The Juvenile Offenders’ Act (No.951) transferred responsibility for convicted juveniles from the Department of Industrial and Reformatory Schools to a Department for Reformatory Schools. This Act allowed for the establishment of Probationary Schools, described by the Department’s Secretary as ‘intermediate between the reformatory and the foster-home’. After the act was passed, a number of young…
The Social Welfare Act 1970 (No.8089) created a new position in the Victorian government, the Minister for Social Welfare. In 1971, the Social Welfare Department was established, taking over responsibility for all functions previously administered by the Social Welfare Branch. In 1978, the Community Welfare Services Act provided that the title of the Social Welfare…
The Social Welfare Act 1960 (No.6651) was proclaimed in stages from 1960. The sections concerned with family and child welfare did not become operative until June 1961. The Act established the Social Welfare Branch within the Chief Secretary’s Department. The Social Welfare Branch assumed responsibility for all functions previously administered by the Children’s Welfare Department…
The Children’s Welfare Act 1924 (No.3351), assented to on 1 October 1924, was enacted to rename the Department for Neglected Children as the Children’s Welfare Department. The renaming of the Department signified the Government’s awareness of the stigma which had become attached to the term ‘neglected child’, and did not reflect a change in functional…
The Adoption of Children Act 1928, ‘An Act to make provision for the Adoption of infants’ (No.3605) became law in July 1929 and the first legal adoption in Victoria was registered in October of that year. Before that time unofficial, de facto adoptions, which were not recognised in law, were sometimes arranged by both Government…
The Children’s Welfare Act 1954 (No. 5817) came into operation on 1 September 1955. It contained some significant changes to the Victorian system. It gave the government the power to establish its own institutions for the care of children and for the detention of young offenders. Non-government children’s institutions were required to be registered with…
Nazareth House in Camberwell opened in 1929 as a Home for the aged. From 1953 and 1956, Nazareth House received 53 female child migrants from Britain. From 1958, Nazareth House also received girls and boys from Victoria. Residential care for children at Nazareth House ceased in 1975. Nazareth House opened in 1929, originally as an…
The Burton Hall Training Farm in Tatura, run by the Church of England, was one of the institutions in Victoria to receive child migrants. In around 1950, the Church of England Boys’ Society (CEBS) closed its Training Farm at Yering, and its residents were transferred to the Burton Hall Training Farm. From this time, the…
The Dhurringile Rural Training Farm in Tatura was established by the Presbyterian Church in 1951. It was purchased to accommodate child migrant boys aged 8 to 14 sent out from the United Kingdom by the Church of Scotland. Dhurringile was also set up to take in local orphans or homeless boys. It housed 50 children…
Nazareth House, Ballarat, was opened in December 1888 to cater for aged people and girls aged between 6 and 16. The support of children at Nazareth House discontinued in 1976. In 2011, Nazareth House is an aged care facility. Nazareth House was opened in December 1888 to cater for aged people and young people who…
Dec 18, 2024
Nov 15, 2024
