Nunawading Youth Residential Centre history in brief
Leawarra Hostel, Nunawading Youth Residential Centre. Photograph taken during the closure of Nunawading Youth Residential Centre, 1993
The Nunawading Youth Residential Centre was established in 1991, on the former site of Winlaton, as a facility for 10–14-year-old male and female offenders.
The Children and Young Persons Act 1989 required that the provision of services for children and young people on protective orders be separated from those provided to young offenders in custody. The Nunawading Youth Residential Centre functioned as a youth training centre for young people sentenced to detention, and not for children placed on protection orders.
Baltara Youth Training Centre closed in 1992 and its trainees were transferred to the Nunawading Youth Residential Centre. A decrease in referrals as a result of diversion programs and community-based sentencing saw the permanent closure of the Nunawading Youth Residential Centre in 1993. Its residents were sent to the Parkville Youth Residential Centre, a new facility built on the site of the former Baltara Reception Centre.
Please note:
The Children and Young Persons Act 1989 required that the provision of services for children and young people on protective orders be separated from those provided to young offenders in custody. The Act established different divisions in the Children’s Court to completely separate child protection matters from criminal custodial matters.
The Children and Young Persons Act 1989 also replaced the terms ‘ward of state’ (introduced by the Neglected Children’s Act 1887) and ‘trainee’ (introduced by the Social Welfare Act 1960), with the new term, ‘children in need of protection’. The old terminology was phased out in the 1990s. After this, both child protection cases and sentenced young people were classified as ‘clients’, the term used today for all Victorian care leavers.
Change in terminology from ‘trainee’ to ‘client’
The Children and Young Persons Act 1989 also established the term ‘children in need of protection’, replacing old terms ‘ward of state’ (from the Neglected Children’s Act 1887) and ‘trainee’ (from the Social Welfare Act 1960). Children and young people involved with child protection and sentenced young people are now all classified as ‘clients’.
Young people who entered the youth justice system before the 1989 Act was implemented, kept their trainee case history files, but not the later Client Relationship Information System institutional files (JJ CRIS prefix). This explains why the older records continued until the late 1990s – well after the terminology had changed.
The term ‘client’ is still used for all care leavers in Victoria.
Nunawading Youth Residential Centre, 1993
Warning about distressing information
This guide contains information that some people may find distressing. If you experienced abuse as a child or young person in an institution mentioned in this guide, it may be a difficult reading experience. Guides may also contain references to previous views, policies and practices that are regrettable and do not reflect the current views, policies or practices of the department or the State of Victoria. If you find this content distressing, please consult with a support person either from the Department of Health and Human Services or another agency.
Disclaimer
Please note that the content of this administrative history is provided for general information only and does not purport to be comprehensive. The department does not guarantee the accuracy of this administrative history. For more information on the history of child welfare in Australia. For more information on the history of child welfare in Australia, see Find & .
Sources
- Archival Services agency information compiled in 1993.
- Guide to out-of-home care services 1940–2000: volume one – agency descriptions. Compiled by James Jenkinson Consulting North Melbourne.
- Information and assistance supplied by: Lauren Power, Therapeutic Interventions Coordinator, Client Services, Secure Services, North Division Department of Health and Human Services; Robyn Babbel, Senior Project Officer, Strategy and Information, Secure Services, North Division, Department of Health and Human Services; Stephanie Faulkner, Contract Archivist.
- Victorian Government Gazette, no. G 36, 18 September 1991, p. 2614 [established Nunawading Youth Residential Centre].Victorian Government Gazette, no. G 36, 18 September 1991, p. 2614 [abolished Winlaton Remand Centre and Youth Training Centre and established Nunawading Remand Centre and Youth Training Centre].
- Victorian Government Gazette, No G 30, 5 August 1993, p. 2197 [abolished Nunawading Youth Training Centre, Youth Residential Centre and Remand Centre].
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Reviewed 24 April 2019