Unknown (1992) History of children's services : the history of the Carlton Refuge from the 1850's to 1920. Crow Collection Association .

Abstract

This booklet, about a "home for unmarried mothers", describes how "some of the poor girls never had a chance, and were quite ignorant of ordinary housework". However: many of the inmates responded to the teaching, and are turned out quite good servants. All are better workers when they leave than when they are admitted. It is not uncommon to hear the remark, "I like a girl from the Refuge - they are such good laundresses." The Carlton Refuge, established in the mid 1850s, was where the Queen Elizabeth Centre now stands on the block bounded by Swanston, Keppel, Cardigan and Lytton Streets in Carlton. The report presents a pen picture of life in an institution for single mothers and the social attitudes of the "large hearted citizens" who dominated the philanthropic organisations from the mid nineteenth century until after the Second World War. The booklet has been republished to help students and community organisations to visualise the past. It is part of a series called "Just Before Living Memory". The report shows that the moral attitudes of the nineteenth century continued well into the twentieth century.

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