Acheron Youth Training Centre at Buxton was established in the mid 1960s as a facility for young people in Victoria’s youth training centres, particularly Turana. Acheron provided ‘adventure camp facilities’ and other training programs and a 350 acre minimum-security camp near Buxton. Approximately 300 ‘trainees’ a year went to Acheron in work groups. These trainees…
The Alexandra Babies’ Home was established in around 1909. It housed up to 36 children aged under five years of age. Most were state wards. Many children were transferred to the Ballarat Orphanage when they were four. In 1964, it was known as the Alexandra Toddlers’ Home. It closed in 1973. The Alexandra Babies’ Home…
The Ballarat Female Refuge was established in 1867 by a group of protestant women, with the objective of reforming ‘prostitutes’. It became a shelter for single mothers. It was the first such institution on Australia’s goldfields. In 1921, the Refuge became part of the Ballarat Town and City Mission Rescue and Children’s Home. Initially, the…
The Ballarat Town and City Mission was founded in 1867. The Ballarat Town and City Mission ran a number of Homes for children and babies, including, from around 1921 until 1974, the Alexandra Babies’ Home. Some records of the Mission and its charitable institutions are held by the Central Highlands Regional Library Corporation. In 1921,…
Harrison House in Hawthorn was established in 1960. Run by the Presbyterian Church of Victoria, it provided hostel-style residential accommodation for wards of state, boys on probation from the courts or institutions, and boys coming to Melbourne to find work from Kilmany Park in Gippsland. In its early years, it was known as Arthur Harrison…
Many congregations of the Presbyterian Church of Australia united with congregations from the Methodist and Congregational Churches to form the Uniting Church in Australia in 1977. However, the Presbyterian Church continued to exist as a separate entity to the Uniting Church from 1977.
The first Methodist Minister to arrive in Australia was Reverend Samuel Leigh who came to New South Wales in 1815. The first Methodist churches were established in Victoria in the early 1850s. The Methodist Church was involved in a number of child welfare institutions in Victoria from the beginning of the twentieth century. The Methodist…
The Anglican Diocese of Melbourne came into being in 1847. Until 1981 the Anglican Church was known as the Church of England. Many institutions for children in Victoria had close links with the Church of England, including the Melbourne Orphan Asylum which had its roots in the St James Visiting Society, formed in 1845. From…
The Canterbury Family Centre came into being in 1977. In May 2000, the new organisation Connections UnitingCare was created with the amalgamation of the Canterbury Family Centre, Copelen and the Wheelers Hill Family Centre. [Taken from the ReConnections and Re-collections document http://www.connections.org.au/pdfs/ReConnections-and-ReCollections.pdf] The Family Centre stood on the old site of the Presbyterian Babies’ Home,…
The Copelen Street Family Centre was established in 1974 in South Yarra. It included a children’s care centre, offered family counselling, and provided foster care. By the late 1980s the South Yarra property was sold and in 1991, the Centre was renamed Copelen Child and Family Services. The Copelen Street Family Centre grew out of…
Dec 18, 2024
Nov 15, 2024
