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Department of Community and Health Services, State of Tasmania

The Department of Community and Health Services replaced the Department of Community Services in 1993. It provided health care, including mental health, financial and other assistance to people with inadequate incomes, and managed family and children’s services, including the supervision of state wards. In 1998, its name changed to the Department of Health and Human…

Department of Community Services, State of Tasmania

The Department of Community Services replaced the Department for Community Welfare in 1989. It provided housing, financial and other assistance to people with inadequate incomes, and managed corrective, mental, family and children’s services, including the supervision of state wards. In 1993, it became the Department of Community and Health Services. In July 1989, shortly after…

Social Welfare Department, State of Tasmania

The Social Welfare Department replaced the Social Services Department in 1961. It provided financial and other assistance to people with inadequate incomes and managed children’s services, including the supervision of state wards. In 1983, it became the Department for Community Welfare. The name, Social Welfare Department, was an attempt to avoid confusion with the Commonwealth…

Social Services Department, State of Tasmania

The Social Services Department replaced the Charitable Grants Department in 1934. It managed outdoor and indoor relief, child welfare services and, between 1934 and 1946, the State Immigration Office. The Social Services Department became the Social Welfare Department in 1961. The Social Services Department replaced the Charitable Grants Department following an amendment to the Public…

The Children of the State Act 1918, Tasmania

The Children of the State Act 1918, also known as the Children’s Charter, The Children’s Act and by its full title ‘An Act to consolidate and amend Youthful Offenders, Destitute and Neglected Children’s Act, 1896’, make better provision for the Protection, Control, Maintenance, and Reformation of Neglected and Destitute Children, and for other purposes’” (Act…

Children of the State Department, State of Tasmania

The Children of the State Department replaced the Neglected Children’s Department. The Department oversaw the care of wards of state. In 1934, the new Social Services Department took over the role of the Children of the State Department, although the name persisted in annual reports well into the 1940s. The Children of the State Act,…

Neglected Children’s Department, State of Tasmania

The Neglected Children’s Department, was originally established in March 1897. In 1901, following Australian federation, the newly formed state government took the Department over. It was the first government department in Tasmania that specifically managed children who were considered to be offenders or neglected. In 1918, the Children of the State Department replaced the Neglected…

Charitable Grants Department, Colony of Tasmania

The Charitable Grants Department, also known as the office of the Administrator of Charitable Relief, was established in 1873. It provided outdoor relief, that is, funds or food given to poor people not living in an institution. The Department also administered legislation relating to the care of destitute children, including the boarding out system introduced…

Mental Health Act 1963, Tasmania

The Mental Health Act 1963 with the full title ‘An Act to repeal the Mental Hospitals Act 1858, the Mental Deficiency Act 1920, and certain other enactments relating to persons suffering from mental disorder, and to make fresh provision with respect to the treatment and care of persons so suffering, and with respect to their…

Domestic Service Assistance Scheme – Tasmania

The Domestic Service Assistance Scheme, managed by the Department of Social Services and its successors, was established by the Domestic Service Assistance Act 1947. It provided a housekeeper or temporary accommodation for children during a family emergency which left no one able to look after them. The Scheme ended in about 1989. The Domestic Service…