AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net
The old Children’s Homes will feature prominently in the Royal Commission. This will be because of two factors. Firstly, due to a myriad of factors, the abuse rate was very high. Secondly, there have already been a few enquiries specifically concerning them. Consequently, there will not be much need to encourage people to put the “Homes” on the agenda.
What will be necessary is increased attention to the Girls’ Homes. It has been a feature of the debate on the Homes issue that most attention has been on the Boys’ Homes. It may well be that there were more victims from the Boys’ Homes than from the Girls’ Homes. However, it is the opinion of this author (whose sister was in the Salvation Army Girls’ Home in Toowoomba for many years) that there are other factors at play.
The most likely one is the difference in where abuses were most likely to occur. With the Boys’ Homes, the abusers usually worked at the Home itself. While there are exceptions, notably “Neerkol” and “Nazareth House” at Wynnum (see previous postings), with regards to the Girls’ Homes, the abusers came from outside the Home itself.
In some cases, for the girls, the abuser was a visiting priest or an outside worker, such as a bus driver. These have tended to be reported because it was still possible to identify the abuser, even if it was somewhat more difficult than identifying direct employees, such as in the Boys’ Homes.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.