Parramatta Girls’ Training School
Location
North Parramatta
NSW Australia
Provider
Date Opened
Date Closed
Location
1 Fleet Street
Parramatta NSW
Australia
Provider: NSW Government
Year Opened: 1817
Year Closed: 1974
Parramatta Girls’ Training Home was the name given in 1912 to the former Parramatta Girls’ Industrial School. It accommodated around 160 to 200 older girls at a time. The girls had been charged with crimes, or committed by welfare organisations. In 1946, after a public controversy, its name changed again to the Parramatta Girls’ Training School.
For further information about this Home, please refer to: Connecting Kin: Guide to Records.
Related News Articles
State and the Child – Ills of Parramatta School Poor care of state wards, 3 February 1944 (The Sydney Morning Herald written by Mary Tenison-Woods)
Abuse history is back to haunt NSW, 28 February 2014 (SBS News)
It was once home to thousands of prisoners – now it’s set to be Sydney’s next museum, 1 December 2021 (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Website Regarding this Home: http://www.parragirls.org.au/
CLAN Homes – Orphanages Gallery
Related Australian Orphanage Museum items:
Framed Black and white photograph photo of Parramatta Girls’ Training School in the 1930s
Leather wallet with ‘JB‘ initials on front
Cardboard calendar made by Jenny at school, reindeer and tree on front, 1950s
Laminated cardboard bookmark with tassel – ‘ILWA (I Love Worship Adore) Parramatta G.T.S. Est. 1887 Closed 1974 by Ivy Getchell’
(Bookmark made by Ivy whilst at Parramatta Girls’ Training School)
To view more items related to Parramatta Girls’ Home, click here
CLAN library books (where this Home is mentioned)
N 224
Childhood abuse, abandonment, maternal rejection, scandalous treatment under the guise of care in notorious juvenile institutions and life on the streets of Kings Cross are just part of the extraordinary tapestry that is the life of Australian singer and entertainer, Sharyn Crystal. The Inconvenient Child is a gritty account of Sharyn’s life, beginning as an abandoned child of mixed race, and her struggle to survive in an often hostile white society, her journey to success as a singer and her remarkable quest to find her African-American father on the other side of the world.
N 174
This is the story of a Sydney family forced to repeat the most painful lessons in its own history. Vicki griffin was described as uncontrollable from the age of twelve. She spent many months in remand centres including the notorious Parramatta Girls’ home. By thirteen she had given up school, by fourteen she was pregnant and by the age of fifteen she was a mother. Read her incredible journey full of raw honesty and emotion.
N 434
The intensely moving tale of a young girl’s experience of isolation and rejection.
Fourteen-year-old Ellen Russell runs away from home, from her nagging mother and mean stepfather, and goes and lives with her boyfriend, Robbie. Robbie is mean too, but it’s still more fun than home. Things seem better until Ellen is arrested for running away and, considered to be in ‘moral danger’, is sentenced to a period in a reform school.
Ellen, left by her mother to suffer at the Training School for Girls, soon discovers she is pregnant and for this disgrace the staff make her life even more miserable – her only escape is her dreams and writing poetry. When the baby is born it is taken away against Ellen’s will.
A poignant and powerful novel inspired by Maree Giles’ experience at the infamous Parramatta Girls’ Home. The graffiti on the holding room wall says it all: ‘Gunyah is hell on earth’. And Ellen’s about to find out why.
The memoir of one of the 500,000 forgotten Australians who were institutionalised, neglected and abused during the 20th century. She is an inspiring example of how inner strength and determination are vital factors in overcoming adversity and transforming hardship into happiness. By (author) Ivy Getchell.
By Joy Hill