This site was last updated 02/28/03
From Hospital to Home to Infamy
It would seem that when the Hospital on the Hill closed its doors nothing was done to utilize it. Many Aboriginal people may wish that it had never been opened again. But in 1911 opened it was. The first of many decades of children, whom were stolen from parents and guardians. There are some today including our Prime Minister, John Howard, who say they were not stolen. To steal, the act of taking something that you either have no right to or is not yours.
In a country where the various traditional people did not exist then how can you steal from them as they did not exist. And when a Government enacts law that says "I am only thinking of you", "we are only looking after the best interest of the child" then it is possible that you can legitimize many barbarous acts.
While the home from time to time did have the occasional boy they were not kept at Cootamundra for long periods. The home was given credit to conduct a School on the property in 1913, as it was not acceptable to school Aboriginal children in the main line schools. It was not until the late 1940s that girls from the home were sent to the town's Public School.
The children came predominately from NSW and Victoria. They ranged in age from babies to fifteen year olds. As they approached those early teenage years they were placed in domestic service in homes and on farming properties.
The capacity of the home seems to be in the 40s in number. The daily regime included schooling, sewing, cooking, domestic work, growing vegetables and looking after a dairy. There are many stories how there was insufficient funds. This meant that the girls were hungry and poorly clothed.
The Aboriginal Protection Board's Dawn Magazine always took care to show "Happy" smiling faces. Yet in 1956 you find the girls referred to as "inmates", is it possible this is a more accurate view of Government policy. In 1960 the magazine reports,
"Each home has facilities for the care of up to 50 children between the ages of 6 and 15 years, and the training given the children at these homes is designed to fit them to take their place in the community at the appropriate time, and to acquit themselves as good and useful citizens."
It would be still another seven years before citizenship was afforded Aboriginal people.
The scares of such places as these is deeply embedded in the "inmates" and their descendants for many years still to come.
