by Diane Tronc (guest author) on 1 June, 2011
Silky Oaks Children’s Home was founded by the Open Brethren and first opened in Toowong, Brisbane, Queensland in 1940. In 1946 the Home was relocated to Manly. Former Silky Oaks resident Diane Tronc shares historical photos of the Home, her foster family and the Silky Oaks Reunion in May 2011.
by Gabrielle Short (guest author) on 27 May, 2011
Gabrielle Short has organised a reunion of former inmates from the Winlaton Youth Training Centre. The reunion will take place at Open Place in Melbourne on 29 October 2011.
Gabbi has announced:
We are holding a reunion for all those who spent time in Winlaton Youth Training Centre October 29th 2011. I think this will be a great opportunity to catch up with old friends and take a trip down memory lane. I’m sure there will be plenty of interesting stories to tell good & bad. Most of us were put there for no fault of our own, most of us were only running away from the system itself that failed to care for us in other homes, some because of being exposed to moral danger, some as a result of rape, pregnancy, poverty, the list goes on. We were not the bad girls that we were lead to believe and portrayed to the public. I know a lot of girls who still to this day will talk of other homes they were in but not Winlaton because of the shame and stigma that was once attached with being in Winlaton well it’s time to hold our heads up high and be proud of who we are and the fact that we have survived and are still here to tell our stories.
11 November, 2010
Coral shares a photograph from her 2004 reunion at St Brigid’s Girls Home.
Coral and her sister were sent to St Brigid’s Girls Home, Ryde, NSW for five years when their mother had a break down after their father was killed in Malaya at the Parit Sulong Massacre.
Coral says, “I have some good memories and some bad ones but don’t carry any regrets only for the reason we were placed in there”.
