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Aspect House

Aspect House, run by Colony 47, opened in New Town in January 1981. It provided respite accommodation for children with physical and intellectual disabilities. Aspect House closed in November 1981. A group of parents of children with disabilities and their supporters established Aspect House. It opened on 14 January 1981 in Warragul Avenue, New Town….

Hobart Women’s Shelter

Hobart Women’s Shelter, run by a feminist collective, opened in about 1972. It provided temporary accommodation for women and their children escaping from domestic violence. The workers also advised homeless young women under 18 but it is not clear whether they gave them accommodation. In 2013, the Shelter is still operating. Prior to the establishment…

Case Files, Tasmanian Institute for the Blind, Deaf and Dumb; Tasmanian Deaf Society

The Case Files from the Tasmanian Institute for the Blind, Deaf and Dumb relate to deaf children who were born between 1914 and the 1960s. The files contain ‘Applications for Admission of a child to Residence at the Institute’ and they concern children in residential care at the Blind, Deaf and Dumb Institution (also known…

Annie Kenney Young Women’s Refuge

Annie Kenney Young Women’s Refuge opened in Hobart in 1978. It was a feminist initiative that provided emergency accommodation and support to young homeless women, many of whom were under 18. In 2009, the collective running the Refuge disbanded and the funding was returned to the Tasmanian Government for reallocation. Annie Kenney was established after…

Clarendon Children’s Home Inc.

Clarendon Children’s Home Inc, established in 2006, is a successor organisation to Clarendon Children’s Home and is managed by a governing Board. In 2014, it uses funds from the sale of the Home for grants to agencies that carry out early intervention work with children and their families. Clarendon Children holds the records of Clarendon…

Apology to People Hurt by Past Forced Adoption Practices, Parliament of Tasmania

The Apology to People Hurt by Past Forced Adoption Practices was moved in the Tasmanian House of Assembly on Thursday, 18 October 2012 by the Labor Premier, Lara Giddings. The 2012 report on the Senate Community Affairs Reference Committee’s Commonwealth Contribution to Former Forced Adoption Policies and Practices prompted the Apology. A number of other…

Campbell Street Gaol

Campbell Street Gaol opened in 1821. Although for adults, it housed a number of children. The Gaol closed in 1960 when the newly built Risdon Prison replaced it. Campbell Street Gaol opened as a barracks for male convicts in 1821. Children’s presence in the Gaol was widely accepted by nineteenth century society because of the…

Launceston Gaol

Launceston Gaol, run by the government, opened in 1827. Although the Gaol was for adults, it housed quite a few children, some as young as eight or nine. It closed in 1917. Launceston Gaol, located in Patterson Street, opened in 1827. By 1900, it was mostly used as temporary accommodation for offenders waiting to go…

Boys’ Reformatory

The Boys’ Reformatory, run by volunteers, opened in the Female Factory at Cascades, South Hobart, in 1869. It provided an alternative to gaol for boys who were homeless or had broken the law. The boys were about school age. The Reformatory closed in 1876. The Boys’ Reformatory was run by volunteers under the provisions of…

Dominic College

Dominic College, a Catholic school in Glenorchy, was formed in 1973 by an amalgamation of three schools, including Savio College, formerly Boys’ Town, which was a children’s Home and school that received child migrants in the early 1950s. Dominic College has a strong old boys’ network that includes the former child migrants. In October 2012,…