Australian Orphanage Museum to open permanent home in 2021 at Ryrie St property

A well-placed piece of Geelong real estate will be transformed into a national museum with major importance in developing “a sense of belonging” for those who grew up orphanages and other care settings.

A well-placed piece of Geelong real estate will be transformed into the Australian Orphanage Museum and develop “a sense of belonging” for those who grew up orphanages and other care settings.

Following a year of searching for properties in Geelong, the Care Leavers Australasian Network will establish a museum at 351 Ryrie St, Geelong which is due to open next year.

It will feature a collection of artefacts, memorabilia and photographs from orphanages around the country.

CLAN chief executive Leonie Sheedy said the museum was deeply important for all

care leavers and their families.

“It will trigger a lot of emotions but there’s also a wonderful sense of belonging,” Ms Sheedy

said.

“Most importantly, it acknowledges care leavers’ history, which is extremely important

to all of us and should also be recognised by the whole Australian community.

“What happened to us – the sexual violence, institutionalised abuse, the emotional cruelty,

the separation of our families, the child labour and the loneliness and isolation – must never

be swept under the carpet again.

CLAN chief executive Leonie Sheedy, left, and CLAN president Robert House outside the Ryrie St house that will be the home of the Australian Orphanage Museum.

“We were just children and we had no-one to turn to. Many clannies have given large financial donations to the museum. That shows the value they place in the orphanage museum.”

Ms Sheedy said the federal government committed $2 million toward the museum on top of other donations.

Ms Sheedy said the Australian Orphanage Museum would be established in Geelong because the district had housed 13 orphanages, the most outside any capital city in Australia.

“Even with COVID, 160 people visited the interim museum (in Geelong) after we opened it in October 2019.”

She said state governments, churches and charities ran more than 900 orphanages,

children’s homes, training schools and missions that housed hundreds of thousands of

Australian children.

New home of the Australian Orphanage Museum in Geelong. picture: Glenn Ferguson

Last year, CLAN had hoped to buy the Old Geelong Orphanage Asylum and Common School on McCurdy Rd but were left bitterly disappointed when it sold to a private buyer for multi-million-dollar sum.

CLAN had hoped to buy the property because of the children that lived there between 1854 and 1933.

Ms Sheedy thanked Kevin Roache, Brendan O’Loan from St Quentin consulting, MPs Richard Marles and John Eren, and the City of Greater Geelong council for help they provided CLAN.

Photographs or memorabilia from orphanages can be donated by emailing CLAN at: [e-mail]

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Originally published as Australian Orphanage Museum to open permanent home in 2021 at Ryrie St property