A brief history of Anglicare SA

Compiled by Dr Brian Dickey, March 2000; updated 2005

Anglicare SA as we know it today is the product of a gradual collection of charitable services created by Anglican people since 1860.

The first professedly Anglican charity in South Australia was the Orphan Home created for the care of girls from five to 12 years in 1860 under the leadership of Mrs Julia Farr, who later participated in the creation of the Home for Incurables in 1878. The Orphan Home was first located in Carrington St, city, then at Mitcham from 1908.

The House of Mercy and Retreat for Women was set up in Walkerville in 1880 as another of the places in Adelaide where pregnant unmarried women could give birth. A home for boys was opened at Walkerville in 1887.

St Mary’s Mission of Hope was established in Halifax Street in 1923. It was designed to be a place where unmarried mothers could surrender their babies for care and adoption, but later became a home for young children.  As they grew older, girls went to Farr House and boys went to Walkerville.

These were all independent incorporated bodies, though in the habit of sending reports of their affairs to Synod and having the bishop as president or patron. In the 1940s Bishop Robin pressed Synod to authorise the creation of a Social Welfare Committee and Bureau. He wanted Synod to take a direct role in the delivery of what was coming to be called social welfare. He also had families in poverty in mind, especially where there was no male breadwinner. The Committee began in 1942 with a group of senior clergy and laypeople, with the bishop as chairman.

It was not till 1947 that the Committee had enough funds and a satisfactory constitution to proceed with the creation of the Welfare Bureau. Joy MacLennan (pictured, right) was appointed as Organising Secretary and social worker. She served till 1975. Some applicants wanted help in placing children, others needed clothing, funds, or specialised support which might be found by referring them to hospitals or other agencies. It was a struggle to raise enough funds to pay the salaries and travel costs of the staff. Much good work was done for many years by the jumble marts, especially in O’Connell St North Adelaide. 

The Committee cooperated with the Sisters of the Community of the Holy Name (CHN) to open a hostel for homeless people in Wellington Square in 1945. It only lasted a few months, then the Sisters switched to running the house as a hostel for students and young working girls. When the CHN withdrew from this work the GFS operated the hostel for the committee for a few years before it was sold.

The Committee quickly discovered, as did many other social welfare organisations, that there was a desperate need for accommodation for the aged, the result in part of poor economic opportunities in the 1930s. It struggled to raise funds, to press state and federal governments for support and to locate suitable properties. The first was at Grange (1949).

The provision of Commonwealth funding in 1955 made it possible for a number of agencies to build better facilities. Gradually they realised that many old people needed nursing home care not dissimilar from that available in hospitals. Alongside this by the 1960s was a rising demand for hostel facilities – the original ‘old folks home’ model, but now expressed as private rooms decently furnished and supported by a rising number of other facilities including a chapel if at all possible.

Further aged care facilities were established (at Westbourne Park in the 1970’s, at Elizabeth in the 1980’s and 90’s) using both Commonwealth funding as available, and some generous bequests.

Meanwhile the attitudes to the care of families and children were being challenged. By the 1970s few unwed mothers were ready to surrender their children. The House of Mercy closed in the 1960s, St Mary’s moved to Prospect, then in the mid-1970s the three child care agencies coalesced into the Anglican Child Care services, which became part of the Diocesan social welfare responsibility and enabled different types of child support services to be developed, including services for children with an intellectual disability. As the Diocesan Social Welfare Committee now managed both the Aged Care services and the expanding Child Care Services, the total organisation was renamed Anglican Community Services.

It became Anglicare SA in 1997, which gave it participation in a nationally recognisable Anglican social welfare system while retaining local control. Until 2000 it continued as a department responsible to Synod, but that year, the need for independent financial and legal identity, driven largely by the many contracts undertaken on behalf of state and federal governments, saw its incorporation.

Today Anglicare SA has a budget of $38M, houses aged people in both independent and supported facilities, and provides a variety of family and community services. It has a paid staff of over 875, and a volunteer force of 809, plus 400 foster carers. It is separately incorporated, but remains linked to the Anglican church. Anglicare's services, as always, are open to all.