Challoner Cottage is a heritage-listed former children's home dormitory at 82 Bong Bong Road, Renwick, in the Southern Highlands region of New South Wales, Australia. It is also known as Cottage No. 12 or the Old Dormitory Building. It is a surviving feature of the institution variously known as the Mittagong Training School for Boys and Mittagong (later Renwick) Farm Home, State Ward Home or Children's Home. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 28 March 2014.
History
Aboriginal land Gundungurra or Gandangarra people lived in the Southern Highlands area, which includes Mittagong, for many thousands of years. People who spoke the Gundungurra language lived in the Blue Mountains, the Southern Highlands and the Goulburn Plains of New South Wales. They lived in small groups of extended family members, who were attached to particular areas of country. After Anglo-European settlers caused displacement of Gundungurra people, they often worked on farms or grazing properties within and adjacent to their traditional land.Di Johnson: 2004 in SHR database 5045486 Gundungurra groups left archaeological evidence of their occupation throughout their traditional lands, including scarred trees where bark was removed for use as a boat or other object, grinding grooves on rocks where axes were ground, and occupation sites which include middens. Well-worn Gundungurra pathways on ridge tops were often the routes used as the first roads by colonists.Di Johnson 2004 Possibly this could have been the origin of the Old South Road which borders part of the Renwick site.SHR database 5045486
Colonisation Early European explorers visited the area in the 1810s. The earliest road was the Old South Road to the east of the later township of Mittagong. An inn was established at the property facing the Old South Road by George Cutter and opened as the Kangaroo Inn in 1827, following the initial grant of land 1823. When the main road to the south was relocated by Surveyor General Thomas Mitchell in 1830 to its present location through Mittagong and Berrima, the coaching trade declined and the inn was sold to explorer Charles Sturt in 1836 who apparently used it as a residence. Surviving evidence of the inn became part of Renwick Farm Home and the early 19th century buildings became incorporated into Hassall and Jefferis Cottages.
Two nearby early 19th century Crown land grants in the area went to Robert Plumb and one to John Thomas Wilson. On these lands the Southwood Estate was established and came under the ownership of Stephen John Pearson and John Douse Langley. The western half of the Southwood Estate was subdivided in 1886. The balance of the estate including the eastern side (approximately 397 acres) was purchased by the government in 1907 for use as a farm for delinquent boys. This land along with some later purchases became the Mittagong Farm Homes (later Renwick Home). By 1918 Renwick was 427 acres.Tanner 2005
Institutionalising children In the 19th century there were several large institutions operating as orphanages and reform schools in the colony of NSW. These included the Female Orphan School (1801 - 1850), the Male Orphan School (1818 - 1850), Randwick Asylum for Destitute Children (1852 -1916) and the Protestant Orphan School (1850 - 1886). In the 1870s Judge Winderer headed a Royal Commission on Public Charities and its two reports of 1873 and 1874 advocated a "boarding-out" or fostering system rather than the large orphanages of the day. This boarding-out system was similar in many respects to modern day foster-care. The State Children's Relief Board, which was constituted by Parliament in 1881 to remove children from orphanages and place them in foster care. However some children were considered to need different forms of care because they were crippled, mentally disabled and or suffering from disease. In his second Annual Report, Dr Arthur Renwick, chair of the board, advocated for special cottages to be established for the care of these children. Early in 1885, four Cottage Homes were established: two at Pennant Hills and one each at Picton and Mittagong. Mittagong soon became a popular place to send unwell children, as it provided, "a wholesome country environment essential for building up their health". Some children attended the local school, others only convalesced. Soon there were six cottages around Mittagong.Downie 2013
Mittagong Farm Home By 1886, Dr Renwick was advocating the purchase of a farm which would provide milk, fruit and vegetables that the children needed. He also advocated that the cottages should be purpose-built for the children. Thus in 1896, 100 acres of the "Southwood Estate" (on which there stood a commodious cottage) were leased for a five-year period.
In 1900, the first of some "otherwise unmanageable" boys were sent to Mittagong. They were put to work at the "Cottage Farm Home". This name was changed to The Farm Home, Mittagong, in 1902. It was an auxiliary to the Cottage Homes, which were now designated for use by "the crippled and feeble minded". Thus the dual roles of Mittagong homes were established, a role that was to exist until 1976.
On 5 June 1906 in accordance with the provisions of the Neglected Children and Juvenile Offenders Act, 1905 the Farm Home for Boys at Mittagong was proclaimed an Industrial School and a Probationary Training Home for delinquent boys aged 8 to 17. These were boys convicted in the Children's Courts of less serious offences including truanting, being uncontrollable, being neglected and wandering, breaching probation, stealing, and breaking and entering. 81 boys were admitted in the first six months.
Hassel Cottage was opened as a "Probationary Training Home" in 1906, and the ten years that followed saw the building of Haydon, Goodlet, Renwick, Mackellar and De Lauret Cottages. A superintendent's cottage was constructed in 1910 and remained in use until 1966, when it was extended to allow accommodation for boys. Turner Cottage was built on The Lindens Estate in 1915, originally as a cottage for mentally defective girls, then was later used as the Cottage Hospital until the Hospital moved to the Farm Home.
After acquisition of the freehold title in 1906 the Board instigated extensive capital improvements which made the estate a successful working farm. Initial improvements included a silo, steam engine and wood cutting machinery. Large areas were cultivated for vegetables with six acres set aside as a training plot. There was also a piggery, orchard, dairy, stables, coach house and dams. The Farm was worked by the residents and ran self-sufficiently for many years. The most intensive agriculture on the farm was the orchard and associated packing, sorting and jam making facilities. By the 1950s the Farm had a dairy herd of 70 cows, an orchard which supplied the home and other institutions with apples, plums, etc. and a small cannery.
Industrial activities also took place on the Farm - boot making, tailoring and carpentry instructors provided training in industrial trades on the site for residents. Boys also received training during the construction phases on site in building trades such as brick-laying, plumbing and painting. The bricks for the building works were also manufactured on site by the boys.
The boys were in the charge of an attendant and matron (usually a married couple). Boys under 14 (and older boys with a low standard of education) attended lower Mittagong Public School. The older boys, under the supervision of the attendant, worked on the Farm lands adjacent to the Home cultivating fruit and vegetables, dairying and raising poultry. Most boys stayed at Mittagong for short periods. Boys who were responsive to the program at Mittagong were released on probation to a relative, boarded-out or apprenticed out, and those who showed no evidence of reform were sent to the Farm Home for Boys, Gosford.
During the years of World War I, Aboriginal children were admitted to the Farm in response to the Aborigines Protection Amendment Act which was causing the removal of Aboriginal children from their families. Although a Royal Commission in 1920 recommended against placing Aboriginal children in the same homes as white children, residents have confirmed that many of the children at the Farm were Aboriginal.
By 1919, there were 230 children, some going to school and others involved in training programmes, including orcharding, dairying, general farming, tailoring, boot making, carpentry and poultry, and pig farming. During the 1930s, Suttor Cottage was built to house mentally defective boys, and used for this purpose until the closure of the old Mittagong Public School next to Turner Cottage; the boys were then transferred to Turner Cottage, and Turners old school then functioned as a truant school. There was a fairly strong feeling amongst the townspeople of Mittagong to have all the cottages centralised on "Southwood Estate". This led to the buying of "Rotherwood", a property on which the Rotherwood cottage was built. The original house on the property was used as the Hospital Cottage until its closure in 1976.
A large increase in delinquents led to the opening of Challoner Cottage in the early 1940s. In December 1948 eight cottages existed for delinquents, three for state wards and one hospital cottage, with the population fluctuating between 200 and 250 children.Downie 2013 Initially the cottages were referred to by number but over time were assigned names. Challoner Cottage was also known as Cottage 12.
From 1947 the Institution was called the Mittagong Training School for Boys. On 23 August 1974 a new cottage for younger boys was opened, enabling a maximum population of 180 boys. The average stay at the institution was four to five months.
The Mittagong Training School for Boys was gradually phased out as a Home for Delinquent Boys. In 1968 Linden was built for girls, Garran in 1969, for girls and Rotherwood in 1969 for boys. In 1964, delinquent numbers increased, this led to the demolishing and rebuilding of DeLauret. Also in that year Linden became the first co-ed cottage. This was such a success that Garran and Rotherwood became co-ed in 1976.
On 30 June 1976 only 33 boys were in residence. In August 1976 the Institution ceased to operate as a Training Centre and the remaining boys were transferred to Ormond House, Thornleigh. Subsequently, Mittagong Training School for Boys was established as a home for dependent children and became part of the newly named centre, Renwick.
In 1976 the Training School for Boys at Mittagong was officially closed and the following cottages ceased to be used: Hassal, Jefferis, Renwick, Mackellar, Goodlet and Heydon, along with the Hospital Cottage. The 200 residents at that time were either discharge or transferred to other centres. The property was renamed Renwick in honour of the first president of the State Children's Relief Board, Sir Arthur Renwick. Challoner and De Lauret cottages were adapted to accommodate male and female State wards. By the 1980s, 160 state wards were accommodated at: Turner, Waverley and Lindon in Mittagong, and Rotherwood, Garran and Suttor on the Southwood Estate and DeLauret and Rowe along Bong Bong Road. Challoner ceased being used for delinquent boys in 1978. Renwick finally closed in 1994.
Challoner Cottage