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... incarcerated and brutalised far too many young people ...

Children could be locked up in reformatories for a range of reasons – including for criminal offences, for running away from a home, for being ‘rebellious’, for being ‘in moral danger’. Girls who were victims of sexual crimes could also be incarcerated.

Children in such places were vulnerable to treatment forbidden in adult gaols and unlawful at the time.

Some children were locked up in adult psychiatric institutions – without there being a diagnosis of mental illness – for behaviour such as running away or being ‘rebellious’.

Exhibition graphic panel that reads: 'This appalling treatment of vulnerable kids has its match in prisoner of war camps. Places ... that incarcerated and brutalised far too many young people in 20th century Australia', attributed to 'Senator Andrew Murray, from his address in Parliament on the issue of an apology, March 2008, Rhodesia Fairbridge Memorial College (Children’s Home), Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), 1940s'. - click to view larger image
A sketch showing a man standing, lashing a naked boy who leans on a table. The boy has red weals across his back and red drops of blood lie on the floor underneath. The man says 'I'll teach you not to p__s off you low life good for nothing snake in the grass' The boy says 'Oh no sir, not another forty lashings'. - click to view larger image
Exhibition graphic panel that reads: 'You could look in every boy’s face and you could see the boy had left. Something else had creeped into his face. Something. You can’t explain it. But there was no boy in us any more. He had gorn,' attributed to 'Al Fletcher, describing the effect of incarceration in Westbrook Boys Home, Toowoomba, Queensland, 'Brutal', by Al Fletcher, 2010'. - click to view larger image
Black and white photo showing a line of boys marching along a concrete path. Two men stand to the side watching the boys. - click to view larger image
Exhibition graphic panel that reads: 'One day I’d decided to stab another kid ... with a fork. I figured it would get me out of Tamworth and back to another boys’ home or a mental institution. I was so desperate to get away from the place ... Luckily I snapped out of it.' attributed to 'KH, Tamworth Boys Home, Tamworth, New South Wales, 1960s, ‘Reap as you sow’, by Bernie Matthews, 'Griffith Review', May 2007'. - click to view larger image
Polaroid photograph showing a group of teenage boys sitting outside in a brick-walled courtyard. The boys sit on chairs, and most have their backs to the camera. Typewritten text below reads 'Endeavour House, Tamworth Youth Corrective Institution, Tamworth, New South Wales, 1977. Copyright State of NSW through the Department of Attorney General and Justice and reproduced with the approval of the State Library of New South Wales'. - click to view larger image
Exhibition graphic panel of black handwriting on a white background reads: 'All human rights were stripped from us. Speech, laughter, feelings and social interaction were denied. Six feet apart and eyes down at all times! Sleep on right side at all times. Twenty minute surveillances, hatch open and lights turned on. Debilitating exercises, twice daily. Routine never changes seven days a week. Never knowing time or day!', attributed to Wilma Robb. - click to view larger image
Black and white Polaroid image showing a group of teenage girls at work among a large vegetable patch inside a high bricked wall. A man stands with his hands on hips at the far end. Typed text under the photo reads: 'Girls working at Hay Institution for Girls, 1965. The conditions in this maximum security institution were reportedly more severe than those in adult prisons. The building was formerly the Hay Gaol'. 'Department of Human Services, NSW, Community Services is printed at left. - click to view larger image
Exhibition graphic panel that reads: 'IT WAS A PRISON, A CHILD'S PRISON'. - click to view larger image
Exhibition graphic panel of white text on a grey background reads 'At Hay, I experienced a sadistic, martial discipline (the Silent Treatment outlawed in the late 1800s) designed to break the human spirit ... We lost everything there. We lost our spirits. We lost our thinking and a lot lost their minds.' attributed to 'Wilma Robb Hay Institution for Girls, Hay, New South Wales, 1960s'. - click to view larger image
Colour photograph showing a woman standing in front of a large exhibition panel, talking to a visitor. The panel includes a black and white photograph of girls walking inside a brick wall. - click to view larger image
A colour photo of a dark haired doll wearing a bridal dress and veil. - click to view larger image
An image of a newspaper article 'Reports of 'Pitiful Screaming' from Girls' Home', 'Riverine Grazier', Hay, New South Wales, Friday 10 August 1962. The article reads 'Reports from residents of East Hay stated that 'pitiful screams' had been heard last Saturday from the Girls Institution, established a year ago in Hay. This week the Department of Child Welfare acknowledged that such screams did take place, but that 'her screams were not caused by ill-treatment but were an example of a previously common pattern of response from this girl when frustrated or subjected to ordinary stress'. The Department sets out more fully in a statement the purpose and objects of the training at the Institution for Girls at Hay.' - click to view larger image
Exhibition graphic panel that reads: 'Australia has a powerful and long history of locking up anyone inconvenient ... it is something we need to be aware of', attributed to 'Maree Giles, 2011, Parramatta Girls Home, 1960s'. - click to view larger image
Colour photograph of three keys attached to a ring and embossed leather tab. - click to view larger image
Exhibition graphic panel that reads: 'My body still remembers all the shame of what I witnessed, And the corrosive, all-pervasive acid-urine smell of fears. I was thirteen years.', attributed to 'Barbara Lane, Incarcerated in Osler House, the locked adult female psychiatric ward, Wolston Park Psychiatric Hospital, Queensland, 1980s'. - click to view larger image
At right is a Polaroid photograph framed by a door, looking through to a low wooden bed base and a barred window. Typed text below reads 'The room Rhonda Trivett occupied as a teenager at Osler House, the locked adult female psychiatric ward of Wolston Park Psychiatric Hospital, Brisbane, 2008'. - click to view larger image
Exhibition graphic panel that reads: 'Every night ... waiting, just waiting, as afraid as ever and terrified ... not knowing if I was going to be the next dead person; just waiting for somebody to come in and rape, bash and probably knock me out.' attributed to 'Rhonda Trivett, Osler House, Wolston Park Psychiatric Hospital, Queensland, 1970s'. At right is a Polaroid photograph framed by a door, looking through to a low wooden bed base and a barred window. Typed text below reads 'The room Rhonda Trivett occupied as a teenager at Osler House, the locked adult female psychiatric ward of Wolston Park Psychiatric Hospital, Brisbane, 2008'. - click to view larger image
Blurred colour photograph showing a side view of a young girl looking through a wire mesh fence. - click to view larger image
Exhibition graphic panel of white text in capital letters on a grey background reads 'Hay institution ... more of a mental concentration camp than a reform school.' attributed to 'Submission 111, Senate Inquiry, 2004'. - click to view larger image
Inside: Life in Children’s Homes series
  • Last updated: 14 February 2012
  • 5 programs
Compelling accounts of life in Australian children's homes and institutions, shared as part of the National Museum's Inside exhibition.

Explore more on Inside

View more
Outside the gates
Apology and unfinished business
Historical overview
About the exhibition
Personal stories

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Defining Moments
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