Connecting Kin Guide to Records A guide to help people separated from their families search for their records. Connecting Kin - Guide to Records: A guide to help people separated from their families search for their records. First edition printed September 1998 New South Wales Department of Community Services A copy of this guide is available on the web - http://www.community.nsw.gov.au/what-we-do.html No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. Written by Kristy Thinee and Tracy Bradford Cover designed by Judy Martinez, Media and Promotions Unit Cover photographs supplied by: Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS); Barbara McMullen; Burnside Heritage Centre (Blairgowrie); Link Up (NSW) Aboriginal Corporation; Wesley Mission - Dalmar Child and Family Care. ISBN 0 7310 4262 X Everyone’s identity is special to them. An essential part of that identity lies in who their parents, grandparents and siblings are and in simple information like when they were born. Foreword In recent years, there has been a push to set up an index of records that would help people separated from their families find them once again. Two years ago, a report called Origins and Identity, commissioned by the NSW Attorney GeneralÕs Department and the Department of Community Services (DOCS), examined the need for search services for people separated by adoption and other circumstances. It recommended that DOCS establish a project to locate all NSW records relating to children separated from their families since 1900. The recommendations of the Bringing Them Home report from the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families, and the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, also identified the need to index and preserve records of Indigenous children removed from their homes. The Department of Community Services took up the challenge in October 1997 and set up the Connecting Kin project to help people affected by separation find their families. That project has produced the Guide to Records, the first NSW listing of records relating to all people, both Aboriginal and nonÐAboriginal, separated from their families. It provides information about where records are kept and how to access them. DOCS is embracing its responsibility to help people separated from their families retrace their personal histories and find their kin. This guide is evidence of that commitment. I am pleased to present the Connecting Kin Guide to Records to the thousands of people affected by separation. The Hon Faye Lo PoÕ MP Minister for Community Services Minister for Ageing Minister for Disability Services Minister for Women Table of contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 1 SPECIAL INTRODUCTION 2 CAROL KENDALLÕS STORY 3 BARBARA MCMULLENÕS SEARCH 4 USING THIS GUIDE 6 ACCESS TO RECORDS 9 BRIEF HISTORY OF CHILD WELFARE IN NEW SOUTH WALES 10 CHRONOLOGY OF KEY EVENTS IN NEW SOUTH WALES CHILD WELFARE 20 MAP OF NSW 23 MAP OF SYDNEY 24 LISTING OF RECORDS 26 NSW Government Welfare Agencies 28 Non Government Agencies 80 Public Hospitals 290 NSW Government Non-Welfare Agencies 304 APPENDICES 316 Appendix 1: Services and other sources of information 318 Appendix 2: Chronological summary of Child welfare legislation in New South Wales 333 Appendix 3: Brief History of Missions in New South Wales 339 Appendix 4: Brief History of Aboriginal Reserves in New South Wales 341 Appendix 5: Definitions and abbreviations used in this Guide 373 INDEX 376 Acknowledgments Many agencies and individuals have contributed their valuable time and expertise to the preparation of the Connecting Kin Guide to Records. Sincere thanks are due to: The Connecting Kin Advisory Committee members: Margaret Oldfield, Denise Dwyer, John Sharman, Doug Jamieson, Harvey Milson, Rodney Ella, Martyn Killion, Heather Garnsey, Daryl Lightfoot, Barry Duroux, Sue Rosen, Mari Metzke, Andrew OÕBrien and Eric Scott. Judy Martinez and Georgina Young of the Media and Promotions Unit of the Department of Community Services. Sister Daphne McKeough, Australian Conference of Leaders of Religious Institutes, for coordinating the responses of many of the Catholic orders. Barbara McMullen and Carol Kendall, for sharing with us their very private and personal experiences. Special thanks to those agencies which participated in the project: The Salvation Army; Anglicare; Charlton Youth Services; Weldon Centre; North Coast ChildrenÕs Home Inc.; St SaviourÕs Neighbourhood Centre; Bungarimbil Adolescent and Family Care Program; the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle; Wesley Mission Dalmar Child and Family Care; Burnside; Uniting Church Archives; Presbyterian Social Services; United Protestant Association; Benevolent Society of NSW; Barnardos Australia; Baptist Community Services; University of Newcastle; PROÐFAM; Centacare; all the individual Catholic Orders; Australian Conference of Leaders of Religious Institutes; Fairbridge Foundation; Sydney City Mission; Hunter Mission; Lutanda ChildrenÕs Home; Masonic Centre; Sydney Rescue Work Society; Ardill House, North Strathfield; Royal North Shore Hospital; Royal Hospital for Women; Department of Education and Training; Department of Corrective Services; Health Department; Department of Juvenile Justice; AttorneyÐGeneralÕs Department; ACT Department of Education and Community Services; LinkÐUp (NSW) Aboriginal Corporation; Federation of NonÐGovernment Agencies; Association of ChildrenÕs Welfare Agencies; State Network of Young People in Care; Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies; Australian Society of Archivists; Society of Australian Genealogists; Archives Authority of New South Wales; the National Archives of Australia; the State Library of NSW; Royal Australian Historical Society; and Professional HistoriansÕ Association. Kristy Thinee and Tracy Bradford 31 July 1998 1 Special Introduction The stories of the stolen children show us the heartbreak of being separated from your home and family and then the trauma of the search for them years later. In New South Wales, more than 100 000 children, both Aboriginal and nonÐ Aboriginal, have been made wards of the State since 1924. Thousands more have been placed with other families under adoption or other arrangements. Many former wards wanted to find their natural families but hit stumbling blocks. Some didnÕt know where to turn for information. Others simply didnÕt know they could access their personal records, to give them vital clues to their past. The Connecting Kin Guide to Records is our first attempt to give everyone who was separated from their family a head start in locating records that will help track them down. It is an important tool to help reunite potentially thousands of families by showing them where records are and how to access them. We would like to thank the Government agencies and our community partners whose help made this guide possible. It is through working in partnerships like this that we can help people put the pieces of their family puzzles together. We dedicate the Guide to Records to the generations of children separated from their families, and to their mothers, fathers and other kin. We hope they will find the connections they are searching for. Carmel Niland DirectorÐGeneral Department of Community Services 2 Carol Kendall’s story Mary Kondek had not seen her daughter, Carol Kendall, at birth I thought of her. Well all the time you do it, it just comes through your mind. YouÕd be sitting round a table having a meal. Sometimes itÕd flash through your mind that it would be nice if she were there. If youÕre out at picnics, and I used to think a lot about her when I was out in the bush on my walks. On special days like Christmas and her birthday and MotherÕs Day and all those times when children seem more special. Carol Kendall recalls her decision to search: I used to picture my natural mother as this wonderful person whoÕd be waiting with outstretched arms, waiting for me. This person, being there for me. Some people would say, ÔGee you look like so-and-soÕ and my immediate reaction would be, ÔThat could be my motherÕ, and IÕd dwell on that for days: ÔThis could be the big breakthroughÕ. The need to find my family was strongest when I was pregnant with my first child. IÕd thought about it before but I felt really strongly about it when I was carrying my first baby. I think itÕs a maternal instinct, this is mine and somewhere [else] there was something that was mine too. [I was worried] whether I was doing the right thing for my children and for myself and for my natural mother and her family. I was in real crisis for quite a few years, deciding what to do. I felt there was someone there with a loving family. You dream and you dwell on these things, but in the back of my mind I was thinking about the rejection side of it and I wasnÕt sure whether I would be able to cope with that. Mary Kondek, CarolÕs natural mother remembers: Anyone who has adopted a child out, donÕt wait for it to happen on your childÕs side Ôcause I was going to do it that way. DonÕt waste time, try and meet them somehow. ÔCause you donÕt know what theyÕve been told. You only know your own side. You donÕt know what sheÕs been led to believe all her life. IÕm so glad she had the sense to do it. IÕm very grateful to her adopting parents, but I do feel bitter about all those lost years. Link-Up (NSW) Aboriginal Corporation 3 Barbara McMullen’s search John and Barbara McMullen During my years of mothering I was awakened to the need to do my search for my origins by the questions my children would ask me. ÒWhere is your mother and father Mum?Ó. I struggled to answer as I did not know. I desperately wanted to appear O.K. because after all, here I am, a mother.