Anglican Church Of Australia Diocese Of Grafton
Community Service in Lismore

Andrew's, two young children from a broken home were given into his care. Mr Ebbs called in the assist of the Parochial Council, hoping to establish an orphanage in the town. Ebbs) spoke of a proposed orphanage for neglected and orphaned children. Department had been in town and was in full sympathy of decentralization and a Home established in Lismore, not necessarily Church of England. The Vicar moved: This meeting agrees that the time has reach for the establishment of a District Home in Lismore by the Church of England for orphaned and neglected children, such Home to be lower State supervision and if possible State Aid. When it became known that an orphanage had been set up in Lismore, applications began to pour in. Soon the Ewing Street house was far too small, and Mrs Edwards offered the use of a larger house, and the committee were fortunate in obtaining the optional services of Miss Lillian Ca swell, a church missionary from Sydney who was awaiting appointment to a Torres Island mission. It was not lengthy earlier these premises were too small, and again the Home was transferred to a larger house. These makeshift arrangements were far from satisfactory, and the committee realized that large, permanent quarters must be found, but the costs involved in building such quarters placed it far beyond their reach. It was at this stage that Good luck smiled on their efforts. The land between St Andrew's church and the rectory was owned by the Police Department and contained the Police Station and the lockup keeper's residence. Early in 1936 it was learn that the Police Department premeditated building more modern and commodious premises in Molesworth Street, Lismore's main thoroughfare, and then selling their redundant buildings. The Children's home committee made urgent representations to the Minister of Lands to have the land and buildings donated to the church for a Children's Home. The petition was granted, and at long final their dream came true they had important lasting premises for the Home. The fortunes of the Home have fluctuated. There have been good times and bad, the two main factors being finance and staffing. The best of a matron is difficult, and the Home has had its share of appropriate matrons and unsatisfactory ones. Conditions at the Home were far from satisfactory, they had had eight matrons in the preceding eighteen months then they appointed Miss Jean O'Neill as their new matron and she remained in charge of the home until sick health forced her retirement in 1980. Young people living with us found the name North Coast Children's Home really difficult and stigmatizing and asked if it could be changed. The deposit was undergoing change, in regard to its purpose at the time, so a name change was on the cards. The young people were asked if they knew about any famous kids in care. He was an interesting choice on a couple of levels but one that struck a chord with people is that Caspar was ghosted and invisible to maximum humans in some ways like kids in care. An acronym that stated exactly what the service did and would labor with Jasper was devised. One of the young people said that we would have to have the word adolescent because that is what he is.