1

The Randwick Asylum for Destitute Children: A snapshot

of Australian Childcare
By Reanna Kissell

[below] Sketch of Randwick Asylum, n.d,

by Anon, courtesy of Randwick City
Library.

Humble Beginnings:

[above] Destitute Children's Asylum

Randwick Sydney, N.S.W 1866, by Freeman
Bros & Prout, 1866, courtesy of Melbourne
Public Library.

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.

The 1861 census of New South Wales

offers insight into the issues of
overcrowding and high mortality rates.
This record shows that women made up
43.43 percent of the population, with 13.8
percent of the population consisting of
children under the age of ten.viii Alongside
this, a mere 4.03 percent of women lived
to be the age of 25-30.ix It is significant to
note that of the female population 26.5
percent were unmarried with a further 1.6
percent registered as widows.x The source
notes that Aboriginals, Chinese and other
immigrants were excluded from the
census, suggesting that the statistics were
much higher than portrayed. In agreement
with Tony Birch, Australian colonial
history has a lack of transparencyxi as a
result of much of its racial segregation.

[below] Children of the Destitute Asylum,

n.d., by Anon. Courtesy of the Randwick City
Library.

This further relates to the

historiographic approach
needed for archives that
acknowledges what is
presented and brings to light
what is hidden.xii Thus,
though the census shows that
a mere 879 women were
noted to be receiving public
support due to economic
hardship, retrospectively this
seems inaccurate. xiii The
census helps to highlight the
environment of New South
Wales at this time that led to
the necessity of institutions of charity, with
the limitations of its primary evidence as
insight into the reality of conditions
needed to form an accurate local history of
the Asylum.
The Institution in the Spotlight:
The ways in which the Asylum was
presented in the media is a significant
contributor to the way childcare
institutions of the time were received
within the local community. For instance
the industrial education given to the
children was presented as a way to reclaim
them from a state of wretchedness or
vicexiv to benefit and further the interests
of the societyxv as a whole. Ramsland
criticises the institutions batch-livingxvi
claiming that it was militaristic and
desensitised, which is supported within
newspapers of the time that write of issues
of overcrowding and neglect. For instance
in The Sydney Morning Herald one article
writes that eleven children had been
smothered in one monthxvii with crowded
beds injurious to health.xviii In contrast to
this, The Evening News Sydney in 1872
notes that 805 children were inmates in the
noble and beneficent institution. xix The
discrepancy between newspaper articles of
the period suggest that public opinion was

[above] The Dining Hall, by Anon c.1909, courtesy of Randwick

City Library.

not unified on the issue, with a lack of

transparency in regards to the care and
losses of the institution as its rising
demands contributed to the high infant
mortality and created a negative effect of
large residential care institutions.
The notion of selective philanthropy is
one of the key criticisms that Randwick
Asylum is targeted for, alongside many of
its neighbouring city based institutions.
Selective philanthropy relates to the bias
and discriminatory choice of whom the
society wished to help or dismiss.
Historian Anne OBrien offers significant
insight into this through her focus on
colonial understandings of
respectability.xx What is meant by this is
that charitable institutions such as
Randwick often had a selection criteria
which indicated who was most deserving
of assistance. For instance though it is
claimed that Randwick housed children of
varying nationalities, OBrien argues that
they did not exist in large enough numbers
to be identifiable as a group.xxi Records of
the official register of inmates does not
indicate race or reasons for entering the
institution. xxii The incomplete nature of
archival evidence highlights the need to

consider differing forms of

historical evidence such as
photographs and
newspaper articles.
Alongside this the absence
of specificity in such
records suggest minorities
within Australia at the
time such as Aboriginals
and Chinese immigrants
were not prioritised or
properly acknowledged as
part of the philanthropic
agenda. Many of the
current archival photos available actively
[above] Anon., Destitute children working in the Destitute
Childrens Asylum, n.d. c. 1909. Courtesy of Randwick City
commentate on the racial agenda intertwined
Library.
with the philanthropic intentions of The
Benevolent Society through a lack of
multicultural inmates present in staged images. This coincides with historians Tanya Evans
and Patricia Curthoys who write that such organisations had "flexible notions of deserving
and underserving poor".xxiii It is important to note that Randwick Asylums annual general
meeting was published in The Sydney Morning Herald, though it is difficult to discern the
legitimacy of statistics and claims, further adding to the absence of transparency from such
institutions at the time. OBrien further adds to this point by highlighting the tendency of
such institutions to write for a selective audience of subscribers and government officials to
present themselves as balancing sympathy and discipline.xxiv This navigation of the press
allowed much of the Asylums support to continue through a deliberately constructed image
of charity and success.
Waning support and pointing the blame:
Though there was initial support for the institutions, by the 1860s Randwick Asylum became
scrutinised in different ways. To a considerable extent this was the result of public discourse
surrounding the communitys response to education and those labelled as destitute, as
numbers continued to increase within the colonies. Newspapers offer the greatest insight into
such discourse although limited when considered singularly. Photographs alongside selected
articles reiterate the constructed image of the Asylum allowing a more sufficient analysis to
occur. The Sydney Morning Herald is one key example of the local responses to the growing
difficulties within the community. One article written by Richard Sadleir criticises the
insufficiency of the industrial education offered in New South Wales and stresses the
growing need to have both industrial and reformatory schooling that differed from the free
schoolsxxv of the Asylums in the area. He writes of a hopeless generation,xxvi arguing that a
growth in education would assist in the development of modern improvementsxxvii in the
branches of colonial industry.xxviii What is meant by this is that Sadleir alike other members
of the community sought to seek beneficial answers to the issue of pauperism through
education, differing from the Asylum institutions which acted merely as a temporary solution
to a long term issue. At the conclusion of Sadleirs article, he mentions a petition seeking for

any system of education to include a larger

reformatory element within institutions that
adequately improved the livelihood of the destitute.
Thus, there existed a growing opposition toward the
States response to the destitute children within
Sydney, offering insight into discourses that led to the
1880 Education Act which denoted mandatory
schooling.xxix
The extent of the Asylums difficulties question the
role of state and national involvement in welfare and
childcare. In Nicola Atwool and Elizabeth
Fernandezs opinion the States involvement in issues
regarding the children of the working class was a
"highly interventionist approach"xxx that relied on
institutional care as the key method of solution. In
agreement to this Patricia Curthoys and Tanya Evans
[above] Richard Sadlier article, Industrial
Institutions, in Sydney Morning Herald, 27 Jan.
highlight that the states methods led to the poor being
xxxi
1860.
significantly dependent on charity organisations. The
Randwick Asylums Memorial Garden situated on the
grounds of the current Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick offers an enduring reflection of
the states response. In a recent excavation of the lot, 174 child remains were found in a mass
grave, with many identified as previous inmates to the Asylum.xxxii The state government
records note that 216 children died at the Asylum, with 77 alone from an 1867 case of
whooping cough that affected the community.xxxiii The Memorial and its May 2000 reinterment ceremony reflects a growing need for the local community to remember its past and
the role of childcare in Australia in creating the present identity and foundations of state
involvement toward those in need.
A watershed of change:
The public responses to the treatment of the children at Randwick Asylum gradually
instigated change in the development of education and care for those in need. The period
between 1860-1870 shows a growing need to alter the methods used to improve the
livelihoods of the colonial working class in an atmosphere of industrial change and hardship.
Though no singular event took place to shift the way childcare institutions operated in New
South Wales, the combination of public discourse and state criticisms led to the development
of alternative methods to combat the colonial issues of poverty. From 1877 children received
a state education run by the Council of Education,xxxiv as well as the 1881 State Children
Relief Act that began the process of boarding out destitute children to Australian homes that
offered a more family-centred upbringing. The Randwick Memorial further shows the lasting
effect of Randwick Asylum on the perception of childcare as a significant aspect of
Australian identity. The history of Randwicks hardship and neglect remains incomplete
though the exploration of newspapers, images and archives forms a conduit to moments in
the past that showed a need for change that has proven retrospectively to be significant.

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

Ibid. para. 22.

ABS. 1861.
ix
ABS. 1861.
x
ABS. 1861.
xi
Tony Birch, History is never bloodless: Getting it wrong after one hundred years of
federation, Australian Historical Studies, 33/118 (2002), 43.
xii
Lucy Faire, (ed.), Research Methods for History (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press,
2012), 14.
xiii
ABS. 1861.
xiv
Institution for the relief of Destitute Children, Sydney Morning Herald, 17 Oct. 1855, 2,
in Trove [online database], accessed 16 Sep. 2015.
xv
Ibid. 2.
xvi
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.
xvii
Legislative Assembly: Benevolent Asylum, Sydney Morning Herald, 17 Dec, 1859, 7, in
Trove [online database], accessed 19 Sep. 2015.
xviii
Ibid. 7.
xix
The Randwick Asylum for Destitute Children, Evening News Sydney, 29 Jan, 1872, 3, in
Trove [online database], accessed 22 Sep. 2015.
xx
Anne OBrien, Philanthropy and Settler Colonialism, 70.
xxi
Ibid. 63.
xxii
SRNSW: NRS 13362.
xxiii
Patricia Curthoys and Tanya Evans, Family History, Identity and Public History: Writing
a history of The Benevolent Society in its 200th year, Journal of Australian Studies, 37/3
(2013), 288.
xxiv
Anne OBrien, Philanthropy and Settler Colonialism, 16.
xxv
Richard Sadleir, Industrial Institutions, Sydney Morning Herald, 27 Jan. 1860, 2, in
Trove [online database], accessed 15 Sep. 2015.
viii

Richard Sadleir, Industrial Institutions, Sydney Morning Herald, 27 Jan. 1860, 2, in

Trove [online database], accessed 15 Sep. 2015.
xxvi

Richard Sadleir, Industrial Institutions, Sydney Morning Herald, 27 Jan. 1860, 2, in

Trove [online database], accessed 15 Sep. 2015.
xxvii

Richard Sadleir, Industrial Institutions, Sydney Morning Herald, 27 Jan. 1860, 2, in

Trove [online database], accessed 15 Sep. 2015.
xxviii

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.
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http://acmssearch.sl.nsw.gov.au/search/itemDetailPaged.cgi?itemID=152592 >,
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Institution for the relief of Destitute Children, Sydney Morning Herald, 17 Oct. 1855, 2, in
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Prout, Freeman Bros., Destitute Children's Asylum Randwick Sydney, N.S.W 1866, 1866,
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The Randwick Asylum for Destitute Children, Evening News Sydney, 29 Jan, 1872, 3, in
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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.