Archives



Lucinda Resource Centre

The Lucinda Resource Centre, opened in 1980 on the site of the former Weeroona Girls’ Training Centre in Latrobe. It provided services and activities to ‘high need’ children and families to prevent the children from becoming state wards. In 1986, the Centre became the North-West Regional Resource Unit. The establishment of the Lucinda Resource Centre…

Northern Regional Resource Centre

The Northern Regional Resource Centre, opened in 1983 and based in Launceston, replaced the Omaru Youth Centre. It provided school holiday programs and after school activities, including swimming, judo and gymnastics, for state wards and other children for whom the Department was concerned. The Centre also ran an Independent Living Unit that taught wards of…

Domestic Assistance Service Act 1947, Tasmania

The Domestic Assistance Service Act 1947 established the Domestic Assistance Service. This scheme made domestic assistance available to people who were incapacitated, requiring special care or experiencing hardship. This Act gave the Minister power to establish hostels for the accommodation of people (including children) engaged in domestic work or undergoing training in connection with the…

Lismore Receiving Home

Lismore Receiving Home, run by the government, opened in Lindisfarne in 1973. It provided temporary accommodation to children who were wards of state or supervised in other ways by the Social Welfare Department. Lismore closed in 1979. Lismore Receiving Home opened in May 1973. It was in Lindisfarne, a suburb of Hobart. The Home was…

Woodbridge-West Winds Receiving Home

Woodbridge-Westwinds Receiving Home, run by the government, opened in 1963. It was in Woodbridge. The Home provided accommodation for wards of state. It closed in 1967. The Social Welfare Department intended Woodbridge-Westwinds Receiving Home to be temporary. The Department had bought the property of 44 acres with a timber house at Woodbridge where they planned…

Sunshine Association

The Sunshine Association formed in 1937 to raise funds to provide holidays for children from poor or isolated homes. In 1951, the Association opened the Sunshine Home which closed in 1980. In 2012, the Association provides funds for holiday camps and sports activities as well as educational and medical expenses for children in poverty or…

Sunshine Home

The Sunshine Home, run by the Sunshine Association, opened in Howrah in 1951. It provided holidays of up to three weeks to children from poor or isolated homes. The Home closed in 1980. The Sunshine Home opened in Howrah, a suburb of Hobart, on 11 August 1951. The Home was the idea of Margaret Reid,…

Rochebank Family Group Home

Rochebank Family Group Home, run by the government, replaced Rochebank Hostel in about 1981. It was in the Glebe. Rochebank provided temporary accommodation to children who were wards of state or supervised in other ways by the Social Welfare Department and its successors. Rochebank closed in 2009. A married woman managed Rochebank Family Group Home…

The Public Health Act 1903, Tasmania

The Public Health Act 1903 also known by the full title ‘An Act to consolidate and amend the Law relating to Public Health’ (Act no. 3 Edw. VII No.37), enacted in response to the recent Launceston smallpox epidemic, established the Public Health Department, repealed the Contagious Diseases Acts (Act no.42 Vict. No.36), and provided for…

Women’s Health Association

The Women’s Health Association formed out of the Women’s Sanitary Association in 1901. They visited working-class women to teach them about sanitation and campaigned for better conditions for factory workers, better housing for the poor, and the health of children. After 1901, the influence of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union on child welfare policy seems…