Ballarat Orphanage
Location
Ballarat
VIC Australia
Provider
Date Opened
Date Closed
Ballarat Orphanage
200 Victoria Street
Ballarat
VIC
Australia
Provider: Unknown
Year Opened: 1909
Year Closed: 1968
Originally called the Ballarat District Orphan Asylum, the Home was a large, two-storey Gothic-style building dating back to 1865. In 1909 the Home was given a new name – Ballarat Orphanage. The Home accommodated boys and girls from around Victoria, aged between four and 16. In 1968, the name changed to Ballarat Children’s Homes. This is now the location of Ballarat Child & Family Services.
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CLAN has members who attended this Home.
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CLAN holds some sensitive information regarding the offences committed of some of the boys that were in Ballarat Orphanage in 1882.
Related News and Other Articles
Orphanage Honor Roll, 19 January 1916 (The Ballarat Star)
Big Day for the Orphans, 10 August 1956 (Argus)
Orphanage, State Face Abuse Suit, 17th September 2002 (Age)
Long History of Suffering at Ballarat Orphanage, 16 December 2012 (Courier)
Orphanage Burial Site Claim Referred to Coroner, Police, 14 August 2013 (Courier)
Victorian Child Abuse Victims Call for Royal Commission Regional Hearings, 12 January 2015 (ABC News)
Abuse Accusations at Ballarat Orphanage, 17th July 2015 (SBS)
Two New Accusers say George Pell Abused Them When They were Boys in the 1970s, 17 July 2015 (ABC News) [dead link]
Sue Henthorn Nee Whittington-Stevens, ‘Swallowing Water It was Christmas at the orphanage And Just a Trigger Away’, The British Journal of Social Work, Volume 53, Issue 3, April 2023, pp1850–1852, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcad054
The Memo that Erased a Scandal, 24 April 2021 (ABC News)
CLAN Homes – Orphanages Gallery
click here for more photos of this Home (Members Only)
The Australian Orphanage Museum items:
Talcum Powder found on premises at Ballarat Orphanage
Two Tin money boxes from Commonwealth Bank of Australia, 1961
Paper Tole Artwork of Ballarat Orphanage made by Mavis Crawford who was there in 1948-1957
Laminated receipt to Bob Golding for Clothing Reserve for 319 pounds, 7th August 1953
Framed Boxing and Wrestling Championships Certificate, Friday October 15th 1948
Kraft Cheese Box found on Ballarat Orphanage premises, 1970s
Appointment Card found on Ballarat Orphanage premises
To view more Australian Orphanage items related to Ballarat Orphanage browse here
CLAN library books where this Home is mentioned include:
- A Century of Child Care by Ethel Morris
- Ballarat and its Benevolent Asylum by Helen W Kinloch
- Ballarat Orphanage by n/a
- Behind and Beyond The Brick Walls by Bob Golding
- Doug’s Story by Katie Cincotta
- History of the Ballarat Children’s Home Farm & Ballarat Children’s Home Primary School by n/a
- One Hundred Brothers by Joseph I Marlowe OAM
- Pictures and Paper Clippings of Ballarat Orphanage
- The Re-Discovery of the Ballarat Orphanage’s Arthur Kenny Avenue Commemorative Booklet
| VIC 81 An Orphan’s Escape – Memories of a lost childhood by Frank Golding, Thomas C. Lothian, 2005 As late as 1961, nearly seven thousand children were in the custody of Victorian institutions or under the care of the Children’s Welfare Department. Frank Golding and his two brothers were among this number. On Christmas Eve 1940, the boys – Frank (not yet three), Bob (four), and Bill (six) – found themselves on the doorstep of an orphan asylum. They were certainly not orphans, but the boys spend most of their lost childhood inside the walls of the Ballarat Orphanage. It would take Frank fifty years to learn what had been happening ‘outside the wall’ while he was inside, and what had happened to his parents, why didn’t they come for him, why wouldn’t anyone tell him…..Frank’s childhood puzzlement lasted half a lifetime. Frank finally found out that his parents deeply cared for the boys, but the battle for their children had been at a huge cost. |
VIC373 Refuge Rescue & Reform – Voices of Suffering & Survival by Dorothy Wickham & Frank Golding, BHS publishing, 2024
Australian writers tell the history of those lesser known institutions and the stories of women and children who were ‘inmates’ of these institutions.
Stories of those who have been silenced or unable to speak for themselves are truly ‘hidden’ histories. They are unpredictable, incomprehensible, and often contain amazing examples of how ‘ordinary’ people have overcome extraordinary circumstances by their courage, ingenuity, and fortitude.