Hobart Girls Training School

Operated from 1881 to 1905 at the Old Gaol Building of Anglesea Barracks.  The girls were locked in the cells each night; aged 15 – 18, they were trained to become domestic servants.  In 1905 this school merged with the Girls Industrial School which was operated by the Salvation Army, which subsequently became Maylands Girs’ Home.

The Industrial Schools’ Act and the Training Schools’ Act of Parliament was amended in 1867 to enable children “found to be begging, vagrant, in the company of reputed thieves, orphaned, deserted or declared Uncontrollable” to be admitted into the Boys’or Girl’s Industrial Schools, or in the cause of offenders, the Training Schools, or Reformatories as they became known.  The Industrial Schools were intended for children 10 years and over.

The girls go to the State school till they are 14 years old, and then receive two years instruction in cooking and domestic work.

Pres., Mrs Arthur Walch.  Vice Res., Mrs E Webster.  Hon.  Sec., Mrs H G Gray, Matron Mrs Powell.  Sub Matrons Miss Brooks and Miss Sutton.

The school is nondenominational and is supported by voluntary contributions.