{"id":17721,"date":"2020-10-07T21:14:43","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T10:14:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.phototimetunnel.com\/?p=17721"},"modified":"2020-10-08T16:39:35","modified_gmt":"2020-10-08T05:39:35","slug":"woodlands-and-ellimatta-homes-for-boys-and-girls-in-the-1940s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.phototimetunnel.com\/woodlands-and-ellimatta-homes-for-boys-and-girls-in-the-1940s","title":{"rendered":"Woodlands and Ellimatta homes for boys and girls in the 1940s"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

While scanning some negatives taken in the late 1940s by former Newcastle press photographer Milton Merrilees, I struck a batch labelled “Woodlands” and “Ellimatta”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ellimatta home for girls at East Maitland, late 1940s. Photo by Milton Merrilees<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Having grown up in South Wallsend I was familiar with Woodlands as a home for boys. I recall meeting some of the boys who lived there, either through soccer or school. I had never heard of Ellimatta, but quickly discovered that it was a home for girls, run by the same organisation that operated Woodlands. This organisation was the United Protestant Association, launched by Thomas Agst in the mid-1940s. He and his wife Rosetta lived in Grafton and in 1938 they took seven young children into their home, adding to their existing family of two children. The couple quickly realised that such large-scale caring needed more resources than they had at hand, and they started the UPA to fill the demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pages from a 1968 publication by the United Protestant Association<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The UPA grew rapidly across NSW and it took over Woodlands, a former colliery manager’s house, in 1944. It was a time of wartime austerity, and Woodlands’ 8-acre grounds were used to grow food and raise poultry, both to feed its residents and to raise funds for their upkeep. To begin with Woodlands housed both boys and girls, but the girls were moved to Ellimatta, at Maitland, which was bought by the UPA in 1945.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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