Child Care In Subiaco - A Brief History.
There are all kinds of wonderful documents about the history of a suburb that can be found in the local studies section of a local library in Western Australia.
'Child Care in Subiaco - A Brief History' is a document about the history of child care in Subiaco from 1925. The document is part of the City of Subiaco Municipal Archives Collection, a record of the city's history since its designation as a roads board in 1896. The local document can be found in the Evelyn H. Parker Library.
The document describes how the Subiaco Council has been involved in providing child care since 1925. The document provides only a brief history of the physical spaces involving infant and child care but not does not provide an account of the services provided despite the demand for infant health services leading to the building of WA's reputed first purpose built infant health centre in Subiaco.
Articles from newspapers on Trove, the database at the National Library of Australia in the early years have a detailed account of the services conducted for infant health care in Subiaco and by the nursing sister in charge.
The early services involved the mothers and babies visiting a centre for a check up, and the sister in charge provided assistance and advice and referred those mothers and infants in need to a doctor. The sister also provided visits to the homes of mothers and babies. This assistance and advice was in addition to the work being done by doctors and community members who supported the centres.
In 1926 the Social Service Workers were interested in establishing a list of families interested in supporting mothers and children who needed to go into hospital for medical treatment but had no suitable people to care for their children. The centres depended on donations and fund raising (West Australian 4 November, 1926).
Over 90 years later in 2020 the Subiaco Council's involvement in child care takes a number of forms including children's centres, before and after school care and vacation care, playgroup, children's library, library story times for young children, book week for school children and providing play equipment in it's various parks.
The document is available in the Local Studies section of Subiaco Library and has been edited for copyright reasons. No copyright infringement intended.
The photographs are from Trove, the database of the National Library of Australia. No copyright infringement intended.
"...Child Care in Subiaco - A Brief History
Council has been involved with child care in Subiaco since 1925 when, upon recommendations made by the Minister for Public Health that local authorities should establish infant health services, the Subiaco Infant Health Association was formed and accommodated in the King Edward Memorial Hospital (KEMH) and an annual subsidy to the Association pledged by the Council.
Demands for the service soon dictated that sub-branches be opened and in 1927 the Shenton Park sub-branch opened in the Shenton Park Progress Association's Progress Hall at 308 Onslow Road. Facilities at the hall did not however suit the purposes of the clinic and it was relocated in 1930 to 334 Onslow Road, a weatherboard and asbestos building funded by the Shenton Park sub-branch of the Subiaco Infant Health Association and repute to be WA's first purpose built health centre. The clinic was sited on land leased from the Council and in 1935 a hall was added from which a kindergarten service was run by the sub-branch until 1948 with only a short break to the service during the war...
By 1950 the Subiaco Infant Health Association based at KEMH had to find new premises. Temporary accommodation was found in Rokeby Road while Council negotiated the purchase and refurbishing of the old school master's building in Hamersley Road for the purpose of a permanent infant health centre. The City of Subiaco Infant Health Centre, as it was known, was opened in 1954 and serviced the Association until 1969 when temporary accommodation was found in Rokeby Road, this time in the form of the old Council Chambers, while Council replaced the old centre in Hamersley Road with the dual purpose Rose Fuhrmann Centre. Named after a City of Subiaco Councillor and then President of the Association, the Centre still serves today as an infant health and preschool centre...
The trend of Council support for child care in the area continued and in 1985 Council provided initial administrative assistance and carried out landscaping, reticulation and footpath works to the new Government funded Subiaco Child Care Centre in Bagot Road.
Today, Council's involvement in child care services in Subiaco is still extensive and includes maintenance of the Shenton Park Child Care Centre in Onslow Road, the Rose Fuhrmann Centre in Hamersley Road, the Subiaco Playgroup buildings on the Nicholson Road Reserve and the Shenton Park Community Center in Onslow Road and in the case of the latter, the provision of a centre manager..."
