The Select Committee Inquiry into Weeroona Girls’ Girls’ Training Centre, appointed on 4 November 1965, concerned an allegation that the Director of the Social Welfare Department, GC Smith, had misled Parliament about the date that the secure unit had been temporarily closed at Weeroona. The Committee found that Smith was innocent. The Select Committee Inquiry…
The Public Service Commissioner’s Inquiry into the Conditions at Weeroona Girls’ Home took place in 1965. It concerned 14 allegations against the Principal. The Commissioner upheld eight. Following an appeal, five more were dropped. The Principal was transferred to a clerical position in the Housing Department. The Chief Secretary, Brian Miller, ordered the Inquiry on…
The Midwifery Nurses Act of 1901 provided for the training and registration of midwives for the first time in Tasmania. This legislation’s provisions for registering midwives were amended in 1906.
Risdon Prison, run by the government, opened in 1960. Although Risdon is an adult prison, it has always held small numbers of teenagers under the age of eighteen, some of them wards of the state. In 2013, it continues to hold some young people aged 16 or 17. Risdon Prison, which replaced the convict-built Campbell…
The Joint Select Committee on Adoption and Related Services was held in 1999 to investigate the concerns that groups such as Adoption Jigsaw and Origins had about adoption practices of the past. The terms of reference of the Joint Select Committee were: (1) The past and continuing effects of professional practices in the administration and…
Clean break theory provided a basis for many adoptions in the twentieth century. The theory is based on the idea that babies’ characteristics are formed by their environment rather than their genes. There was a widespread belief that a “clean break” was beneficial for the personality development of babies of single mothers, and that they…
Forced adoption (or forced family separation) are the terms now used to describe the practices where many pregnant unwed women (and their partners) were subjected to unauthorised or illegal separation from their children. From the 1950s to the early 1970s, the prevalence of forced adoption in Australia was high. These practices were unethical, immoral and…
Wingfield House, run by the Board of the Royal Hobart Hospital, opened in 1938. It was on the grounds of St John’s Park. Wingfield provided residential and outpatient aftercare to children affected by the polio epidemic of 1937 to 1938. Later it offered services to children with a range of physical disabilities. It closed in…
The Society for the Care of Crippled Children was an autonomous branch of the Tasmanian Society for the Care of Crippled Children. It formed in December 1937 to provide services to people affected by the polio epidemic and living in the north of Tasmania. It raised enough funds to buy the premises for St Giles’…
The Education Department was established by the Education Act of 1885. The aim was to provide a free, compulsory, and secular education to children between the ages of seven and thirteen. In 1912, this was raised to 14. In 2013, the Department is responsible for primary and secondary education, library and information services, vocational education…
Dec 18, 2024
Nov 15, 2024
