The History of Child Welfare in Australia

This exhibition room displays the History of Child Welfare in Australia from the First Fleet in 1788 until the 1980s. The main feature wall has a timeline that describes the development of Orphanages, Children’s  Homes, Missions, and Foster Care.

Artefacts on display come from Orphanages and Children’s Homes from every state in Australia. A slate tile or a brick might seem ordinary to some, but for Care Leavers, these items may be the only tangible connection to their childhood, especially if those buildings that once housed them were demolished.

         

This exhibition highlights the history of the Care Leavers Australasia Network (CLAN) and its activism to secure redress for Care Leavers. Posters from silent protests are on display, alongside items from the Royal Commission rooms, donations from commissioners and politicians involved in this work. TV reports illustrate how CLAN played a pivotal role in achieving the Senate Inquiry into the Forgotten  Australians and the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

This themed exhibition focuses on the memories of adults recalling their childhood in care. Direct quotes share personal experiences, while artefacts and photos from orphanages, children’s homes, and missions bring these stories to life. Many items have been generously donated by care leavers and may evoke memories of your own childhood.

           

On Saturday 1 April 2023, the Australian Orphanage Museum will finally open its doors and welcome guests from all over Australia to its official opening by the Deputy Prime Minister, Richard Marles.

Watch this space for photographs and reports about our long-awaited grand opening!

In July 2022, the AOM welcomed a group of Australian historians, who were attending the annual conference of the Australian Historical Association at Deakin University’s Geelong campus.

Our Lives, Our Stories Talking Back to the Records

Our Lives Our Stories: Geelong Care Leavers Talking Back to the Records is an exhibition that focuses on Geelong Orphanages and Children’s Homes and five Care Leavers who were in some of the Geelong Orphanages. Care Leavers tell what they liked, didn’t like, and what they would have wanted to know about from their childhood records.

This is the Australian Orphanage Museum’s first temporary exhibition at its new home in Ryrie Street, Geelong, and features the stories of Care Leavers who grew up in one of the region’s many children’s institutions.

Commissioned by CLAN (Care Leavers Australia Network), the exhibition was developed and written by historian Abigail Belfrage from The History Dept., with design by Megan Atkins. It explores the importance of records to people who grew up in orphanages and children’s homes, and the complexities of accessing records for Care Leavers. This has been a focus of CLAN’s advocacy for many years.

Childhood records are vitally important to Care Leavers, but they can be difficult to access. Records can also fall way short of people’s needs and expectations and give a distorted view of people, events and experiences. Care Leavers have a strong urge to “talk back” to the records of their childhoods in institutions. Listening to the voices of Care Leavers, adding memories of their lived experiences and challenging the version of the past in their records, helps to “set the record straight”.

As a microcosm of a larger story, the exhibition has a geographic focus on the thirteen children’s Homes and orphanages of Geelong, the earliest of which dates back to the 1850s. This was the most outside any capital city in Australia.

Exhibition booklet now available to purchase: Our Lives, Our Stories: Geelong Care Leavers Talking Back to their Records – Stories from an exhibition at the Australian Orphanage Museum, Geelong, June 2023

Bound copies of the exhibition booklet are now available to purchase for $20.

An accompaniment to this powerful exhibition, the publication contains full transcripts of interviews with 10 CLAN members who all spent time as children in Homes in Geelong. Contact us to get your copy.

 

 

Australian Orphanage Museum gratefully acknowledges the Local History Grants Program and Public Record Office Victoria, supported by the Victorian Government through the Community Support Fund.

 

 

 

 

Royal Historical Society of Victoria

2023 VICTORIAN COMMUNITY HISTORY AWARDS WINNERS

Commendation in the Oral History Award to Our Lives, Our Stories: Geelong Care Leavers Talking Back to their Records Abigail Belfrage, Consulting Historian with The History Dept. with the Australian Orphanage Museum Project Team Australian Orphanage Museum, 2023