The Randwick Asylum
The Randwick Asylum
The Randwick Asylum
Humble Beginnings:
The Randwick Asylum was organised by The Benevolent Society for the Relief of Destitute
Children who existed as a religious based charity group from 1852-1915. In 1858 the Asylum
opened as one of the largest charity institutions in the area whose founding Director was
Simeon Pearce, the local mayor at the time. The focus of the societys interests in health and
welfare with Simeon Pearces general support resulted in the Asylums initial praise which
remained in the early years of its being. The education of the
[below] Simeon H. Pearce, founding director
children; or inmates as they are referred to in the
of the Asylum. Image: by David Scott, c.
1880, courtesy of State Library of NSW.
newspapers of the time, consisted of religious instruction and
a basic industrial schooling that attempted to drill the
Victorian consciousnessi into them. This was not uncommon
in surrounding Asylums that also depended on British modes
of education and childcare.
Many of the institutions similar to Randwick Asylum were
restricted in their ability to achieve a significant improvement
in the livelihoods of their occupants. A majority of the
institutions were underfunded which resulted in difficulties of
acquiring staff and often left the children in their care
vulnerable to neglect and abuse.ii Randwick housed children
between the ages of 3 and 10 who were not eligible for the orphan schools in the area.
Children remained the responsibility of the institution until the age of 19, or in the case of
females until they were married at a younger age. Randwick also aimed to be self-sufficient
through utilising children from the ages of 12 to 19 as farming and household apprentices.iii
The institution was one of twenty three charity organisations founded and managed in the
areaiv that focussed on female refuges and orphanages, that removed the problem of the
destitute from the larger community. The issues of Randwick Asylum become significantly
apparent during the period between 1860-1870.
National Crisis:
In the years 1860-1870 the Randwick
Asylum for Destitute Children underwent
significant increases in its intake of
children. In The Sydney Morning Herald in
1859 it noted that the establishment
housed 160 more children over its
capacity.v Both primary and contemporary
criticism toward the states welfare
approach to pauperism and destitute
individuals within New South Wales
highlight the failure of colonial Australia
in overcoming the growing culture of
povertyvi present in the late 1800s. John
Ramsland argues the Asylum was a
middle class solutionvii to a working
class problem, reflected in the
environment of the period. Randwick
emerged during the heightened instability
of the gold rush that created an
increasingly fractured family life where
many single mothers and widows were left
to cope with insufficient
economic means to
support large families.
Concurrently, a constant
flow of immigration
from Europe;
particularly Ireland and
Britain, further strained
the states resources and
ultimately led to the
atmosphere of poverty,
particularly in the
overcrowded areas of
industrial Sydney.
Michael Hursburgh, Childcare in New South Wales in 1870, Australian Social Work, 29/1
(1976), 4.
i
Anne OBrien, Philanthropy and Settler Colonialism (England: Palgrave MacMillan, 2015),
64.
iii
SRNSW: NRS 13362.
iv
Anne OBrien, Philanthropy and Settler Colonialism, 70.
v
Legislative Assembly: Benevolent Asylum, Sydney Morning Herald, 17 Dec, 1859, 7, in
Trove [online database], accessed 19 Sep. 2015.
vi
John Ramsland, Childrens Institutions in Nineteenth-Century Sydney, Dictionary of
Sydney [website], (2011) <
http://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/childrens_institutions_in_nineteenth-century_sydney>
para. 22, accessed 30 Sep. 2015.
ii
vii
Lesley Hughes, Catholics and the care of destitute children in late Nineteenth Century
New South Wales, Australian Social Work, 51/1 (1998), 18.
xxx
Nicola Atwool and Elizabeth Fernandez, Child protection and out of home care: Policy,
practice and research connections Australia and New Zealand, Psychosocial Intervention,
22/1 (2013), 176.
xxxi
Patricia Curthoys and Tanya Evans, Family History, Identity and Public History, 291.
xxxii
SRNSW: NRS 13362.
xxxiii
Zachary M.A Barry, To the Editor of the Herald, Sydney Morning Herald, 15 May,
1867, in Trove [online database], accessed 18 Sep. 2015.
xxxiv
SRNSW: NRS 13362.
xxix
Bibliography:
Primary:
Anon., Children of the Destitute Asylum, n.d., Randwick City Library, in Trove [online
database], accessed 25Aug. 2015.
Anon., Children of the Most Children's Asylum, n.d. c. 1909, Randwick City Library, in
Trove [online database], accessed 28 Aug. 2015.
Anon., Destitute Children working in the Destitute Childrens Asylum, n.d., Randwick City
Library, in Trove [online database], accessed 1 Sept. 2015.
Anon., Randwick, n.d., Randwick City Library, in Trove [online database], accessed 30 Aug.
2015.
Anon., The Dining Hall, n.d. c. 1909, Randwick City Library, in Trove [online database],
accessed 28 Aug. 2015.
Barry, Zachary M.A., To the Editor of the Herald, Sydney Morning Herald, 15 May, 1867,
in Trove [online database], accessed 18 Sep. 2015.
Gorus, J.T., Simeon H. Pearce [image], (n.d. c. 1880) <
http://acmssearch.sl.nsw.gov.au/search/itemDetailPaged.cgi?itemID=152592 >,
accessed 21 Aug. 2015.
Institution for the relief of Destitute Children, Sydney Morning Herald, 17 Oct. 1855, 2, in
Trove [online database], accessed 16 Sep. 2015.
Legislative Assembly: Benevolent Asylum, Sydney Morning Herald, 17 Dec, 1859, 7, in
Trove [online database], accessed 19 Sep. 2015.
Prout, Freeman Bros., Destitute Children's Asylum Randwick Sydney, N.S.W 1866, 1866,
Melbourne Public Library, in Trove [online database], accessed 1 Sept. 2015.
Sadleir, Richard, Industrial Institutions, Sydney Morning Herald, 27 Jan. 1860, 2, in Trove
[online database], accessed 15 Sep. 2015.
Scott, David, Simeon H. Pearce, n.d. c. 1880, State Library of NSW, in Trove [online
database], accessed 28 Aug. 2015.
State Government of NSW: State Records; Register of inmates 1852-1915; Register of
Inmates 21 December 1865 -9 September 1874.
The Randwick Asylum for Destitute Children, Evening News Sydney, 29 Jan, 1872, 3, in
Trove [online database], accessed 22 Sep. 2015.
Secondary:
Atwool, Nicola and Fernandez, Elizabeth, Child protection and out of home care: Policy,
practice and research connections Australia and New Zealand, Psychosocial
Intervention, 22/1 (2013), 175-184.
10
Birch, Tony, History is never bloodless: Getting it wrong after one hundred years of
federation, Australian Historical Studies, 33/118 (2002), 42-53.
Curthoys, Patricia and Evans, Tanya, Family History, Identity and Public History: Writing a
history of The Benevolent Society in its 200th year, Journal of Australian Studies,
37/3 (2013), 285-301.
Faire, Lucy (ed.), Research Methods for History (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press,
2012).
Hughes, Lesley, Catholics and the care of destitute children in late Nineteenth Century New
South Wales, Australian Social Work, 51/1 (1998), 17-25.
Hursburgh, Michael, Childcare in New South Wales in 1870, Australian Social Work, 29/1
(1976), 3-24.
OBrien, Anne, Philanthropy and Settler Colonialism (England: Palgrave MacMillan, 2015).
Ramsland, John, Childrens Institutions in Nineteenth-Century Sydney, Dictionary of
Sydney [website], (2011) <
http://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/childrens_institutions_in_nineteenthcentury_sydney> para. 22, accessed 30 Sep. 2015.