The Child Welfare Practice and Legislation Review was an initiative of the Cain Labor government, elected in Victoria in 1982. The chairman of the committee undertaking the review was Dr Terry Carney of Monash University Law School. This legislative review had been a recommendation of the ‘Norgard Report’ of 1976. The report of the Child…
The Sanatory Station at Point Nepean was established in around 1867. It housed children from industrial schools and reformatory requiring to be quarantined. The Department of Industrial and Reformatory Schools had abandoned the use of the Station at Point Nepean by around 1868. The Sanatory Station at Point Nepean housed children from industrial schools and…
Connecting Home was established in April 2010 to replace Stolen Generations Victoria Ltd, and to continue to provide support and advocacy for members for the Stolen Generations and their families.
The Wesleyan Church Neglected Children’s Aid Society came into being in 1891. Previously it was known as the Central Dorcas Association Help and Rescue Society. The Society ran the Methodist Children’s Homes in Cheltenham. Responsibility for the day-to-day running of the Homes however lay with the ‘ladies’ of the Executive Committee.
The Presbyterian Sisterhood established a maternity Home in North Fitzroy in 1909. Previously, it had run a refuge in Warrnambool, in western Victoria. The Presbyterian Sisterhood Home housed single mothers and their babies. In 1953, the Mary Dickens Hospital Wing, a small maternity hospital, was added to the Home. The Home operated until around 1978….
The Geelong Industrial School received its first children in September 1865. The School was located on Ryrie Street, Geelong, in a portion of the immigration barracks at the eastern end of town. In 1869, the school opened a second site in the old Geelong Gaol at Myers Street in order to reduce overcrowding at the…
The Talbot Colony for Epileptics was established in 1907. It was a non-denominational institution for boys and girls with epilepsy over the age of five. The Talbot Colony for Epileptics was renamed to the ‘Royal Talbot Colony for Epileptics’ in 1958. In 1961, it relocated from Clayton to Yarra Boulevard, Kew (its former site was…
The Presbyterian Sisterhood began in Warrnambool in western Victoria. It was established by the Rev. Donald A. Cameron, who was Director of Home Missions within the Presbyterian Church of Victoria. The aim of the Presbyterian Sisterhood was ‘to rescue and help women in distress’ (Argus, 1908). From around 1901, the Sisterhood ran a refuge in…
St Mary’s School for the Deaf was run by the Dominican Sisters and was situated in Portsea. Formerly, the building had been an Australian Camp Hospital and officers’ convalescent home. It opened in February 1948. In the 1950s, it catered for boys aged 3-10 and girls aged 3-16, all of whom had hearing difficulties. St…
Myra House was established by the Catholic Church in 1945 and run by the Legion of Mary. It was a Home for girls aged 14 to 18. It could accommodate up to 12 residents, and the average stay was between 3 and 5 months. Myra House was located in Kew until 1954 when it moved…