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Disabilities

Voluntary Workers (Soldiers' Holdings) Act 1917

Act to enable the Voluntary Workers Association to create a model garden village at Matraville for disabled servicemen and war widows.

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Myee

Late Victorian residence built for solicitor and Mayor of Rockdale John Horatio Clayton. It became a home for babies and young unmarried mothers who had been committed by the Children's Court to state care. Some mothers retained their babies after they left Myee, but many babies were adopted. From 1977 it was used as a home for secondary school aged boys who were considered to have intellectual disabilities.

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Randwick Asylum for Destitute Children

Large sandstone asylum for 400 children built on 60 acres at High Cross Randwick by the Society for the Relief of Destitute Children. A new wing built in 1863 housed a further 400 children. During World War I it was used as a military hospital for wounded and disabled returned servicemen.

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Paralympic Games 2000

International games for elite athletes with disabilities, held after the Olympic Games in Sydney.

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Fisher Road Special School

Public school in Dee Why established in 1953, catering for students between the ages of 4 and 18 who have a moderate to severe intellectual disability.

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Northcott Disability Services

Charity established by the Rotary Club of Sydney in response to the growing number of children left with disabilities caused by illnesses such as polio and tuberculosis.

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Quota Club

One of the oldest international service organizations for women, especially for service empowering women and children and to people who are deaf, hard-of-hearing, and speech-impaired.

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Royal Institute for the Deaf and Blind Children

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Charitable organisation that educated deaf, dumb and blind children, and became one of Sydney's large charities. It moved to North Rocks in 1961, leaving its grand building to become part of the University of Sydney.

Vision Australia

National agency which was formed following the merger of the Royal Blind Society (RBS), the Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind (RVIB), Vision Australia Foundation (VAF), and the National Information Library Services (NILS) in July 2004.

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Carmichael, John Black

Deaf Scottish print maker and engraver who migrated to Australia to work as a professional artist.

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Davis, Ann (1773-1854)

John Nicol described her as 'a noted swindler, who obtained great quantities of goods under false names, and other equally base means'. Convicted of breaking and entering and stealing multiple items of clothing, she was transported for seven years. She lived in Toongabbie and Seven Hills with her de facto partner and later husband, Simon Moulds, and was listed in the 1814 census as a 'blind woman'.

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Kinchela, John 1774-1845

Irish-born law officer who was appointed Attorney-General of NSW at a salary of 1,200 pounds and then judge of NSW Supreme Court. He also served as a member of the first NSW Legislative Council. However, though Governor Richard Bourke praised his legal knowledge, he complained of Kinchela's extreme deafness claiming it hindered his work as a member of the Legislative Council.

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Lowe, Robert

Barrister who chose to practise law in Australia after being diagnosed with imminent blindness and who found acclaim and enmity in his fight for responsible government in the colony during the crucial 1840s.

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McPhee, Neil Campbell

Labourer who enlisted in the 7th Reinforcement, 45th Battalion and proceeded to Etaples, France in March 1917. On 23 September, he was admitted to hospital in France for 'debility' and a few days later for 'gastric ulcer'. He returned to Australia and was discharged as medically unfit with 'permanent disability'.

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Morrin, Beryl Gladys

Girl who lost her arms when she was attacked by a shark while swimming in the Georges River at Kentucky on 31 December 1934.

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Steel, Elizabeth

Deaf convict who at the time of her trial at the Old Bailey, London on 23 May 1787, was described as 'mute by visitation of God'. She was transported for seven years for stealing a silver watch from George Childs, a customer at the public house she worked at as a prostitute. Described as the 'first deaf Australia', after arriving in Sydney she was sent to Norfolk Island. After returning to Sydney, she died and was buried at Old Sydney Burial Ground. In 1991, her headstone was discovered during drainage works under Sydney Town Hall.

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