The Ballarat Town and City Mission Rescue and Children’s Home was established around 1921. It provided accommodation for single mothers and their babies. The Alexandra Babies’ Home, also managed by the Mission, was on the same site. The organisation came into being when it took over the Canadian Rescue and Children’s Home, and the George…
The Ballarat Benevolent Asylum opened in 1859, in a building in Ascot Street. Until institutions specifically for children were established in Ballarat, many children were housed there. The Ballarat Benevolent Asylum closed its doors to children in 1869. Surviving records of the Benevolent Asylum include admission registers (1859-1900) and annual general reports (1859-1970). These records…
The Community of the Holy Name is a religious order founded in Melbourne, in 1888. The founder of the order, Emma Caroline Silcock (also known as Sister Esther), led the work of the Mission to the Streets and Lanes in Melbourne, and the two organisations had a close association. The order was not formally established…
The Neglected Children’s Act 1915, No. 2703 consolidated the laws contained in the Neglected Children’s Act 1890. It repealed the Neglected Children’s Act 1890, No. 1121. It was amended by Act No. 2875, Act No. 2980, Act No.3001, Act No. 3351, Act No. 3421, Act No. 3497, Act No. 3605, Act No. 3620. It was…
In 1856 a Select Committee of Inquiry upon Penal Discipline was established and reported to Parliament in 1857. This group influenced the development of Victoria’s first piece of child welfare legislation, the Neglected and Criminal Children’s Act 1864. Donella Jaggs writes that the 1857 Select Committee of Inquiry upon Penal Discipline ‘for the first time…
The Infant Life Protection Act 1915, No. 2670, sought to consolidate the Victorian laws relating to the protection of infant life (namely, the Infant Life Protection Acts of 1890 and 1907). It was a re-enactment of the Infant Life Protection Act 1907. The long title is ‘An Act to consolidate the Law relating to the…
The Neglected Children’s Act of 1890 (No. 5, Vict. 1121) was an act to consolidate the law relating to ‘neglected’ children in Victoria. It repealed the Neglected Children’s Act 1887 (51 Vict. No. 941), and was repealed by the Neglected Children’s Act 1915 ( No. 2703).
The Aborigines Protection Act 1886, No. DCCCCXII (912), commenced the policy of forcibly removing “half caste” aboriginals from missions and reserves. It did so by changing the definition of aboriginal to exclude “half-castes”. The Long title of the Act is ‘An Act to amend an Act intituled “An Act to provide for the Protection and…
The Aborigines Act 1957 (No. 6086) was drawn up following the McLean Inquiry’s ‘Report on the operation of the Aborigines Act [1928]’. The 1957 legislation repealed the Aborigines Act 1928, and was itself repealed by the 1958 legislation on 1 April 1959. The Aborigines Act 1957 abolished the Board for Protection of Aborigines, replacing it…
The Aborigines Welfare Board was established by the Aborigines Act 1957. This Act abolished the Board of Protection (first formed in Victoria in 1860). The new Aborigines Welfare Board had the function ‘to promote the moral, intellectual and physical welfare of aborigines (full blood and half-caste) with a view to their assimilation in the general…
Dec 18, 2024
Nov 15, 2024
