1964: Allambie Nursery

Following the opening of the nursery at Allambie in 1964 an existing nursery at Turana was able to be converted for use by the Youth Welfare Division.  This move to Allambie meant that babies and toddlers of both sexes could be accommodated together.

Along with the Nursery housing babies and toddlers, in the 1970s, Allambie consisted Waratah, Kurrajong and Mimosa which accommodated groups of mixed age and sex enabling sibling groups to be placed together. In addition ‘Tecoma’ accommodated up to 10 school-age boys and ‘Heath/Cassia’ accommodated 22 adolescent girls.

Many accounts of siblings separated from each other question the extent to which the mixed groups worked, one former resident, who was at Allambie in 1974, made contact with the Find & Connect web resource to point out that she was separated from her younger brother.