Legislation Neglected and Criminal Children's Act 1864

Prior to 1864 convicted children could, under the Criminal Law (Infants) Act 13 Vic., No.21 1849, be assigned by the Supreme Court to persons willing to undertake their 'maintenance and education'. When the 1864 Act came into being, 463 children were transferred from the care of the Superintendent of the Immigrants' Aid Society to the newly-established government schools, reported the Secretary of the Department for Neglected Children and Reformatory Schools in 1891.

In his 1891 report, the Secretary, George Guillaume, described the implementation of the new legislation back in the mid-1860s:

Under the head of 'neglected' children were comprised children found begging, children destitute of any home or means of subsistence, or Juvenile Offenders, who, from consideration of age and other circumstances, were considered not proper subjects for reformatory treatment. Children found in brothels, or associating with any thief, prostitute, drunkard, or vagrant, were also deemed 'neglected'. 'Uncontrollable' children were similarly dealt with on the parent giving security for the payment of their maintenance in the schools, but in the more recent legislation of 1887 … the impropriety of bracketing these last with neglected children, pure and simple, has been recognised, and their commital has therein been separately provided for.

An amendment passed in 1874 (Neglected and Criminal Children Amendment Act 38 Vic., No.495 1874) contained the first provisions relating to boarding out, with s.16 providing that children in industrial schools may be boarded out. In practice, the government had been boarding out neglected children for a number of years by the time the amendment was passed. The Act also gave recognition to the position of Inspector of Industrial and Reformatory Schools.

The 1874 amendment gave the courts power to transfer a 'neglected' child into the reformatory, when judges felt the child had been leading 'an immoral and depraved life'. Further amendments to the Act in 1878 made legal the transfer of a child from an industrial school to a reformatory (and vice versa) in any case where the Governor-in-Council deemed it appropriate.

From 1887, there was separate legislation for 'neglected' children and 'offenders' in Victoria. The Neglected Children's Act no.941 and the Juvenile Offenders Act no.951 both came into operation on 1 January 1888.

Books

• Barnard, Jill; Twigg, Karen, Holding on to Hope: a history of the founding agencies of MacKillop Family Services 1854-1997, Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne, 2004. Details
• Jaggs, Donella, Neglected and criminal: foundations of child welfare legislation in Victoria, Centre for Youth and Community Studies, Phillip Institute of Technology, Melbourne, 1986. Details
• Tierney, Leonard, Children Who Need Help, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1963. Details

Reports

• Guillaume, George; Connor, Edward C., The Development and Working of the Reformatory and Preventive Systems in the Colony of Victoria, Australia, 1864-1890, Government Printer, Melbourne, 1891. Also available at http://catalogue.slv.vic.gov.au/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=1275188. Details

Online Resources

• 'Agency VA 1466 Department of Industrial and Reformatory Schools', in Public Record Office Victoria Online Catalogue, 'Description of this agency', Public Record Office Victoria, 2005, http://www.prov.vic.gov.au. Details
• 'Victoria [excerpts from Victorian legislation]', in To remove and protect: laws that changed Aboriginal lives, This section of the AIATSIS website is a part of the online exhibition, 'To remove and protect: laws that changed Aboriginal lives'. It contains digitised excerpts of legislation from Victoria and other states and territories in Victoria that are relevant to the removal of Indigenous children from their families. Many of these laws are not specifically in relation to Aboriginal children, and are thus relevant to child welfare in Victoria for non-Indigenous children as well., Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, 2008, http://www1.aiatsis.gov.au/exhibitions/removeprotect/leg/vic_leg.html. Details
• Jaggs, Donella, 'Juvenile Offending', in eMelbourne: the city past and present, Encyclopedia of Melbourne online, The University of Melbourne, 2008, http://www.emelbourne.net.au/biogs/EM00785b.htm. Details