- From
- 1911
Cootamundra, New South Wales, Australia - To
- 1986
Cootamundra, New South Wales, Australia - Occupations
- Training institution
Summary
Cootamundra Home began as the Cootamundra hospital, in operation from 1897 to 1910, and reopened in 1911 as the Cootamudra Domestic Training Home for Aboriginal Girls. It was maintained by the Aborigines Welfare Board until 1968. This was the place where Aboriginal girls were placed after forcible removal from their parents under the Aborigines Protection Act of 1909. The idea was to segregate 'part-Aboriginal' children from their families and assimilate them into the mainstream community. The girls were not allowed to remain in any contact with their families, and were later sent to work as domestic servants. The building that housed the Home was later taken over by the Aboriginal Evangelical Fellowship as a Christian vocational, cultural and agricultural training centre called Bimbadeen College.
Sources used to compile this entry: Horton, David (ed.). The Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia, Vol. 1, Aboriginal Studies Press for AIATSIS, Canberra, 1994, p. 228.
Are there records of the names of all the girls that went through this home. There is talk that my grandmother, Freda Hardy (then Rodgers) went there but it may well have been her mother.
David Hardy - 27 February 2011, 5:12 PM EST
horrible...
i hate to think what my great grandparents went through
lisa - 14 March 2011, 12:19 PM EST
my mother and her sisters were all taken from nan and they lost there family link. I was taken away also at 22mths. It not right what we had too go thru.
Rosslyne McLean - 26 May 2011, 10:31 AM EST
Hi my mother was also taken away at the age of 7 and placed in this home, this would have been some where between the late 40s or the late 50s till the ealy 60s, she was about 18 when she left the home. Her name was Pamela Elizabeth Young.
I am also enquiring into wheather or not there was any records kept. My mother would often speak of her grandmother, whose name was Rose I think??? She was very fond of this lady and had a bond between them that could not be broken she could even remember the day when she had passed away,
she was always very proud of this of her grandmother, I think her mums name was Dawn, but I may have them both mxed up. It saddens me to know that because of the assimalation process I myself, my sisiters, and our children will never get the right to know who our family was on the NSW side as this was taken way from us, I class myself and my children to be part of the stolen generation. Could someone please reply, it would be greatly appreciated.
Maureen Crothers - 27 June 2011, 4:02 PM EST
Maureen, contact the Family Records Unit, NSW Dept of Aboriginal Affairs, Level 13, Tower B, Centennial Plaza, 280 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills, NSW 2010. its website is: www.daa.nsw.gov.au
AWAP Administrator - 7 July 2011, 1:10 PM EST
For my step mother Jill Dodwell (nee Smart), I am trying to contact Fay Smith who was at the Cootamundra Aboriginal Girls Home and worked as a house keeper at Mum's Grandmother's place - "Granny" Makeham of Nangus, near Gundagai NSW (I'm not sure what Granny's Christian name was). Mum has fond memories of Fay. They are around the same age. My step mother was born in 1945.
John Dodwell - 27 December 2011, 11:06 PM EST