Are there orphans in australia

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Lotus Place A dedicated support service and resource centre for Forgotten Australians and former child migrants. Missing Pieces - Information to assist former residents of children's institutions to access records Provides information about accessing records held by church and community agencies which ran children's homes.

Index to registrar of Townsville Orphanage Includes Index to orphans and persons other than orphans named in Townsville Orphanage minutes --"Carramar" roll of nursing register Townsville Orphanage to Queensland State Archives indexes:. Relationships Australia South Australia - Post Care Support Services A support service providing information including assistance to access records , advocacy and referral for adults who were in State or out-of-home care as children.

SA Link-Up Provides assistance to members of the indigenous community who were separated from their families due to the past policies and practices of the Australian Government. Type "Ledgers of children boarded out".

Click on ID number to bring up each index. Alphabetical index to register of infants born in the Destitute Asylum. Libraries Tasmania. Provides a list of Tasmanian records of orphanages and children in care, charitable institutions and community welfare organisations on the 'Life as a child in care' guide.

Redress Support service for Western Australian care leavers. Signposts A guide for children and young people in care from the 's. To obtain your child ward file if you were in Government care , you will need to complete a Freedom of Information Application.

FOI act. Contact for assistance in accessing your file. The service provides information and counselling to adopted people, birth parents, adoptive parents, and former state wards. Senate inquiries and reports regarding the Stolen Generation, child migrants and Forgotten Australians.

Alliance for Forgotten Australians An alliance of existing groups and individuals supporting people who were raised in institutional or other out-of-home care in Australia in the 20th century. Child Migrants Trust The Child Migrants Trust was founded in as an independent, specialised, comprehensive, professional service for former child migrants, their parents and relatives.

The Trust works on behalf of former child migrants who seek information about their family, childhood and migration history or who want to be reunited with their mothers, fathers, brothers or sisters. The following is a list of some of the major organisations that have been responsible for the care of children in Victoria. Joseph to access personal information now held by MacKillop Family Services.

Every time I'd turn around she would smash me in the mouth with her keys. It was said to be 'open' and was divided into a main section with dormitories as well as a privileged section. Ben was also charged with the theft of a pushbike and he received what he said was a General Committal He spoke of the complete lack of proper follow up care by the Welfare Department in those days, there being no interest in how he was coping either at school or in the family home.

It had stricter discipline than Mount Penang, only a small number of inmates rarely older than 16 years , individualised training, no opportunities to abscond, discipline similar to naval standards and punishments for a wide variety of behavioural misdemeanours.

Tamworth was set up in to counter the large-scale absconding that had occurred in the early s from Gosford Tamworth was an old colonial prison. It had cells and you could still see the place at the end of the cell block where people had been hanged. No visitors were allowed. Talking was allowed for only one hour per day Boys were confined in cells. They slept on the floor on coir mats They were under continual surveillance and they were punished for the slightest infringement of rules - usually by 24 hours isolated detention.

It was staffed by mainly ex soldiers The boys had to look ahead at all times at a point on the ground about three feet in front of themselves. Any glancing sideways or looking up was met with punishment There were also in place rules as to how a boy had to sleep At night It became renowned for extreme cruelty, was the subject of many inquiries which were scathing of its activities and achieved notoriety in the s when many of the girls rioted against its conditions.

Those attitudes you can see in statements by Henry Parkes As the entry books to the Parramatta Industrial School show, girls who were raped or the victims of incest often found themselves committed to the institution, while the perpetrators remained free. I was brought down in the train from Lismore with a handcuff around my ankle and a blanket put over me so that the other people in the train couldn't see the handcuffs.

When I got to Parramatta I was told that they would break my spirit at that time I didn't know what they meant I did not know what cruelty was like until I went into Parramatta Girls Home. I still do not understand exactly why I was sent to the home. I was no more than 16 years of age, an innocent child with a whole life ahead of me. Nevertheless regardless of what the reason no child should have endured the neglect, the cruelty, the brutality, malice and immorality that were shown by many of the staff to many of the girls in the home From the day I entered the home I did not realise that my life would never be the same again, that my childhood would be taken from me.

My mother never recovered from what she'd been through as a child in 'that dreadful place', called Parramatta Girls' Home. She blamed herself for what she'd been through, for being Aboriginal, and for losing me.

Is it any wonder she wasn't able to bond with her subsequent children, and with the one she'd been forced to give up? I was involved in the Parramatta riots Myself and other girls were the first to get on the roof at Parramatta which was to escape the brutal bashing we knew we would get for leaving the laundry.

Mr Johnson was then in charge, he was a brutal man and within that week I had seen him bash and kick a girl that he had been molesting to try and induce a miscarriage Johnson was called and we had our audience I knew that I would be flogged but because I was on the roof I decided to out him and verbally screamed that I knew what he was doing to Barbara Recounting her involvement in the riots at the Parramatta girls' institution, a care leaver told of her transport and entry to Hay:.

I was drugged and didn't know what I was doing I woke up at Junee Station I needed help to be placed into the van I was taken to the cell block It was dirty and looked like it hadn't been lived in for years. The cell doors had peep holes in them I was given a bucket, a roll of toilet paper, bedding and a night dress. I was placed in the cell with a small table and wooden seat and a single iron bed and mattress on the floor. I was told to put the bed together and make it and I was told to stand at attention facing the door with my eyes down If we turned over we were woken and told to stand for half an hour For nine months I never slept a whole night without being woken up We were treated like wharfie labourers and remember I was fourteen years We had to dig up the old footpath that was four foot under the sand, sift the dirt I was There was no talking and eyes down, marching and having to raise your arm to report or report back.

At one meal time I was served Lambs Fry which made me gag and dry reach, I vomited on the plate. I was then served the same Lambs Fry for the next 3 meals until I ate it. I did not eat it and was severely punished and was given extra time at Hay.

My first day at Hay I couldn't eat or drink, they gave me a sandwich and weak milky coffee, they kept giving me the same sandwich and weak coffee to eat, until I ate it The first couple of days at Hay I was scrubbing paint off walls in a cell. I had to do this all day for a few days Every morning we had to turn our mattresses, if it was not done, you got half a meal. We had a bucket for toileting in our cell. And 4 squares of toilet paper During your periods, you had to show your pad to get another one It was a prison for little girls.

Until , Ormond was a girls' training school. From until it was a co-educational school for truants and in later times operated in various ways including as a secure unit for young offenders. I was about eleven and a half when I ended up in Ormond. Ormond was a regimental place. I was molested there, my memories are of physical abuse.

We were still caned and beaten and my hair was cut off and I got a number I got out of Ormond at 14, I was taught nothing. I knew how to iron and sew but I had no outside social skills, I had low self esteem. In the s, because of increased numbers coming into care, the State established institutions such as Winlaton for girls and Allambie for both genders.

Royal Park children's home is a batch of memories I would rather not have and most of them are painful to recall - however some of them are: Being severely beaten for going up to the crche area to visit my brother David I do have one specific fond memory and that was being allowed to dress in 'new' clothes and spending the whole day with my brother and we spoke to Santa on the phone I still possess a photo of this occasion. I was made a state ward at the age of eleven and was placed in Turana Boys home Melbourne Victoria where I was abused physically and mentally on a regular basis.

I remained at Turana for approximately six months We ate reasonably well, except for when being put on punishment for trivial things. I was 8 years old It was a very traumatic experience being locked in an isolation room for the first week. All in one day I had lost my mother, brothers and my freedom.

My sister and I cried and cried and cried. The nurses were too busy to sit and comfort, or talk to us. When we heard the key in the lock we weren't told why we had been locked in the wired in sleepout. I had issues with my step-father and ended up made a ward of state for being 'exposed to moral danger' and was sent to Wimberra Remand Section of Winlaton. I was in a room on my own, being pregnant That afternoon I met Ms Somersett, the deputy head of Winlaton.

She lined all the girls up in the corridor and proceeded to belt them with her large bunch of keys and hands. She took one girl by her hair to the toilet pushed her head down and flushed She finally pulled my head up by my hair and I laughed.

Why I don't know nerves I guess. That sent Somersett ballistic screaming and dragging me by my hair over metres to Winlaton. Where I get another belting, one of very many to come. Why I didn't lose my baby, I've no idea. Life in Winlaton was rough and scary. Conditions at Turana were so good that I cannot recall one instance of corporal punishment. In a similar centre for girls was built to replace Karalla House. While the boys' section was said to be akin to a training school, the girls' section has been described as running on a 'medical model'.

Probably most of the girls who went in there had not committed a criminal offence at all. They were running away from violence - physical, sexual and emotional violence. Many of the boys Many of them were minor criminal offences They actually got the change back but he was processed through the Children's Court and placed under a care and control order.

Many shocking stories about treatment of young people at Westbrook have been told over the years and it has often been depicted as Queensland's most feared correctional centre for boys. Although sentenced to only two years, I was forced to remain incarcerated for 5 years Westbrook was a state-run reformatory for boys The warders We were treated as slave labour under the harshest conditions, working from dawn to dusk each and every day in the fields, the quarry, the farm, the kitchens, bathrooms and laundries.

I was deprived of proper schooling Most of the warders used sadistic methods to control and punish us, but the worst of them was the superintendent. This man seemed to take great pleasure in humiliating us publicly, flogging us with his heavy leather belt while we knelt naked at his feet.

The role of what later became known as the Walcott Centre or Government Reception Home was to provide short-term care prior to placement in other institutions. Until the s it was customary for all children coming into the State system to be placed in the Reception Home. As a child I'd been, along with 3 younger brothers, tossed between several homes in Western Australia My brothers got to the Catholic home too Salvation Army home, Cottesloe, Parkerville [Anglican], Methodist and there's other government receiving homes Presbyterian at Byford Now I'm I was abused, bashed, starved, tortured, disregarded as either a child or human, ie, one instance due to bed-wetting due to STRESS.

I was undressed. Stood on one dining area table so all the children could jeer! I was 8 or 9 Presbyterian. Parkerville Anglican children's potties were tipped on me to revive me. His experiences included being bullied, having monotonous food, experiencing hard labour, being constantly hungry and having very few personal possessions:.

I have only memories of fear, anger and resentment. When I left Fairbridge, I had become an uncaring, selfish, fearful loner. I had been dehumanised We were assigned More of a sadistic prison warder than a surrogate parent. Among her less endearing ways of showing her displeasure was the full fisted punch to the face. Silky Oaks, Wynnum [Plymouth Brethren]. At pre-school age I got a very bad dose of the mumps my ears ached so badly my mouth was swollen I was placed in a wooden crate and taken down to the cow shed there I stayed until morning The matron was a cruel woman, I had my vomit shovelled back into my mouth not only was I swallowing it I was also swallowing my blood as the matron scrapped my gums with the spoon making sure I ate the lot.

Nudgee Orphanage [Catholic]. The lack of footwear and warm clothes in winter and of course the slop we all had to eat. The Salvation Army Home, Toowong. This was the most barbaric home I was in I spent many nights and weeks and months locked in solitary confinement I went mad raging like a wild animal. Holy Cross, Wooloowin [Catholic]. Locked in a broom closet Mitchelton Good Shepherd Home [Catholic]. The food was so bad it was plain slop.

The hygiene was appalling. I was born on 28 th November in Sandringham, Victoria. I spent the first two years at home with my parents. Then I went into the first of the institutions.

I have been placed in a number of ward establishments due to being a neglected child and mental homes due to mental abuse and physical abuse. The first home was Royleston, state ward home Glebe at the age of four years of age North Ryde Psychiatric Centre children's unit, in the year I was returned to Royleston, Glebe - November State ward home Mittagong, Turner or Suttor Cottage, year Toombong special central school, year - Mittagong training school Mackeller.

Yasmar Ashfield NSW boys' shelter Returned to Royleston Berry Training Farm I spent time They are I was placed in departmental care at the age of 7 and spent the next 10 years in 8 different homes During this time I was bashed, had my face cut, locked in a broom cupboard, in Westbrook was another hell hole but much worse than Neerkol no human beings should ever have to go through what I went through in Westbrook. There were guards screwing boys, bashing, threats, older boys standing over younger boys, older boys used by guards to hold other boys down while, they, the guard, bashed them and boys taken out of the dormitory at night to be used by the guards or the older boys for their sexual pleasure.

I would lie awake listening to other boys sobbing in misery and I cried myself to sleep every night in sickening fear Turana was pretty scary at first. I was a truant among petty criminals. It was hard at first, but I adapted Then came the nightmare. In I was sent to Bayswater, another home run by the Salvos We were bashed savagely, not by officers, but by a large group of trustee prisoners.

From then on it was nightmare after nightmare. We were then belted on a regular basis by the warders They were savage beatings. Boots and all. Time and time again Even being in Pentridge at the age of seventeen was bad but no where near as bad as Bayswater. Even H division wasn't as bad. I was placed in the Salvation Army Boys Home More than half of all Australians aged 18 to 24 still live with at least one parent. They are forced to leave care by the time they turn 18, at which time payments for their carers abruptly stop.

The Department [Human Services] told me I better start looking for homeless shelters. Luckily, a transitional community housing property became vacant just days before his 18th, saving him from homelessness. For a while at least. He ended up homeless for almost a month before a friend offered him a room.

Dylan is determined to ensure the 43, Aussie kids currently living in state care get more support than he did. Around half end up homeless, unemployed, in jail or pregnant within their first 12 months in the outside world. The Department of Communities manages 24 group homes, including 14 in the metropolitan area and 10 in regional areas, and supports 40 family group homes operated by external organisations.

The children aged were placed in the group homes for various reasons including neglect, abuse, mental health issues, family and domestic violence, and drug and alcohol misuse within the family, which often occurs within a context of intergenerational trauma and social disadvantage. Often, it was a combination of factors which resulted in children being removed from a family and placed in a home where the number of young people varied.

Group homes emphasised providing a therapeutic sanctuary model of care for people who had experienced extreme trauma, a Department of Communities spokesman said.

Extreme trauma incudes sexual assault — experiencing or witnessing it — which manifests in the children and results in complex needs, concerns and behaviours.

As of October 28, eight children who were reportable offenders were in department care, including some placed in group homes with other kids.