A Study of the Children’s Court of New South Wales

Abstract

Australia’s child welfare system can be traced to the period of white settlement. Significant child welfare problems emerged in this period when mortality rates and levels of neglect and deprivation were high (Liddell 1993). From the earliest days of the New South Wales colony, concern was expressed about the care and protection of convict children who roamed the streets and who were thought to be responsible for petty crime. A charity set up by Governor King’s wife was to provide schooling for these vulnerable children. As early as the mid nineteenth century state involvement in children and families is evident through the establishment of universal schooling and industrial schools (Van Krieken 1991). Later in the nineteenth century child labour laws and compulsory education were established, along with policies to board out children rather than accommodate them in institutions (Picton and Boss 1981, Tomison, 2001). Unsurprisingly, child care and juvenile justice were seen hand-in-hand both to protect children and to protect the wider society from crime. This report is concerned with reviewing this complex system for the twenty-first century.