A THEMATIC HERITAGE STUDY ON AUSTRALIA’S BENEVOLENT AND OTHER CARE INSTITUTIONS Companion Guide

Bo. Neque nobit, int faccum et quaturit por alitiuntibus ex et quatiatium eatem nobit earum voluptiae et laborepuda sere et aperiti orepedipid ut optati consequo eat que venisti onsecum quis solorporum dolum rem intem a se volum nam adipiti undusant harumque dis dolum volupti volorestota dus et praturio que que pa veriasp ienissunti ra et pro officim enimi, temo voles et odit, ut fuga. Nam, to te aliquid et ipit, sit denduscimus que platqui aepreiumquis quos repedi sumquam, ut exeratur aruptatur? Uptatem cullores vel ea as que es es autem vel imodi nulpa dolupic illaceatia quosseque por aut quo blandunt, as ulparib ustion poressit od quatatur, que comnimilibus exeribus moluptam volut facium eveliqui quodit, sus archillibus. © Copyright Commonwealth of Australia, 2016 This report should be attributed as A Thematic Heritage Study on Australia’s Benevolent and Other Care Institutions – Companion Guide, Commonwealth of Australia, 2016

The Commonwealth of Australia has made all reasonable efforts to identify content supplied by A Thematic Heritage Study on Australia’s Benevolent third parties using the following format ‘© Copyright, and Other Care Institutions – Companion Guide is [name of third party]’ licensed by the Commonwealth of Australia for use under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Australia Disclaimer licence with the exception of the Coat of Arms of the The views and opinions expressed in this publication Commonwealth of Australia, the logo of the agency are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect responsible for publishing the report, content supplied those of the Australian Government or the Minister for by third parties, and any images depicting people. the Environment and Energy. For licence conditions see: https://creativecommons. org/licenses/by/4.0/

Front cover Group of Dr. Barnado children in uniform. Sam Hood Collection Part II. Digital Order No. a220015. Courtesy of the State Library of New South Wales.

INFORMATION

If you have found material in this guide distressing because of your past connections to benevolent institutions assistance can be found by contacting one of these services Respect 1800 737 732 or Blue Knot Helpline (Adults Surviving Child Abuse) on 1300 657 380. Geelong Infirmary and Benevolent Asylum Courtesy of the Geelong District Website, http://zades.com.au/gannd/index.php/geelong/people/gdghosp, Wynd Collection 4

PURPOSE OF THIS GUIDE

UNDERSTANDING OUR AUSTRALIAN NATION

he purpose of this guide is to provide a summary of the thematic heritage study on benevolent and other care Tinstitutions.

The full heritage study can be found at the Department of the Environment’s webpage

Forgotten Australians enter the Great Hall, Parliament House, 2009 Photo credit: George Serras. Courtesy of the National Museum of Australia 5

WHY PREPARE A THEMATIC STUDY

THEMATIC RESEARCH PROVIDES THE NECESSARY CONTEXT TO UNDERTAKE NATIONAL HERITAGE ASSESSMENTS

n 2013 the Department of the Environment undertook on benevolent and other care institutions forms part of an internal review of the National Heritage List. this research effort. Did the List include the key places in Australia that Australians considered nationally significant? The places associated with the sub-theme of I benevolent and other care institutions touch many Places associated with the sub-theme of benevolent Australians who have family connections with these and other care institutions were identified as a gap places. For those with more direct experience, their in the List. At the same time a number of heritage feelings about these places are often mixed. For many, nominations for nineteenth century benevolent their memories are of personal trauma and abuse. This asylums had been received through the Department’s study is respectful of these associations. The study public heritage nomination gateway. As a result, seeks to provide an historical understanding of these targeted thematic research was initiated to support places. action to improve the List. The Thematic Heritage study

NATIONAL HERITAGE LIST 10.18% 14.7% Ancient Country

Island of Natural Diversity

Peopling the Land 25.96% 19.3% Understanding and Shaping the Land

Building a Nation

8.1% Living as Australians 21.75% Places within the sub-theme of benevolent and other care institutions are not well represented

Thematic composition of the National Heritage List 6

BENEVOLENT AND OTHER CARE INSTITUTIONS

WHAT ARE THESE PLACES PLACE EXAMPLES Benevolent and other care institutions are places Benevolent and other care institutions include places established for the purposes of providing community like asylums, refuges, hospitals, aged care facilities, or individual care and support and are operated by children’s homes, orphanages, labour camps, hostels, churches, charities, governments, philanthropic training centres, shelters and food distribution centres. organisations or private individuals. These places This is not an exhaustive list. have formed part of the social support systems within our society.

Asylums Shelters Hostels Orphanages

The Melbourne Benevolent Asylum and gardens. c.1885 Courtesy of the Museum Victoria Collections http://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/774057 7

A THEMATIC STUDY ON BENEVOLENT AND OTHER CARE INSTITUTIONS

SCOPE COURSE AND PATTERN The thematic heritage study includes an outline of the OF HISTORY course and pattern of Australian history associated with benevolent and other care institutions. This history The thematic study follows a timeline from 1788 to has been prepared with a focus on the identification of 2001. This companion guide provides a snapshot of major national trends and defining historic events. the five major periods identified in the study.

Within this scope in-depth treatment of a number of associated topics is constrained. For example the history associated with Indigenous missions or other controlling provisions, and the development of health care and education, are aspects of the theme which can only be developed in an overview manner.

mental health reform

Hospitals and health care

Education and training

Indigenous missions and other control/care provisions Benevolent and other care institutions

social reform movements 8

HISTORY SUMMARY TABLE The study presents the contextual national history associated with the places we call benevolent and other care institutions. The following table provides a summary of the course and pattern of history associated with the theme under investigation.

PERIOD PERIOD PERIOD PERIOD PERIOD

1788–1850 1850–1890 1890–1940 1940–1972 1972–2001 Aboriginal society Gold rushes Depressions of 1890s World War II Whitlam Government disrupted by and 1930s reforms (including single non-Aboriginal people Victoria separates from Post-war migration parents’ benefit, Australian NSW First World War Assistance Plan) Introduction of welfare Economic stability and approaches for Aboriginal Queensland separates Federation–some welfare growth Women’s rights movement people e.g. Aboriginal from NSW responsibilities transfer Rising education levels ‘protectors’, missionaries to the Commonwealth Self-help movement End of convict Government Commonwealth child Convict transportation to transportation (1868) Aboriginal rights endowment (1941), NSW (1788–1841), Van Infant welfare movement movement Land settlement, widows’ pensions (1942), Diemen’s Land (1803–1853) pastoralism and agriculture ‘Harvester Judgement’ unemployment and Legislation regarding child Queensland (1824–1839) minimum wage 1907 sickness benefits (1945) protection Growth of manufacturing, convict settlement; ‘free’ economic prosperity, rise Aged pensions 1908 settlers from 1838 of labour movement HISTORICAL CONTEXT HISTORICAL 1835 Port Phillip Population growth District Victoria settled; Government Growth of cities and representatives from 1836 regional mining towns 1836 South Australian colony established with direct immigration from UK PERIOD PERIOD PERIOD PERIOD PERIOD

1788–1850 1850–1890 1890–1940 1940–1972 1972–2001 Deserving and Legislation in all colonies Depressions and wars Widening definitions Greater emphasis on undeserving poor regarding destitute place strain on providers of ‘neglected’ child as support within community children/differing of services standards in the wider Rejection of the Poor approaches to providing society rise De-institutionalisation Law concept for them (introduction Changes in provision of Emphasis on family of the concept of welfare during 1890s Changing views on Care in Barracks support ‘State Ward’) depression appropriate care for those in need of welfare Assistance in the form Child rescue movement Efforts to support men/ – expression of these of money, food, clothing from the 1880s widows/families, including changes in services/ or goods returned servicemen, institutions Move towards boarding by settling on the land out of destitute children in De-segregation of services some colonies Introduction of legal for the disabled adoption in all states from Legislation to separate the 1890s Growing awareness destitute and delinquent of psychological and children Figures: Oswald Barnett, emotional deprivation in Father Gerard Tucker institutions Figures: Caroline Chisholm, Rev. Charles Strong, Selina Some states redefine Sutherland, Catherine neglected children as SIGNIFICANT CHANGES TO IDEAS/REFORMS TO CHANGES SIGNIFICANT Spence ‘in need of care and

PREVAILING IDEAS OF HOW TO PROVIDE WELFARE. WELFARE. PROVIDE TO HOW OF IDEAS PREVAILING protection’

Figures: E Cunningham Dax 9 10

PERIOD PERIOD PERIOD PERIOD PERIOD

1788–1850 1850–1890 1890–1940 1940–1972 1972–2001 Aged Aged Unemployed Children Recipients of welfare

Infirm Mentally ill Homeless Single parents

Destitute Orphan and destitute Elderly poor Aboriginal people children Orphans Children Disabled Delinquent children Children not seen initially Destitute Mothers as a group needing to be ‘Fallen’ women accommodated separately Aboriginal people Aboriginal people Provision (or lack of) for (in some colonies)

RECIPIENTS OF WELFARE OF RECIPIENTS newly-arrived assisted and non-assisted immigrants Immigrants ‘Deserving’ poor Government provides for Government subsidisation Expansion in the number Increased dependence Government and private convict ‘welfare’ of private/charitable of agencies assisting by governments on bodies providers of welfare people in the 1930s voluntary agencies to Control of girls and women depression supply services Religious providers Ideas about government– of services New approaches to provided versus charitable assisting families in provision of welfare Child rescuers poverty, e.g. advocacy (rejection of the Poor Law concept) Mutual aid societies/ Government relief self-help agencies/municipal relief Growth of non-convict/ agencies ex-convict populations Women as providers of services Some states support Discernment of need to widowed parents to keep

PROVIDERS OF WELFARE OF PROVIDERS provide charity by religious/ their children at home philanthropic organisations with them (Benevolent Society NSW established 1813) Figures: Brotherhood of St Laurence, Oswald Barnett, Legacy PERIOD PERIOD PERIOD PERIOD PERIOD

1788–1850 1850–1890 1890–1940 1940–1972 1972–2001 Incarceration and work Institutionalisation Places of refuge, relief Greater community Targeted welfare and work and charity integration of services assistance and payments OF WELFARE WELFARE OF THE EXPERIENCE

• Factories • Female refuges The rise of the babies’ Often intangible, and Often intangible, and home difficult to attribute to difficult to attribute to • Outdoor relief • Benevolent asylums specific heritage places specific heritage places Institutionalised • Barracks • Immigration depots/ congregate care • Cottage homes • Welfare benefits shelters • Gaols (before other • Women’s refuges • Family group homes • Public housing institutions were • Lunatic asylums available) • Soup kitchens • Single mothers’ shelters • Refuges for victims of • Orphanages domestic violence • Missions • Free kindergartens • Missions • Industrial schools

DURING THE PERIOD • Homeless shelters • Reformatories WITH WELFARE PROVISION PROVISION WITH WELFARE

TYPES OF PLACES ASSOCIATED ASSOCIATED PLACES TYPES OF • Missions • Missions 11 12

Find out more at Hyde Park Barracks Cascades Female Factory A

B C D

THIS PAGE: A. Governor Macquarie’s Rum Hospital, built in 1816. Courtesy of the National Library of Australia, nla.cat-vn1405202. Terry, Frederick Charles. & Allan & Wigley. ([186-]). Bird’s eye view of Sydney Harbour. B. Anna Josepha King. Watercolour portrait by William Nicholas. Courtesy of the Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW. Digital Order No. a2701002. Mrs King was a philanthropist involved with the care of destitute and orphaned children. C. Female Orphan Institution (Mrs King’s Orphanage). Courtesy of the State Library of New South Wales. Digital Order No. a928941. This institution, built in 1801, is shown here on George Street. D. Edward Smith Hall. Courtesy of the National Library of Australia, nla.cat-vn378175. Mr Hall was a prominent colonial philanthropist who helped to establish the Benevolent Society of NSW in 1818. E. Convict Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney, New South Wales, c.1820. Courtesy of the State Library of New South Wales. Digital Order No 1120005. E 13

1788–1850 SNAPSHOT

he first European settlers came to Australia In the penal colony the provision of state care centred with the ideas and values of eighteenth on ideas of control and containment. Convict men century Britain. Wealth was derived from were set to work in exchange for food rations and a Tprivate ownership and every ‘decent’ man bed in barrack accommodation. Female ‘factories’ were was expected to provide for himself and his family. established as a way to contain and control women No attempt was made to understand the causes and as a refuge of sorts for vulnerable women and of poverty and individuals were seen as bringing their children. The poor, aged and ‘insane’ were housed MdestitutionEET on themselves. ELLEN SCOTTin government-built hospitals and asylums. Newly arrived free settlers also needed assistance. The fear that the ‘undeserving’ poor would take advantage of state or charitable care was soon In response to a new environment, isolation tempered by the harsh conditions and isolation of and the need to support and encourage new the colony and the realities of frontier life. Instead settlement, the colonial government developed and of a system of care that was determined on the basis maintained a system of care and benevolence that, Ellenof qualificationScott becameas ‘deserving’, authoritiesthe scourge began to ofwhile her rooted masters in the values of Britain,and was the unique terror to of the widen their assistance to address the needs of the early colonial Australia. Femalewhole population.Factories

Ellen arrived in Van Diemen’s Land in 1830, sentenced to transportation for life for stealing a watch. She was the assigned servant that nightmares are made of. Within three weeks of her arrival she had committed the first of 48 offences, ‘being out of bed at an F unreasonable hour on Sunday last and disobeying orders’. She was returned to the Female Factory for seven days in solitary on bread and water. While she THIS PAGE: was there, her master discovered that she had also G H stolenF. Irons. money, Cascades andFemale she received three months in the Factory, Tasmania. Courtesy Crimeof the Class Port Arthur at hard Historic labour Site on reduced rations. Management Authority. Returned to service with a succession of masters, she G. Cascades Female Factory, A scene from ‘Her Story’, performed daily at the Cascades Female Factory continuedTasmania . herCourtesy career of the of minor offences and absconding,Port Arthur Historic incurring Site more time in the Crime Class desperate set’, received two years hard labour. Management Authority. on each occasion. Eventually she seems to have been Unrepentant, she continued her uncontrollable H. Cascades Female Factory, guiltyTasmania of a . seriousCourtesy ofoffence, the not only absconding but habits, absconding, disobedience, and once ‘being in Port Arthur Historic Site bed with her master’. In 1843 she committed her final puttingManagement the life Authority. of her master’s child in danger. For offence, bringing tobacco into the Launceston thatI. The she annual was meeting back inof the the Crime Class for six months withnative the tribes addition at Parramatta, of a heavy, spiked iron collar and Factory. Trafficking in forbidden items was the NSW. Courtesy of the theNational longest Library stint of in Australia, solitary that the regulations province of the Flash Mobs. permitted.nla.cat-vn797214. During this meeting efforts were made to Ellen received her Conditional Pardon in 1847 and Butencourage Ellen was Aboriginal not to people be tamed. Back in the Factory for disappeared from the records. to leave their children at the abscondingAboriginal school yet again, or native she was charged with ‘indecent institution at Parramatta. behaviour during divine service’ and received Visit the Cascades Female Factory Historic another two months in the Crime Class, for a month I Site to gain a sense of what convict women of that to sleep in solitary. Exasperated masters laid experienced. yet more charges, including ‘dancing in a public house’ in 1834. Two years later she and a group of 16 Degraves Street, South Hobart other women in the Factory known as the Flash Mob 03 6233 6656 attacked Mrs Hutchinson, putting her in fear of her www.femalefactory.org.au life. For this Ellen, described as ‘the ringleader of a Open daily

AMAZING STORIES, EPIC HISTORY

14

Find out more at Caroline Chisholm A

B C

THIS PAGE: A. The dining hall, Randwick Asylum, 1890. Source: The Illustrated Sydney News. B. Gold Rush, Ballarat c.1875. Courtesy of the National Museum of Australia. C. Portrait of Caroline Chisholm by Thomas Fairland. Courtesy of the National Library of Australia, nla.cat-vn1886149. D. Kew Mental Asylum, Melbourne, built D 1871. Courtesy of Heritage Victoria. E. Catherine Helen Spence (1825–1910) c1880. First woman to run for public office in Australia and a tireless supporter of orphaned children. Courtesy of the State Library of South Australia. B7106 F. Small gold minehead without shelter and seven miners, Gulgong. Courtesy of the State Library of NSW. Digital Order No. a28273022.

Link courtesy of Culture Victoria. The Caroline Chisholm Scrapbook with Moya McFadzean. E F 15

1850–1890 SNAPSHOT

y the end of the 1850s the colonies of Victoria The large number of neglected or ‘criminal’ children and Queensland had separated from New in Melbourne led to the government establishment of South Wales and convict transportation was industrial and reform schools. These schools reflected Bcoming to an end. The discovery of gold an approach to the care of children which focused on caused a massive influx of migrants, with the employment readiness and separation of children from population of the east coast of Australia reaching undesirable influences in society. Religious orders over one million by the end of decade. established orphanages or homes as places of refuge for women and children. The barracks style of care for The massive increase and movements in population children was criticised and an alternative ‘boarding during the Gold Rush saw an increase in the number out’ with families was proposed. Boarding out was of those requiring care, and a change in how it was introduced in the 1870s. provided. The exodus of men to the gold fields left deserted mothers and children dependent on Consequently the institutions that previously housed government and charitable welfare at home, while children in care were closed or given over for the those who travelled to the gold fields also required care of the increasing number of mentally ill patients care. Infrastructure was needed to provide care for and the aged, andJournal infirm of the Australian including Catholic ex-convict Historical Society and migrants. Immigrant societies were established and ticket-of-leave convictsof the workrooms, who had told no to change other their means clothes, ofthey were given a small suitcase which contained all their possessions, they were given £1 00. and colonial governments built immigration depots where support. shown the door . These girls were just dumped on the street just a few days newly arrived migrants were provided accommodation, before their 18th birthday, they were not given a chance to tell the other 60 sick wards and employment services. girls they were leaving . (That conflicts with the statement of the Mother Prioress at Ashfield in 1954, that women who left the home to take jobs outside were given new clothing and a minimum of £30.61)

G H I

Machine room, Good Shepherd convent laundry, Ashfield, 1918 THIS PAGE: Good Shepherd Archives, Abbotsford G. Buildings at the Dunwich Where the girls came from Benevolent Institution, North To understand experiences in the homes, it is necessary to have some idea of where Stradbroke Island, c.1935. the girls came from, what had happened to them and why they were confined there. Courtesy of the State Library of The visitor to Tempe in 1890 (when it still had more of the character of a refuge than a reformatory), reports: Queensland, record number 273307. 60 Australian Senate, Forgotten Australians: A report on Australians who experienced H. Destitute Asylum, Adelaide. institutional or out-of-home care as children (2004), http://www.aph.gov.au/ Courtesy of the National Trust, Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Community_Affairs/Completed_ South Australia under Creative inquiries/2004-07/inst_care/report/index, submission 93 (Report section 4.101). Commons 3.0 licence. 61 ‘They get no pay but are mostly contented’, Sun-Herald 12/9/1954. 82 I. Machine room, Good Shepherd Convent Laundry, Ashfield, 1918. Photo provided courtesy of Good Shepherd Archives, Abbotsford, Victoria. J. Shearing at New Norcia, reproduced with the permission of the Archives of the Benedictine Community of J New Norcia, Accession Number 73469P. 16

Find out more at Great Ocean Road and Oswald Barnett Collection A

B C D

THIS PAGE: A. First World War returned veterans. Massage Ward on a verandah at Rosemont repatriation general hospital, 1918. Courtesy of the Australian War Memorial, HO2258. B. First World War returned veterans. Anzac Hostel Ward, 1919. Courtesy of Australian War Memorial. Photo ID number H13066. C. St Vincent’s de Paul’s Orphanage, Adelaide. Creator Sweet, Samuel White, 1825–1886. Courtesy of the National Library of Australia. PIC 3176/17 LOC Album 951/nla.obj- 144218224 D. One of the original front gates from the Kinchela Aboriginal Boys Training Home, established in 1926. Photo credit: Katie Shanahan. Courtesy of the National Museum of Australia. E. Kew Mental Asylum, Melbourne. Courtesy of Heritage Victoria. Link courtesy of the State Library of Victoria. Stories provided by Culture Victoria. Oswald Barnett Collection. E 17

1890–1940 SNAPSHOT

fter Federation, the responsibility for the The concept of direct payments to those in need provision of welfare services continued developed. Aged and invalid pensions were established to be administered within the states and by the Australian Government in 1908 and 1910. By 1911 Awas increasingly the work of voluntary, each state had established a government department charitable or religious organisations. for the care, management and protection of children. These departments had the authority to rescue children The economic depressions of the 1890s and again in from physical and moral harm and take them into the 1920s saw a change in people’s attitudes to the the care of the state. Throughout the early twentieth poor. The weight and impact of economic and social century, state governments strengthened their roles as change outside of an individual’s control meant that the guardians of an ever widening group of children. idea of ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ poor no longer seemed reasonable to apply. The inability of existing Religious and charitable organisations continued charity infrastructure to cope with the number of to assert their influence and control through the people in need during the depressions paved the way establishment of a range of services and institutions for a national welfare system. for the homeless, the unemployed, prisoners, single mothers, orphans and women. Institutions included children’s homes, reformatories, orphanages and industrial schools licensed to accept wards of the state.

F G H

THIS PAGE: F. Imposing administrative building of the Ipswich Hospital for the Insane, 1914. Courtesy of the State Library of Queensland, record number 169975. G. Oswald Barnett. Courtesy of Department of Human Services, Victoria. Barnett was instrumental in the campaign for public housing in Victoria. H. Workers on the Great Ocean Road, c.1925. Courtesy J of Museum Victoria, image reg no. MM7085. I. Housing conditions, 1936, Melbourne. Courtesy of Culture Victoria. Oswald Barnett Collection. J. Sydney, NSW, a family reunion outside Randwick Military Hospital (later known as the Prince of Wales Hospital). Courtesy of Australian War Memorial, id number h18785. K. Eight Hour Day procession, Newcastle, NSW, 1913. Courtesy of the Australian National University, Digital collections – http://hdl.handle. net/1885/2442227.

I K 18

Find out more at Bonegilla and Find and Connect A

B C

THIS PAGE: A. A girl making a bed in a dormitory at the Home of the Good Shepherd girl’s home, Ashfield, 8 October, 1963, J.A. Mulligan. Courtesy of the National Library of Australia, nla.pic-an24494479. B. Women outside Trades Hall in Melbourne 1969, Courtesy of ACTU Worksite, worksite. actu.org.au, http://worksite.actu.org.au/equal- pay-equal-value/. C. Hermannsburg Historic Precinct. Rt53171. Hermannsburg Mission (1877–1982). Australian Heritage photographic library. Courtesy of the Department of the Environment. D. Bonegilla Migrant Camp – Block 19. Rt 53171. Photographer Maloney, K. Australian Heritage photographic library. Courtesy of the Department of the Environment. Link courtesy of Find & Connect D 19

1940–1972 SNAPSHOT

he social impacts of the Second World War By the 1970s many thousands of Aboriginal and Torres had a shaping influence on the Australian Strait Islander children, over many generations, had Government and its role in providing care been removed from their families. Tand support for Australians in need. The Australian Government increasingly took control Post-war migrants required extensive assistance on and responsibility for the provision of welfare their arrival in Australia. European migrants were sent payments, with state governments responsible for to Bonegilla Migrant Camp in Victoria on their arrival. the provision of welfare services. Men were required to work ‘as directed’ for two years as part of their assisted migration. The Australian Within the period between 1941 and 1945 for example Government established the Commonwealth Hostels the Australian Government introduced a number of Ltd to build and manage hostels. benefits including the payment of child endowment, pensions for widows and deserted wives, and Some of the aged care homes established in the 1800s unemployment and sickness benefits. for the poor were still being used for this purpose by the end of the Second World War. Charitable societies Despite an extended period of economic growth, began to focus attention on building aged care ‘villages’. the number of children living in out-of-home care The Australian Government introduced subsidies to increased. Boarding out or fostering of children providers of these homes. continued but there was an increasing number of homes, both state and charity run, catering to a variety of children’s needs. A growing awareness of the effects of institutional care on children led to the development of cottage homes or group homes for children in need of care. 20

Find out more at Australia’s Community Heritage website (Search under > Benevolent Institutions) A

THIS PAGE: A. Elsie Walk launch, Glebe, 28 May 2012. Courtesy of Clover Moore, Lord Mayor of Sydney. Tribute to first women’s safe house established in 1974. B. Medicare is the publicly funded universal health care scheme in Australia. C. Street scene in a residential area of Darwin after Cyclone Tracy, December 1974. Creator Alan Dwyer. Courtesy of the National Library of Australia. PIC/8827/22 LOC nla.pic-vn3112074 Online access/nla.obj-148903700 B

C 21

1972–2001 SNAPSHOT

n the early 1970s, successive Australian In time, a number of enquiries were established that governments introduced reforms that reflected argued against removing children from their families new ways of thinking about access to education, and further urged that support be given to families Ihealth and social welfare. Universal health care to stay together. They also argued that if keeping the was introduced. The supporting mother’s benefit family together was not possible then foster care was introduced. The ‘poverty line’, the level of was the preferred alternative for the child. Most of income below which people would not be living at the states abandoned their care facilities, with non- an acceptable standard for Australian society, was government agencies providing services, including established. It became a fundamental measure of arranging foster care. Some larger scale facilities the how well or not social security was supporting however, continued to operate until the 1990s in families and pensioners for the next 40 years. New South Wales.

In 1969 Australian women were granted equal This era saw a newly found emphasis on the location pay. The concept of a ‘social wage’, including both and servicing of welfare needs at the community level. superannuation and universal health care, was Municipal services as well as local support and interest introduced into wage bargaining to contain wage groups began to see a role for themselves in supplying growth and inflation. services in response to local need.

The 1970s saw the closure of most of Australia’s benevolent institutions. Children’s homes and homes for people with a mental illness or people with a disability were closed down. In 1992 all State and territory governments agreed to work towards providing as much mental health care as possible outside of the institutional setting.

The number of Australians with significant vision loss will increase to 350,000 by 2020. Guide Dog Australia is an advocacy and services agency helping people with vision impairment or blindness

Disability advocate David Foran with his guide dog Oliver; Melbourne, 2015 Courtesy of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Library Sales 22

REFLECTIONS AND NEXT STEPS

REFLECTIONS • The history associated with benevolent and other • Further work is indicated to improve our care institutions is complex. Our understanding of understanding of the heritage of places associated places associated with this theme needs to take into with the theme. For example further work on the account the complexity of the trends and patterns following topics would be beneficial: of change and their entanglement and layering with other influences. • places associated with the post-World War Two period • Places associated with this theme can generate mixed emotions and responses. For example, a • places associated with mainstream services visit to some places may arouse feelings of sorrow, for Aboriginal people confusion and anger but also include feelings of • objects, collections and life stories familiarity and gratitude. Perhaps the significance of these places relates to all these responses and to • the intersecting history of immigration and the way these places act as signposts to the other structural demographic changes way Australians have cared for each other in the past and today. • mutual self-help societies and societies for particular ethnic groups • Oral histories and objects are an important aspect of the heritage associated with this theme. • the work of people of importance mentioned in the history essay

• the role and influence of the nation-wide Benevolent Society.

Note: reflections are those of the authors only and may not reflect the views of the Australian Government.

NEXT STEPS The Australian Heritage Council will be using this research to inform its on-going assessments of places for entry on the National Heritage List and Commonwealth Heritage List.

Geelong Infirmary and Benevolent Asylum Courtesy of the Geelong District Website, http://zades.com.au/gannd/index.php/geelong/people/gdghosp, Wynd Collection 23

Find out more at Australia’s Community Heritage website