitable…

Department of Human Services, South Australia

The Department of Human Services was created in 2018 when the Department for Communities and Social Inclusion was renamed. The Department of Human Services has responsibilities for youth justice, disability services and child safety.

Case Study 33: The Salvation Army children’s Homes, Australia Southern Territory, Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

Case Study 33: The Salvation Army children’s Homes, Australia Southern Territory was a public hearing of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, held in Adelaide in October 2015. It inquired into the experiences of former child residents at Eden Park Boys’ Home in South Australia, Box Hill Boys’ Home and Bayswater…

Medical experiments

During the twentieth century, babies and children in Victorian orphanages and Homes were used as subjects for medical experiments. Reports from the Senate Inquiry into Children in Institutional Care contained details of studies carried out by the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute and the Commonwealth Serum Laboratory (CSL) between 1945 and 1970. One reason given…

Declaration of the Rights of the Child

The Declaration of the Rights of the Child set out ten principles related to children’s rights. The Declaration was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 20 November 1959. Click here to see the full Find & Connect glossary

Inquiry Into Child Migration, Parliament of Australia

On 20 June 2000, on the motion of Senator Andrew Murray, the Senate referred the issue of child migration to the Community Affairs References Committee for inquiry and report. An estimated five to ten thousand child migrants from both Britain and Malta came to Australia between1922 and 1967, most of whom were sent to charitable…

Care Leavers Australasia Network

Care Leavers Australia Network (CLAN), founded in 2000 in Sydney, is a support and advocacy group for people brought up in care away from their family as state wards or children raised in Children’s Homes, orphanages or other institutions, or in foster care. CLAN is also for anyone who has a close family member who…