Kinchela Aboriginal Boys' Training Home

Item details


Name of item:	Kinchela Aboriginal Boys' Training Home
Other name/s:	Kinchela Boys' Home, Aboriginal Mission School, The Mission,
Type of item:	Built
Group/Collection:	Aboriginal
Category:	Historic site
Location:	Lat: -30.9764549687 Long: 152.9818504420
Primary address:	2054 South West Rocks Road, Kinchela, NSW 2440
Parish:	Arakoon
County:	Macquarie
Local govt. area:	Kempsey
Local Aboriginal Land Council:	Kempsey

Property description

Lot/Volume Code	Lot/Volume Number	Section Number	Plan/Folio Code	Plan/Folio Number
LOT	362		DP	754396
LOT	363		DP	754396

All addresses

Street Address	Suburb/town	LGA	Parish	County	Type
2054 South West Rocks Road	Kinchela	Kempsey	Arakoon	Macquarie	Primary Address
South West Rocks Road	Kinchela	Kempsey			Alternate Address

Owner/s

Organisation Name	Owner Category	Date Ownership Updated
Kempsey Local Aboriginal Land Council	Community Group

Statement of significance:


	Apologies to Aboriginal people for the ideology and some of the language used and discussed within this document which is historic and does not reflect the views of the Heritage Council. Please note there are also references to deceased persons within the text. The former Kinchela Aboriginal Boys' Training Home provides tangible evidence of the Government policy and practice of taking Aboriginal children away from their families and communities, severing all ties with their culture in order to assimilate them into white Australian society. Placement of Aboriginal boys in an institution that has become notoriously known as a place where cruelty, abuse and deprivation were an everyday occurrence, has caused ongoing health problems and cultural dislocation for the former residents and associated problems within the Aboriginal community. The place is associated with commemoration and healing of these individuals and communities and is a means to reconnect to the past. The former Kinchela Aboriginal Boys' Training Home provides historical evidence of the Government policy of assimilation that was based on Social Darwinism or the premise that "full blood" Aborigines would die out and the "mixed race" Aboriginals would soon have their Aboriginality bred out. The former Kinchela Aboriginal Boys' Training Home is evidence of the plan to train Aboriginal boys to become agricultural labourers demonstrating the prevalent ideology of the early and mid twentieth century that Aboriginal people were inferior in intelligence and only fit to become the servants of the rest of society. The Boys' Home provides an example of the historical practice of Aboriginal wards of the State being denied their Aboriginality and cultural heritage. This was the subject of a National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families in 1997 (Commission of Inquiry). The nation was made aware of how widespread the practice of removal was, which affected every Aboriginal community but was outside the consciousness of mainstream Australians. The Kinchela Aboriginal Boys' Training Home provides contemporary Australia with physical evidence as a means to comprehend the pain and suffering inflicted by past assimilation practices. The former Home is a rare example of an Aboriginal Boys' Home in NSW and has the potential to provide insight into the accommodation and training of Aboriginal wards of the State in the first half of the twentieth century.
	Date significance updated: 19 Jul 11
	Note: The State Heritage Inventory provides information about heritage items listed by local and State government agencies. The State Heritage Inventory is continually being updated by local and State agencies as new information becomes available. Read the Department of Premier and Cabinet copyright and disclaimer.

Description


Construction years:	1924-1970
Physical description:	The former Kinchela Aboriginal Boys' Training Home is located on two parcels of land separated by a parcel of freehold land, 16 miles from Kempsey. The smaller parcel of 2 acres 3 rods and 38 perches fronts South West Rocks Road alongside the Macleay River. This parcel corresponds with Aboriginal Reserve AR174 gazetted 23/4/1883. This parcel contains all the buildings used for dormitories, staff accommodation, recreation, dining and the school as well as ancillary building such as the wood store. The other parcel is accessed via an unformed lane on the northern boundary called Herborn Street. The second parcel of 29 acres 2 rods and 20 perches was farming land with milking sheds and a chook shed located in the north western corner. The north western corner of this lot also contains significant trees including a large Ficus and a group of Bunya Pines. The property is low lying and floods frequently, i.e. almost on an annual basis. At the time of inspection in June 2011 the farm lot was under water and the property had recently been cut off for 6 days. The original dormitories constructed in 1924 were large "tin sheds"; these were replaced in 1935. The new school constructed at this time was a long rectangular building clad in fibro with a hipped corrugated steel roof. At the eastern end of the building was the "all weather shed" where boys would go for recreation in wet weather. This open room has since been enclosed. The main home building was designed in a U shape with its open end facing the road. The recreation hall/ gymnasium and dining rooms were located in the southern wing. The big boys dormitory was located in the centre and the small boys dormitory was located in the northern wing. The centre of the U was used for assembly and the boys would march from here around to the separate school building that was located on the northern side of the main building. Kitchens and stores were located behind the main building. All of these building have since been adapted for use by Benelong Haven. There was a laundry building on the southern boundary but this has been demolished. There was also a managers' residence at the front on the southern boundary that has been demolished. Out the front was also an orchard and was generally a "no go" area for the boys. There are two intact staff residences at the northern end of the property facing the road. Between these buildings and the school were the football field and the swimming pool. Along the eastern boundary of the front lot were a number of ancillary buildings housing the milk separator, stores and a wood shed which doubled as a punishment room. Benelong Haven took over the use of the property in 1976 several years after the Home was closed. The former home buildings were then renovated in 1988. The buildings were re-clad, reroofed and refurbished. A verandah was constructed interconnecting the complex of main buildings so that it could function during floods, fit outs were made for offices and accommodation and three new houses were built next to the former football field. The swimming pool has been filled in and the managers house has been demolished.
Physical condition and/or Archaeological potential:	The buildings are in good condition and are in regular use.
	Date condition updated:07 Jul 11
Modifications and dates:	Circa 1940: New school building. 1988: Buildings renovations for Benelong Haven Between 1976 and 2011: Demolition of laundry, swimming pool, manager's residence


Current use:	Benelong's Haven Aboriginal Rehabilitation Services
Former use:	Aboriginal Boys' Training Home and Aboriginal Boys' School

History

Historical notes:

BACKGROUND
Historically Aboriginal children were separated from their families from the earliest days of the colony. Governor Macquarie established the first Native Institution in Parramatta as early as 1814 and in 1823 another Native Institution was started in Blacktown. Both these institutions were considered failures, one reason being that once parents realised their children wouldn't be allowed to come home, they wouldn't give them up to the institutions. (5051312) The Government also subsidised missionary activity among the Aboriginal people, including that of the London Missionary Society in the 1820s and 1830s (State Records). On the frontier of Wellington Valley the Reverend Watson gained a reputation for stealing Aboriginal children and as a consequence the Wiradjuri hid their children from the white men.

With the spread of settlers and their livestock came conflict and dispossession. The first bill for the Protection of Aborigines was drafted in 1838 after the Myall Creek Massacre in June that year (5056626). Thus began a systemic government approach to the regulation and control of the lives of Aboriginal people that got tighter and tighter until the 1967 referendum finally brought significant change.

Until 1881 Aboriginal people were under the jurisdiction of the Colonial Secretary, Police and the Lands Department. In 1880 a private body known as the Association for the Protection of Aborigines was formed and following agitation by this body, the Government appointed a Protector of Aborigines, Mr. George Thornton MLC (State Records). The Board for the Protection of Aborigines was subsequently created in 1883. "The objectives of the Board were to provide asylum for the aged and sick, who are dependent on others for help and support; but also, and of at least equal importance to train and teach the young, to fit them to take their places amongst the rest of the community" (State Records). This objective became the basis of future child removal policy: that the inferiority of the Aborigines would only be dealt with by removing the children and educating them in white ways.

In Darlington Point Reverend Gribble established Warangesda Mission in 1880 and in 1883 set up a separate girls' dormitory. The dormitory housed the girls separately in a building which included a dining room and kitchen as well as the dormitory room. Girls were brought in from many places and were trained to be domestic servants. (Warangesda HOD 5055095) When Warangesda Mission became an Aboriginal Station in 1884 the Aboriginal Protection Board continued to send Aboriginal girls to the Warangesda girls' dormitory. It was the Warangesda Mission/Station girls' dormitory which became the model or prototype for the later Aboriginal Children's Training Homes at Cootamundra and Kinchela.

Frustrated by the lack of legislative power to control the education and lives of Aboriginal children the Aborigines Protection Board successfully lobbied for a new act which was introduced in 1909. The Board's Annual Reports of 1909 and 1911 show the emphasis on training of Aboriginal children. The Board felt limited by the Act because it only gave them direct control over children over 14 who could be apprenticed. To remove younger children they had to apply to the magistrate under the Neglected Children and Juvenile Offenders Act 1905. The Board was of the opinion that the children would only become good and proper members of "industrial society" if they were completely removed and not allowed to return. (Brindley p48, A board official quoted by P Read and C Edwards.) The underlying assumption, as ever, was that Aboriginal people lacked the intellect to undertake anything but menial tasks. This later translated into the limits on the types of training provided; girls training for domestic service and the boys for labouring.

The Aborigines Protection Act was amended in 1915 and again in 1918 giving the Board the right "to assume full control and custody of the child of any aborigine, if after due inquiry it is satisfied that such a course is in the interest of the moral or physical welfare of such child. The Board may remove such child to such control and care as it thinks best." (Aborigines Protection Amending Act, 1915, 4. 13A.) A court hearing was no longer necessary. If the parents wanted to appeal it was up to them to go to the court.

The depression and drought years of the 1920s and 1930s were particularly difficult for Aboriginal people. Conditions in the reserves remaining from the soldier settlement land redistribution, were poor, often overcrowded, and it was easy for the government to prove neglect and remove Aboriginal children. In 1937, in response to public pressure from academic and missionary groups sympathetic to Aboriginal people, a meeting was convened of State and Commonwealth Aboriginal authorities. The result was an official assimilation policy formed on the premise that "full-blood" Aborigines would be soon extinct and the "half-caste" should be absorbed into society. Meanwhile the Aboriginal people were organising to become a force of resistance. The Sesquicentenary was marked by a National Day of Mourning and a call for the Abolition of the Protection Board. (The Abo Call 1st Sept 1938).

The Aborigines Protection Board was finally abolished and replaced by the Aborigines Welfare Board in 1940. Aboriginal children were then subject to the Child Welfare Act 1939 which required a magistrate's hearing and the child had to be proven neglected or uncontrollable. Aboriginal children continued to be sent to Cootamundra, Bomaderry and Kinchela, some went to Mittagong or Boystown. There were no specific homes for uncontrollable Aboriginal children so these were sent to State corrective institutions such as Mt Penang or Parramatta Girls. (Brindley 60) The education of Aboriginal children had generally been one of segregation until, in 1940, the Department of Education officially took on the role.

In the 1960s the work of British psychiatrist John Bowlby on "attachment theory", began to influence the institutional care of children in Australia. That an infant needs to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for social and emotional development to occur normally: rather than only being treated with affection as a reward (Cupboard Love) which was the prevailing theory of the 1940s (Wikipedia). Fostering then became the preferred option and a more common occurrence. In accordance with the assimilation policy which was still prevalent, Aboriginal children were fostered with non-Aboriginal parents.

In May 1967 a referendum changed the Australian constitution bringing positive changes for the Aboriginal people. One resultant change was the abolition of the Aborigines Welfare Board in 1969. After this time non-Aboriginal girls were admitted to Cootamundra Girls Home.

KINCHELA ABORIGINAL BOYS' TRAINING HOME HISTORY
The Board for the Protection of Aborigines gazetted the Kinchela Aboriginal Reserve (AR 174) on 23/4/1883. (1) Kinchela (originally known as Arakoon) was gazetted as a village in 1885 or 1886.(2) Dormitories were added to the Aboriginal Reserve in 1924 to accommodate the daughters of Aborigines who lived too far from a school and boys who were transferred from Singleton Aboriginal Boy's Home.(3)

The Kinchela village became a centre of shipping for produce and cattle on ocean - going steamers. Three sugar mills operated in the vicinity and the hamlet was the centre of a large maize growing area. Cheese making was an important industry and the village had a bakery and butchery, two churches, two schools, a post office and a hall.(4) Aboriginal people were excluded from the activities of the village and the local community successfully petitioned in the 1940s to prevent the Aboriginal boys from the Home from attending the local school.(5)

The precursor to Kinchela, Singleton Boys' Home was established by the Board for the Protection of Aborigines in December 1918 on the grounds of a former Mission. By the end of 1918 there were 46 boys accommodated there. The home was intended to accommodate the boys removed from their families under the Aborigines Protection (Amendment) Act (No.2 1915) until they were old enough to be sent out to work. The boys were to receive training whilst in the home so they could be gainfully employed in manual or agricultural work when they turned 15 years of age.(6) They remained wards of the state until they were 18 and their income was held in trust by the Board. By 1923 eight boys had been placed in apprenticeships. By the end of 1923 the Board decided to dispose of the Singleton Home on the ground that the premises were unsuitable. The school on the grounds was officially closed on 15th January 1924 and the boys remaining at the home were transferred to Kinchela Aboriginal Boys' Training Home.(7)

Established in 1924 the Kinchela Aboriginal Boys' Training Home had the same function as the Singleton Home. Under the Aborigines Protection Act boys between the ages of 5 and 15 were removed from their families if in the opinion of the Board (or those enacting its laws, the police or reserve managers) it was 'in the interest of the moral or physical welfare' of the child.(8) These boys were sent directly to Kinchela or if they had been taken at a younger age they were sent to Bomaderry Children's Home until they were old enough to be transferred to Kinchela. Once the boys were removed from their families and communities they became officially Wards of the State until they were 18 years old.

From the 1920s until the 1940s the Kinchela Home was known as an extremely harsh and cruel environment. After this time the home is said to have improved however oral history shows that conditions were still appalling. When describing the difference between the Bomaderry Home and Kinchela, one former resident felt that whilst there were difficulties with Bomaderry they were too young to comprehend the impact of the separation from their families until much later. He felt that the United Aborigines Missionaries tried to provide a loving caring environment whereas Kinchela was an institution. He described the manager at the time, in 1935, as "dictatorial and aggressive".(9)

The staff were untrained and did not make the same efforts to provide a homely environment. The boys were referred to by number rather than name. Cases of beatings and sexual abuse are well documented. (10) The cruelty was investigated in the 1940s and some staff were dismissed. The policy of segregation from the rest of society became more relaxed and boys were permitted to engage in activities outside the home.

The original dormitories constructed in 1924 were large "tin sheds"; these were replaced in 1935.(11) The policy of assimilation was strictly enforced and anything connecting the boys to their Aboriginal culture was prohibited. The use of Aboriginal languages was banned in the home.(12) The boys could go to the annual Kempsey show but they were prohibited from speaking with other Aboriginal people.(13)

The first Aboriginal School in the area (Pelican Island Aboriginal provisional School(1)) was established in 1892 but only functioned for a year. In 1919 another school called the Pelican Island Provisional School was established, apparently on the Aboriginal Reserve and in July 1928 it was renamed the Kinchela Aboriginal Provisional School becoming an integral part of the Kinchela Boys' Home. It operated until 1941 when the School was closed and re-opened as Kinchela Aboriginal Public School which offered basic elementary education at a primary school level.(14)

According to former Home Boys the Provisional School was staffed by the Manager of the Home or other staff members and on some occasions an elder boy. None of these were trained teachers and as a consequence the standard of education until 1941 was extremely poor. The boys were not permitted to attend the local Kinchela School. When Kinchela School was asked by the local school inspectors to accept the boys from the Home the parents of the white children voted thirty three votes to one against the proposal. The Kinchela community voted again in the 1960s permitting Aboriginal students to attend the Kinchela School.(5)

A new school was built in 1941 (Kinchela Aboriginal Public School) and for the first time trained teachers were employed. Boys were also permitted to attend the high school in Kempsey after this time.(15) The Kinchela Aboriginal Public School operated until 1962.(16) The original Admissions Register, Punishment Books and Visitors Book for the Kinchela Aboriginal School can be found in the NSW State Archives. After the closure of the school the boys attended West Kempsey Primary School.

Kinchela Boys Home was 16 miles from Kempsey on 32 acres of land along side the Macleay River. In 1952 the home was described in DAWN magazine (published by the Aborigines Welfare Board) as having lawns, gardens, swimming pool and a playground. Twenty nine acres of the land was given over to a large vegetable garden and a dairy herd of 33 head and four horses. Weekly church services were held at the home together with Sunday School.(17) The boys also participated in local sports activities during the 1950s, gaining a reputation in swimming, football, boxing and surf lifesaving.(18) The location of the home on the river flats next to the Macleay River caused flooding problems on numerous occasions ( as recorded in Dawn Magazine in 1954 and 1956) .(19)

After 1959 whenever the Home flooded the boys would be relocated to the Aboriginal Reserve (Reserve 82168) at South West Rocks in the former South West Rocks Public School buildings. They would also use this place as a base for their South West Rocks sporting events and school holidays.(19) DAWN Magazine of December 1954 described the Home: "buildings of a simple design and comprise dormitories, dining room, recreation room, kitchen, ablution block and the usual out buildings and school."(20) The same article notes some boys were given the privilege of attending the local picture theatre in Kempsey. If they attended with a white friend they could sit in the general area whilst other Aboriginal people had to sit in a segregated area of the theatre.

Increasing Aboriginal activism together with the positive results of the 1967 Referendum which changed the Australian Constitution to include Aboriginal people, finally lead to the abolition of the Aborigines Welfare Board and changes to the way Aboriginal children were removed and segregated. The Kinchela Aboriginal Boys' Training Home was closed in 1970. After closure of the Home the Aboriginal community lobbied to keep it for the control and use of the Aboriginal Community. The Minister for Child and Social Welfare determined the site would be sold and advertised it to be auctioned on 5th May 1972. Thanks to the advocacy of strong Aboriginal voices, such as Mary Duroux, the government overturned its decision and the former home was passed into Aboriginal ownership. (21)

The former Kinchela Aboriginal Boys' Training Home now belongs to the Kempsey Local Aboriginal Land Council who lease it to Benelong's Haven, a Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Centre for Aboriginal people.

The former Kinchela Aboriginal Boys' Training Home is a place which is connected to very difficult memories. In 2002 a Kinchela Boys' Home Reunion was held at the site. Former residents describe the loneliness, fear, physical hardship and abuse they suffered at the home. They describe how their lives have been irreparably damaged as a result.(22)

At the time of the reunion their experiences were recorded in the local paper: "Jail was not as hard as that place. I can't remember a day I wasn't caned." One man described being made to walk on his knees for five hours whilst holding a metal bar above his head. "All the boys were made to line up and every one, about 60, had to bash me as I walked down the line. If they didn't, they were made to follow behind me and be bashed themselves." (23) The Deputy Premier of NSW and Minister for Aboriginal Affairs used the occasion to formally apologise to the former Home Boys and congratulated them on their courage in returning.

Footnotes
1. NSW Ministry for Aboriginal Affairs, Aboriginal Reserves in NSW, Occasional Paper No.4
2. Wikipedia
3. State Records Archives Investigator - Agency Detail 3985 Kinchela Aboriginal Boy's Home
4. Draft Kempsey Shire Community-Based Heritage Study Overview and Recommendations 2005
5. National Library of Australia, Bringing them Home oral history project: Don and Beverly Elphick, 'This is where we learnt we weren't white', 2001
6. State Records Archives Investigator - Agency Detail 3989 Singleton Aboriginal Boy's
Home
7. Ibid
8. Aborigines Protection Amending Act, 1915, 4. 13A
9. National Library of Australia
10. National Library of Australia; The Koori Mail, June 28, 2002
11.Ibid
12.National Library of Australia
13. National Library of Australia
14. State Records Archives Investigator - Agency Detail 2879 Pelican Island Aboriginal
School/ Kinchela Aboriginal Public School
15. National Library of Australia
16. State Records Agency 2879
17. DAWN March 1952, p14, 15
18. DAWN February 1954, p22
19. Britton, Geoffrey. Assessment of heritage impact for the former public school site, Geoffrey Street, South West Rocks 2005
20. DAWN March 1954, p20; DAWN December 1954, p23
21. Coastal Custodians Volume 2, Issue 9. D & B Elphick, This is where we learnt we weren't white, 2001
22. Bringing Them Home
23. Sydney Morning Herald 9/9/2002

In 2022 the Kinchela Boys' Home (KBH) site was announced by the World Monuments Fund at the 2022 World Monuments Watch as one of 25 heritage sites of world-wide significance whose preservation is urgent and vital to the communities surrounding them. The Board of the Kinchela Boys' Home Aboriginal Corporation (KBHAC) has a vision to restore the now-vacant complex into a place where historic cruelty and abuse can be recognised, and where survivors can heal. KBH survivors have fought long for recognition of what happened here. In 2012 the site was listed on the NSW State Heritage Register, and in 2013 it was listed as an Aboriginal Place under the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974. KBHAC has long advocated for an agreement that would allow it to manage the grounds and implement plans for a new interpretation, and the organisation is now in the process of securing the right to transform the site into a centre for truth-telling, survivor stories, and healing. It will be the first of its kind to address the legacy of violence against Stolen Generations survivors and communities, not only as an exhibitoin of this painful history but also as a living force that must be confronted by people today - as is acknowledged by the World Monuments Watch (Mirage News, 2/3/3022).

Historic themes

Australian theme (abbrev)	New South Wales theme	Local theme
1. Environment-Tracing the evolution of a continent's special environments	Environment - naturally evolved-Activities associated with the physical surroundings that support human life and influence or shape human cultures.	Gardens-
1. Environment-Tracing the evolution of a continent's special environments	Environment - naturally evolved-Activities associated with the physical surroundings that support human life and influence or shape human cultures.	Other open space-
1. Environment-Tracing the evolution of a continent's special environments	Environment - naturally evolved-Activities associated with the physical surroundings that support human life and influence or shape human cultures.	River flats-
1. Environment-Tracing the evolution of a continent's special environments	Environment - naturally evolved-Activities associated with the physical surroundings that support human life and influence or shape human cultures.	Introduce cultural planting-
1. Environment-Tracing the evolution of a continent's special environments	Environment - naturally evolved-Activities associated with the physical surroundings that support human life and influence or shape human cultures.	Changing the environment-
2. Peopling-Peopling the continent	Aboriginal cultures and interactions with other cultures-Activities associated with maintaining, developing, experiencing and remembering Aboriginal cultural identities and practices, past and present.	All nations - living under the Aborigines Protection Act 1909-1969-
2. Peopling-Peopling the continent	Aboriginal cultures and interactions with other cultures-Activities associated with maintaining, developing, experiencing and remembering Aboriginal cultural identities and practices, past and present.	All nations - the stolen generations-
2. Peopling-Peopling the continent	Aboriginal cultures and interactions with other cultures-Activities associated with maintaining, developing, experiencing and remembering Aboriginal cultural identities and practices, past and present.	All nations - controlling dispossesed peoples-
2. Peopling-Peopling the continent	Aboriginal cultures and interactions with other cultures-Activities associated with maintaining, developing, experiencing and remembering Aboriginal cultural identities and practices, past and present.	All nations - imprisoning and detaining Aboriginal peoples-
2. Peopling-Peopling the continent	Aboriginal cultures and interactions with other cultures-Activities associated with maintaining, developing, experiencing and remembering Aboriginal cultural identities and practices, past and present.	Aboriginal post-contact-May include sites of contact with Europeans, conflict, resistance, interaction and urban life.
3. Economy-Developing local, regional and national economies	Agriculture-Activities relating to the cultivation and rearing of plant and animal species, usually for commercial purposes, can include aquaculture	Market gardening-
3. Economy-Developing local, regional and national economies	Agriculture-Activities relating to the cultivation and rearing of plant and animal species, usually for commercial purposes, can include aquaculture	Clearing land for farming-
3. Economy-Developing local, regional and national economies	Environment - cultural landscape-Activities associated with the interactions between humans, human societies and the shaping of their physical surroundings	Developing local, regional and national economies-National Theme 3
3. Economy-Developing local, regional and national economies	Pastoralism-Activities associated with the breeding, raising, processing and distribution of livestock for human use	Agisting and fattening stock for slaughter-
3. Economy-Developing local, regional and national economies	Pastoralism-Activities associated with the breeding, raising, processing and distribution of livestock for human use	Modifying landscapes to increase productivity-
3. Economy-Developing local, regional and national economies	Pastoralism-Activities associated with the breeding, raising, processing and distribution of livestock for human use	Dairying-
3. Economy-Developing local, regional and national economies	Pastoralism-Activities associated with the breeding, raising, processing and distribution of livestock for human use	Livestock structures-
4. Settlement-Building settlements, towns and cities	Land tenure-Activities and processes for identifying forms of ownership and occupancy of land and water, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal	Administering and alienating Crown lands-
4. Settlement-Building settlements, towns and cities	Land tenure-Activities and processes for identifying forms of ownership and occupancy of land and water, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal	Resuming private lands for public purposes-
4. Settlement-Building settlements, towns and cities	Towns, suburbs and villages-Activities associated with creating, planning and managing urban functions, landscapes and lifestyles in towns, suburbs and villages	21st century Suburban Developments-
4. Settlement-Building settlements, towns and cities	Towns, suburbs and villages-Activities associated with creating, planning and managing urban functions, landscapes and lifestyles in towns, suburbs and villages	20th Century infrastructure-
5. Working-Working	Labour-Activities associated with work practises and organised and unorganised labour	Working with animals-
5. Working-Working	Labour-Activities associated with work practises and organised and unorganised labour	Vocational training as a form of social rehabilitation-
5. Working-Working	Labour-Activities associated with work practises and organised and unorganised labour	Working on public infrastructure projects-
5. Working-Working	Labour-Activities associated with work practises and organised and unorganised labour	Working in the public service-
5. Working-Working	Labour-Activities associated with work practises and organised and unorganised labour	Working with plants-
5. Working-Working	Labour-Activities associated with work practises and organised and unorganised labour	Working on the land-
6. Educating-Educating	Education-Activities associated with teaching and learning by children and adults, formally and informally.	Education associated with Welfare institutions-
6. Educating-Educating	Education-Activities associated with teaching and learning by children and adults, formally and informally.	Aboriginal Schools-
6. Educating-Educating	Education-Activities associated with teaching and learning by children and adults, formally and informally.	Educating people in regional locations-
6. Educating-Educating	Education-Activities associated with teaching and learning by children and adults, formally and informally.	Educating through memorials and exhibitions-
7. Governing-Governing	Government and Administration-Activities associated with the governance of local areas, regions, the State and the nation, and the administration of public programs - includes both principled and corrupt activities.	State government-
7. Governing-Governing	Government and Administration-Activities associated with the governance of local areas, regions, the State and the nation, and the administration of public programs - includes both principled and corrupt activities.	Colonial government-
7. Governing-Governing	Government and Administration-Activities associated with the governance of local areas, regions, the State and the nation, and the administration of public programs - includes both principled and corrupt activities.	Developing roles for government - administration of land-
7. Governing-Governing	Government and Administration-Activities associated with the governance of local areas, regions, the State and the nation, and the administration of public programs - includes both principled and corrupt activities.	Developing roles for government - public land administration-
7. Governing-Governing	Government and Administration-Activities associated with the governance of local areas, regions, the State and the nation, and the administration of public programs - includes both principled and corrupt activities.	Developing roles for government - building and operating public infrastructure-
7. Governing-Governing	Government and Administration-Activities associated with the governance of local areas, regions, the State and the nation, and the administration of public programs - includes both principled and corrupt activities.	Developing roles for government - conserving cultural and natural heritage-
7. Governing-Governing	Government and Administration-Activities associated with the governance of local areas, regions, the State and the nation, and the administration of public programs - includes both principled and corrupt activities.	Developing roles for government - caring for orphans-
7. Governing-Governing	Welfare-Activities and process associated with the provision of social services by the state or philanthropic organisations	Destitute and alone-
7. Governing-Governing	Welfare-Activities and process associated with the provision of social services by the state or philanthropic organisations	Children in need-
7. Governing-Governing	Welfare-Activities and process associated with the provision of social services by the state or philanthropic organisations	Providing a home for disadvantaged children-
7. Governing-Governing	Welfare-Activities and process associated with the provision of social services by the state or philanthropic organisations	Welfare-Includes charitable and self-help institutions.
8. Culture-Developing cultural institutions and ways of life	Social institutions-Activities and organisational arrangements for the provision of social activities	Community organisations-
8. Culture-Developing cultural institutions and ways of life	Social institutions-Activities and organisational arrangements for the provision of social activities	Joining together to study and appreciate philosophy-
8. Culture-Developing cultural institutions and ways of life	Social institutions-Activities and organisational arrangements for the provision of social activities	Places of informal community gatherings-
8. Culture-Developing cultural institutions and ways of life	Social institutions-Activities and organisational arrangements for the provision of social activities	Developing and maintaining a local museum-

Assessment of significance


SHR Criteria a) [Historical significance]	The former Kinchela Aboriginal Boys' Training Home provides tangible evidence of the social theory and subsequent Government policy which controlled the lives of Aboriginal people throughout the 20th century. The belief that Aboriginal people were a "child" race and had to be protected for their own good, carried over from the 19th century and was enshrined as Government policy through the Aborigines Protection Board, which later became the Aborigines Welfare Board. The Boys' Home is a direct example of how the Board's policies were implemented and the government acted as a paternalistic force in Aboriginal lives. The Boys' Home provides physical evidence of the Government policy of assimilation as a means to empty the Aboriginal Reserves and force Aboriginal people to live like the rest of society. The training of children and removal from their families and culture was to provide them with the skills necessary, albeit as the servants to the rest of society. The Boys' Home as a training facility emphasised labouring and agricultural careers demonstrating the entrenched social theory of the 19th and greater part of the 20th centuries that Aboriginal people were inferior in intelligence and only capable of manual tasks. The employment of a former resident as a manager in the two years before the home closed, demonstrates the beginning of changing attitudes at the time of the Constitutional referendum concerning Aboriginal rights in 1967. The home provides historical evidence of the ethnocentric attitudes of mainstream Australian society which denied Aboriginal culture a place in that society until the 1967 Referendum. It demonstrates the implementation of Social Darwinism as Government policy which believed that "full blood Aborigines" would become extinct and the rest of the "half caste " population would be assimilated or absorbed into white society.
SHR Criteria b) [Associative significance]	The former Kinchela Aboriginal Boys' Training Home is directly associated with the Aborigines Protection Board and the Aborigines Welfare Board. The Home is associated with Cootamundra Aboriginal Girls' Training Home to which many of the sisters of the boys sent to Kinchela, were sent. The Home is also associated with Bomaderry Children's Home where babies and young children were sent before being transferred to Kinchela Aboriginal Boys' Training Home. The Home provides an example of the historical practice of Aboriginal wards of the State being denied their Aboriginality and cultural heritage which was the subject of a National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from the Families in 1997 (Commission of Inquiry). The Home is associated with prominent individual Burnam Burnam ( Harry Penrith 1936-1997). The Home is also associated with Link-Up an organisation formed to unite former residents and families of children's homes. The Home is associated with the National Apology to the Stolen Generations in Federal Parliament in 2008 by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. The property has association with Benelong Aboriginal Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Hostel which occupies the property today.
SHR Criteria c) [Aesthetic significance]	Does not meet this criterion.
SHR Criteria d) [Social significance]	The Kinchela Aboriginal Boys' Training Home has strong social significance for former residents and for the families and communities from whom the boys were taken. The place is associated with stories of deep personal grief and social and cultural dislocation and has also been demonstrated to be associated with ongoing heath issues for some past residents. The Home buildings provide a tangible link to the past for former residents. Memories associated with the place wether painful or not, are revisited when former residents visit the former home. Some former residents speak of the healing process experienced when returning whilst others don't ever want to return. Kinchela Aboriginal Boys' Training Home provides contemporary Australia with evidence of the practice of removing Aboriginal children from their families. This practice affected the lives of every Aboriginal Australian but was largely outside the consciousness of mainstream Australians until the 1997 Commission of Inquiry. The Home provides verification of past assimilation practices and the potential for greater understanding and compassion towards those who suffered as a result. The home provides evidence of the ongoing public debate which polarised the Australian community with the publication of the findings of the Commission of Inquiry in 1997. There was considerable debate, particularly over whether there should be a public apology to the "stolen generations". In 2008 the Prime Minister issued a public apology. The assimilation policies and removal of children have created ongoing issues for contemporary Aboriginal communities which have to deal with the cultural divergence that is the result of some Aboriginal people being raised in non-Aboriginal families or institutions.
SHR Criteria e) [Research potential]	The former Kinchela Aboriginal Boys' Training Home buildings provide evidence of the conditions experienced in the children's homes from 1924 until the 1970s. The original buildings together with descriptions of their former use, provide an insight into the domestic routine and the life of the home and methods used in raising Aboriginal wards of the State. Many of the oral histories of former residents describe the routine at the Home. The use of the former Home buildings reflects the early 20th century practice of placing Wards of the State in dormitories, divided by age.
SHR Criteria f) [Rarity]	The Kinchela Aboriginal Boys' Training Home is the only surviving Aboriginal boys' training home in NSW. It was the longest surviving Aboriginal training facility for boys. The place has rarity as the only surviving built evidence of the assimilation policies which dictated that Aboriginal boys be institutionalised and trained as labourers in NSW.
SHR Criteria g) [Representativeness]	The former Home is representative of the systemic government practice of assimilation of Aboriginal people during the 20th century.
Integrity/Intactness:	The property is reasonably intact. The layout is retained however buildings have been re-clad and adapted to other uses.
Assessment criteria:	Items are assessed against the State Heritage Register (SHR) Criteria to determine the level of significance. Refer to the Listings below for the level of statutory protection.

Recommended management:

Recommendations

Management Category	Description	Date Updated
Recommended Management	Produce a Conservation Management Plan (CMP)
Recommended Management	Prepare a maintenance schedule or guidelines
Recommended Management	Carry out interpretation, promotion and/or education

Procedures /Exemptions

Section of act	Description	Title	Comments	Action date
57(2)	Exemption to allow work	Standard Exemptions	HERITAGE ACT 1977 ORDER UNDER SECTION 57(2) TO GRANT STANDARD EXEMPTIONS FROM APPROVAL I, Penny Sharpe, the Minister for Heritage, on the recommendation of the Heritage Council of New South Wales and under section 57(2) of the Heritage Act 1977: revoke the order made on 2 June 2022 and published in the Government Gazette Number 262 of 17 June 2022; and grant an exemption from section 57(1) of the Act in respect of the engaging in or carrying out the class of activities described in clause 2 Schedule A in such circumstances specified by the relevant standards in clause 2 Schedule A and General Conditions in clause 3 Schedule A. This Order takes effect on the date it is published in the NSW Government Gazette. Dated this 29th day of October 2025 The Hon Penny Sharpe MLC Minister for Heritage For more information on standard exemptions click on the link below.	Nov 7 2025

Standard exemptions for engaging in or carrying out activities / works otherwise prohibited by section 57(1) of the Heritage Act 1977

Listings

Heritage Listing	Listing Title	Listing Number	Gazette Date	Gazette Number	Gazette Page
Heritage Act - State Heritage Register		01875	17 Feb 12	20	464

References, internet links & images

Type	Author	Year	Title	Internet Links
Oral History	Bringing Them Home after the Apology oral history project	2010	Vince Wenberg interviewed by Ann-Mari Jordens	View detail
Written	Bringing them home oral history project	2001	Herb Simms interviewed by John Maynard	View detail
Written	Don and Beverley Elphic	2001	Kinchel Boys' Home and School: This is where we learnt we weren't white,
Other	Kempsey Research Centre	2011	Document Files - Kinchela Boys' Home
Electronic	State Archives	2011	State Records Archives Investigator Agency Detail: 2879; 2877; 3989
Written	unattributed, in Mirage News	2022	Survivor-led healing to preserve, restore, and reimagine former Kinchela Boys Home as national site of truth-telling and healing	View detail
Written	unattributed, The Macleay Argus	2022	The Kinchela Boys Home is declared an urgent heritage site to preserve by the World Monuments Watch	View detail

Note: internet links may be to web pages, documents or images.

(Click on thumbnail for full size image and image details)

Data source


The information for this entry comes from the following source:
Name:	Heritage NSW
Database number:	5054659
File number:	H04/00089; 11/10109

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