Skip to main content

Dictionary of Sydney

The Dictionary of Sydney
Subjects
Health and Welfare
Social welfare
Child services

The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

Child services

Subject

Ardill, George

Bidura

Karitane

Karitane Products Society factory Surry Hills

Murawina

Royleston

Sydney Day Nursery Association

Yarra Bay House

Child Welfare Act 1923

Child Welfare Act 1939

Destitute Children Act 1866

Mothercraft

Bidura

Dalwood Home

Karitane Mothercraft Home

Karitane Products Society factory

Metropolitan Boys' Shelter

Myee

Ormond

Randwick Asylum for Destitute Children

SDN Woolloomooloo Children's Education and Care Centre

Scarba

Tresillian Mothercraft Home

Yarra Bay House

Inquiry into Children in Institutional Care 2004

Royal Commission into Public Charities 1873

Alexandria Baby Clinic

Ashfield Infants Home

Australian Mothercraft Society

Bernard Smith Children's Home

Bourke Street Baby Clinic

Boys' Town Engadine

Child Welfare Department

KU Children's Services

Karitane

Metropolitan Girls' Shelter, Glebe

Metropolitan Shelter for Children

Murawina

Newtown Baby Clinic

Noahs Ark Toy Library

Northcott Disability Services

Our Babies Home

Our Boys Farm Home

Our Children's Home

Renwick Hospital for Infants

Royal Far West

Royal Institute for the Deaf and Blind Children

SDN Children's Services

Salvation Army Boys' Home Dee Why

Salvation Army Home for Little Girls Dee Why

Smith Family

Society for Aid to Children Inoperable in Mauritius

Society for Providing Homes for Neglected Children

St Martha's Industrial Home for Girls Leichhardt

State Children's Relief Board

Sydney Female School of Industry

Tresillian Family Day Care Centres

Woolloomooloo Nursery School

Angel-Lord, Gertrude

Ardill, George Edward (1847-1945)

Durant, Carmel

Erlanger, Marianne

Fairfax, Marguerite

Jefferis, Marian

King, Mary Truby

King, Truby

MacKenzie Hatton, Elizabeth

McLean, Vida

McMillan, Elizabeth

Munro, Jenny

Petherbridge, WC

Vidler, Ivy

Warneke, Bertha

Wilson, Eileen

Young, Morri

'In case of consumption' - public health education poster about tuberculosis at the Bourke Street baby clinic 1914

A typical day at a Sydney Day Nursery - playing on the merry-go-round, October 1939

Alexandria Baby Clinic 1914

Arriving at a Sydney Day Nursery, October 1939

Baby clinic Newtown 1914

Boy Scouts' visit to the Royleston Crippled Boys' Home for State Wards, Glebe May 1925

Children at play, Dalwood Homes Balgowlah 20 July 1941

Children at play, Dalwood Homes Balgowlah 20 July 1941

Dalwood Home, Seaforth 1930s

Deaf, Dumb and Blind Institute, Darlington c1873

Joseph Coulter, Superintendent of the Randwick Asylum 1890

Medical Officers of the School Medical Service 29 June 1925

Mothers and Children appeal poster 8 December 1920

Murawina, a centre for young Aboriginal children, Redfern 1980

Nurses and mothers with babies at Newtown Baby Clinic 1914

Sydney Day Nursery, dressing to go home, 1939

The Karitane Products factory at 72 Buckingham Street 1930

The Metropolitan Girls' Shelter at the rear of Bidura, Avon Street Glebe 1931

Weighing babies Bourke Street Baby Clinic 1914

Women's liberationists storm the roof at the Bidura Shelter for Girls in Glebe on International Womens Day 8 March 1974

Yarra Bay House, Phillip Bay 30 July 2007

Yarra Bay House, Phillip Bay 30 July 2007

Norma Ingram, founding administrator, on Murawina 2006

Search

Browse

Browse
- Artefacts
- Buildings
- Events
- Natural Features
- Organisations
- People
- Places
- Structures
- Entries
- Multimedia
- Subjects
- Roles
- Contributors

Connections

Broader Subjects

Social welfare

Footer

Home
About
Copyright
Blog
Facebook
Twitter

Child services

Ardill, George

Temperance advocate, evangelist and charity worker, George Ardill was absolutely certain of the validity of his ideas about redemption and rescue of women and children. His later work as a member of the Aboriginal Protection Board, accompanied by similar certainty, led directly to some of the most tragic and damaging results of colonialism for Aboriginal people.

Bidura

As the primary hub for child welfare in Sydney, Bidura is a place shared by members of the Stolen Generations and Forgotten Australians and is remembered by them with little fondness.

Karitane

Founded in 1923 as part of a worldwide wave of concern about newborn health, Karitane provided care and education to generations of Sydney mothers and nurses.

Karitane Products Society factory Surry Hills

In the aftermath of World War I, and with the onset of the Great Depression, concern over the high levels of infant morality in Australia led the drive to develop locally made, affordable baby care products.

Murawina

An Aboriginal women's initiative, Murawina grew out of a breakfast program for Aboriginal children and developed into a childcare centre, referral agency and meeting place, as well as a bridge between Aboriginal homes and mainstream education.

Royleston

Royleston, like the nearby girls' institution, Bidura, served as a depot for children in the New South Wales Government child welfare system from 1922 until 1983 providing temporary accommodation for children in transit between children's court hearings, foster care and institutions. For many members of the Stolen Generations and Forgotten Australians, it was a harsh and loveless place.

Sydney Day Nursery Association

The Sydney Day Nursery Association was established in Woolloomooloo in 1905 as a child care service for infant children of working class mothers. It extended its services to preschool-aged children in 1937, when it changed its name to the Sydney Day Nursery and Nursery Schools Association. In 1999 it became SDN Children's Services.

Yarra Bay House

Yarra Bay House, originally built at La Perouse as a cable station, served as a NSW Government children's home from around 1917 until the 1980s. Since 1984 it has been owned by the La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council and has been the hub of the La Perouse Aboriginal community.

Child Welfare Act 1923

Legislation to amend previous acts and increase government powers to place children at risk in institutions and the legal framework for those institutions.

full record »

Child Welfare Act 1939

Legislation to consolidate and amend previous laws relating to young people and giving much greater power to the Child Welfare Department including the power to remove Aboriginal children from their families.

full record »

Destitute Children Act 1866

Legislation to establish training institutions for destitute or delinquent children.

full record »

Mothercraft

Book on baby welfare and child care by Mary Truby King which supported the principles of her father Truby King.

full record »

Bidura

full record »

Two storey Victorian house with a former ballroom and large formal garden which was once one among many grand estates along Glebe Point road. From the 1920s the house was used as a girls' home and children's court whilst a remand centre was constructed at the rear in 1980 to facilitate the operation of Bidura Children's Court. It was sold for residential development in 2014.

Dalwood Home

full record »

House built by Theodore Gurney and later sold to AE Dalwood who donated it to the Food for Babies Fund. It was later used as a children's home and hospital.

Karitane Mothercraft Home

Home established at 72 Howard Street Coogee by the Australian Mothercraft Society for mother and baby care. Named for the town in New Zealand where Dr Truby King had a home.

full record »

Karitane Products Society factory

Factory established to manufacture baby formula at a price and quality affordable by mothers who were unable to breastfeed.

full record »

Metropolitan Boys' Shelter

Remand home and shelter for boys who were awaiting Children's Court hearings.

full record »

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.

full record »

Ormond

Accommodation block used as a girls' home and later as a training school by the Child Welfare Department. As an annexe it provided housing for the privileged girls from Parramatta who were near the end of their sentence and had responded well to training.

full record »

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.

full record »

SDN Woolloomooloo Children's Education and Care Centre

Purpose built centre for mothers and babies at 208 Dowling Street Woolloomooloo.

full record »

Scarba

Late Victorian mansion at Bondi which became a residential care home for children and later a centre for family support. Constructed for Malcolm Campbell on the site of a smaller cottage of the same name.

full record »

Tresillian Mothercraft Home

Home established in Shaw Street Petersham by the Royal Society for the Welfare of Mothers and Babies to provide care, supervision and training for better health outcomes for mothers and babies. The name Tresillian was that used by the previous owners of the house and was adopted by the Society into common usage.

full record »

Yarra Bay House

full record »

Thought to have been built as a second cable station for use between 1903 and 1917, it has also been a medical ward, girls' industrial school and boys' truancy school before becoming an administrative centre for the Aboriginal land council.

Inquiry into Children in Institutional Care 2004

Commonwealth inquiry into children in care which resulted in two reports - Forgotten Australians: A report on Australians who experienced institutional or out-of-home care as children, and Protecting vulnerable children: A national challenge

full record »

Royal Commission into Public Charities 1873

Inquiry into public charities that led to changes in the treatment of delinquent and destitute children.

full record »

Alexandria Baby Clinic

full record »

One of the first government-run baby health centre in Sydney, opened in 1914.

Ashfield Infants Home

Home first established on Victoria Street, Darlinghurst to cater for foundlings and to provide accommodation for unmarried mothers and their babies. Two years after it was founded, one of its supporters, Thomas Walker, suggested the home be moved to larger premises, a house called 'Gorton' on Henry Street, Ashfield.

full record »

Australian Mothercraft Society

Organisation to promote maternal and child health based on the work of Dr Truby King in New Zealand which was established when his controversial baby feeding methods were no longer used by the Royal Society for the Welfare of Mothers and Babies.

full record »

Bernard Smith Children's Home

Children's home established by the Wesley Mission in the former home of the Hamilton family in West Pymble.

full record »

Bourke Street Baby Clinic

full record »

One of the first government-run baby health centre in Sydney, opened in 1914.

Boys' Town Engadine

Boys' home founded by Father Thomas Dunlea at Engadine in 1939.

full record »

Child Welfare Department

Government department formed to manage the charitable and government run children's organisations.

full record »

KU Children's Services

Organisation founded to open free kindergartens and introduce the principles of the kindergarten movement into every school in New South Wales.

full record »

Karitane

Philanthropic health care organisation for mothers and babies which grew out of the work of Doctor Truby King.

full record »

Metropolitan Girls' Shelter, Glebe

full record »

Government receiving home and shelter for girls awaiting court hearings. Treatment and discipline were harsh and frightening for the girls assigned there. The terrace building in which it was housed was demolished in 1978.

Metropolitan Shelter for Children

Shelter and receiving home for children awaiting hearings in the Children's Court

full record »

Murawina

full record »

Community group which provides culturally appropriate childcare for Aboriginal children.

Newtown Baby Clinic

Baby health centre at Australia Street Newtown opposite the fire station, which was originally a branch of the Alice Rawson School for Mothers, a voluntary organisation founded in 1908. The government took over the centres in July 1914 when the Baby Clinic Board was formed.

full record »

Noahs Ark Toy Library

Community resource centre for children with special needs.

full record »

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.

full record »

Our Babies Home

Cottage opened by George Ardill and the Society for Providing Homes for Neglected Children in 1886 to care for orphans or babies of working mothers.

full record »

Our Boys Farm Home

Cottage for boys established at Camden in 1890 by George Ardill and The Society for Providing Homes for Neglected Children to provide care and training for boys on nearby farms. The land was donated by WH Paling. In 1946 the building was sold and is now known as Macquarie House.

full record »

Our Children's Home

Home established by The Society for Providing Homes for Neglected Children in Liverpool in 1887 in a house donated by KF Oliver. It was established primarily to provide care and shelter for children so their mothers could take employment where a child was not acceptable. It moved to North Strathfield in 1918 and closed in 1982 when donations diminished.

full record »

Renwick Hospital for Infants

Hospital at Ultimo established by the Benevolent Society of New South Wales adjacent to the Thomas Street Asylum with wards for homeless women and children.

full record »

Royal Far West

Health care organisation founded by Reverend Stanley Drummond in 1924 to provide respite and recreation by the sea for country children.

full record »

Royal Institute for the Deaf and Blind Children

full record »

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.

SDN Children's Services

Association formed in 1905 to provide preschool services for working class mothers and which established the first training centre for nursery school teachers in 1931 at Woolloomooloo Nursery. In 1999 the name was changed from the Sydney Day Nursery and Nursery Schools Association to SDN Children's Services

full record »

Salvation Army Boys' Home Dee Why

Home established by the Salvation Army on land donated by Elizabeth Jenkins at Dee Why.

full record »

Salvation Army Home for Little Girls Dee Why

Home for girls built south of Dee Why Lagoon on land donated by Elizabeth Jenkins.

full record »

Smith Family

Children's charity focused on improving educational opportunities to help disadvantaged Australian children.

full record »

Society for Aid to Children Inoperable in Mauritius

Charity group which provides medical aid to poor Mauritian children.

full record »

Society for Providing Homes for Neglected Children

Society established in 1886 by George Ardill to provide support and training for children. It went on to establish homes for babies and young children at Liverpool and Camden.

full record »

St Martha's Industrial Home for Girls Leichhardt

Training facility for neglected, abandoned or orphaned girls at Leichhardt run by the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart.

full record »

State Children's Relief Board

Board established under the Children Relief Act, 1881, which governed child welfare in New South Wales until the mid-1920s. It became the Child Welfare Department from 1923 to 1970.

full record »

Sydney Female School of Industry

School established in 1826 to train girls as domestic workers. The school also provided instruction in reading, writing, arithmetic, spinning, knitting and housework.

full record »

Tresillian Family Day Care Centres

Organisation formed to co-ordinate childhood and maternal services in response to statistics during World War I that showed 63,000 Australian servicemen had lost their lives fighting, whilst 70,000 children under 5 had died through poverty, lack of hygiene and disease in the same period.

full record »

Woolloomooloo Nursery School

First nursery which combined long day care with a preschool program, run by qualified Nursery School teachers.

full record »

Angel-Lord, Gertrude

Medical practitioner.

full record »

Ardill, George Edward (1847-1945)

full record »

Evangelist and social worker who was the founder of refuges for women and children including the Sydney Rescue Work Society. His later work as a member of the Aboriginal Protection Board led directly to some of the most tragic and damaging results of colonialism for Aboriginal people.

Durant, Carmel

Child who was removed from her family at age 11 due to poverty and designated a state ward. For seven years she endured a harsh life in and out of state institutions.

full record »

Erlanger, Marianne

Nursing director in the expanded Karitane child care service.

full record »

Fairfax, Marguerite

Philanthropist who worked to provide child care services for working mothers.

full record »

Jefferis, Marian

Adelaide philanthropist who moved to Sydney and was a major proponent of the boarding-out system of child welfare.

full record »

King, Mary Truby

Karitane nurse and teacher who wrote extensively promoting the principles of Truby King's mothercraft.

full record »

King, Truby

New Zealand mental health reformer and baby care activist, whose patient-centered baby care methods were popular with mothers but controversial among doctors. Knighted in 1925, Sir Truby King's methods were credited with lowering infant mortality in the early decades of the twentieth century.

full record »

MacKenzie Hatton, Elizabeth

Missionary who worked with Pacific Islanders and Aborigines in Queensland before she was invited to help with Aboriginal children in Sydney, establishing a home for girls at Homebush.

full record »

McLean, Vida

Nurse who saw service throughout World War I before embarking on a career in health promotion as matron of mother craft centres in New Zealand, Australia and India.

full record »

McMillan, Elizabeth

Nurse who saw service in the Middle East and Western Fronts before training in London in Dr Truby King's Plunket Mothercraft method. She became the first director of the Karitane organisation in Sydney responsible for nurse training and mother care.

full record »

Munro, Jenny

Aboriginal activist and child welfare worker.

full record »

Petherbridge, WC

Medical practitioner.

full record »

Vidler, Ivy

Nurse.

full record »

Warneke, Bertha

Nurse who worked in Karitane homes in New Zealand and Sydney.

full record »

Wilson, Eileen

Matron trained in Karitane mothercraft nursing.

full record »

Young, Morri

Manager who supervised the closure of Royleston as a boy's shelter.

full record »

'In case of consumption' - public health education poster about tuberculosis at the Bourke Street baby clinic 1914

full record »

Contributed By

State Archives & Records New South Wales

[4873_a004_a004000006r (DETAIL)]

A typical day at a Sydney Day Nursery - playing on the merry-go-round, October 1939

full record »

Contributed By

National Library of Australia

[nla.ms-ms2852-19-11x]

(MS 2852 Papers of Alexander Gore Gowrie, 1835-1987 [manuscript].)

Alexandria Baby Clinic 1914

full record »

Contributed By

State Archives & Records New South Wales

[4873_a004_a004000004r.jpg]

Arriving at a Sydney Day Nursery, October 1939

full record »

Contributed By

National Library of Australia

[nla.ms-ms2852-19-9x]

(MS 2852 Papers of Alexander Gore Gowrie, 1835-1987 [manuscript].)

Baby clinic Newtown 1914

full record »

Contributed By

State Archives & Records New South Wales

[4873_a004_a004000001r.jpg]

Boy Scouts' visit to the Royleston Crippled Boys' Home for State Wards, Glebe May 1925

full record »

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

(Sydney Mail, June 3, 1925, p19)

Children at play, Dalwood Homes Balgowlah 20 July 1941

full record »

By

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

Children at play, Dalwood Homes Balgowlah 20 July 1941

full record »

By

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

Dalwood Home, Seaforth 1930s

full record »

By

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

[hood_07490 / Home and Away 7490]

(Mitchell Library)

Deaf, Dumb and Blind Institute, Darlington c1873

full record »

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

[on4_40169 / Home and Away 40169]

Joseph Coulter, Superintendent of the Randwick Asylum 1890

full record »

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

(Illustrated Sydney News, 17 April 1890, p 17)

Medical Officers of the School Medical Service 29 June 1925

full record »

Back row: Dr JW Bruce, Dr S Buckingham, Dr C Madde, Dr W Dillon-Smith, Dr WC Malone, Miss AB Harris, Dr AE Machin, Dr PL Quessy, Dr D McClemens, Dr N Robertston

Front row: Dr SC Bevan, Dr G Vale, Dr LOS Poidevin, Dr Harvey Sutton OBE (Principal Medical Officer), Dr CO Stewart, Dr IF Coghlan, Dr M Edelsten-Pope

Absent: Dr A McCloy, Dr D Ratcliff, Dr WK Flook

Contributed By

State Archives & Records New South Wales

Mothers and Children appeal poster 8 December 1920

full record »

Contributed By

Benevolent Society

Murawina, a centre for young Aboriginal children, Redfern 1980

full record »

Contributed By

National Archives of Australia

[A6180, 22/4/80/9]

Nurses and mothers with babies at Newtown Baby Clinic 1914

full record »

Contributed By

State Archives & Records New South Wales

[4873_a004_a004000003r.jpg]

Sydney Day Nursery, dressing to go home, 1939

full record »

Contributed By

National Library of Australia

[nla.ms-ms2852-19-26x]

(MS 2852 Papers of Alexander Gore Gowrie, 1835-1987 [manuscript].)

The Karitane Products factory at 72 Buckingham Street 1930

full record »

Contributed By

Private collection

(Source: 'Truby King, the man: a biography' by Mary Truby King,George Allen & Unwin, London 1948, facing p 316)

The Metropolitan Girls' Shelter at the rear of Bidura, Avon Street Glebe 1931

full record »

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

(Truth (Sydney), 31 May, 1931, p1)

Weighing babies Bourke Street Baby Clinic 1914

full record »

Contributed By

State Archives & Records New South Wales

[4873_a004_a004000006r.jpg]

Women's liberationists storm the roof at the Bidura Shelter for Girls in Glebe on International Womens Day 8 March 1974

full record »

Contributed By

Australian History Museum at Macquarie University

[Image 42000127]

Yarra Bay House, Phillip Bay 30 July 2007

full record »

By

Contributed By

Wikimedia Commons

[http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AYarra_Bay_House_1.JPG]

(CC-BY-SA-3.0)

Yarra Bay House, Phillip Bay 30 July 2007

full record »

By

Contributed By

Wikimedia Commons

[http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yarra_Bay_House_2.JPG]

(CC-BY-SA-3.0)

Norma Ingram, founding administrator, on Murawina 2006

full record »

By

Courtesy:

City of Sydney Council

(From the oral history collection)

Social welfare