The Bungalow
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The Bungalow was an institution for Aboriginal children established in 1914 in
Alice Springs Alice Springs ( aer, Mparntwe) is the third-largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Known as Stuart until 31 August 1933, the name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd (''née'' Al ...
in the
Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...
of Australia. It existed at several locations in
Alice Springs Alice Springs ( aer, Mparntwe) is the third-largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Known as Stuart until 31 August 1933, the name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd (''née'' Al ...
(then called Stuart), Jay Creek and the
Alice Springs Telegraph Station The Alice Springs Telegraph Station is located within the Alice Springs Telegraph Station Historical Reserve, four kilometres north of the Alice Springs town centre in the Northern Territory of Australia. Established in 1872 to relay messages be ...
.


Background

From 1911 the
Commonwealth Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Government ...
gained control of the Northern Territory from
South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
. It then came under the jurisdiction of the
Department of External Affairs In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...
. In July 1913, Senior Constable
Robert Stott Robert Stott (13 July 1858 – 21 April 1928) was a constable and later police commissioner in the Northern Territory of Australia. Early life Robert Stott was born in the blacksmith's croft at Nigg in Kincardineshire, Scotland, the son ...
in Stuart (now Alice Springs) wrote to the Secretary of the Department of External Affairs
Atlee Hunt Atlee Arthur Hunt (7 November 186419 September 1935) was a senior official in the Australian Public Service. He was appointed Secretary of the Department of External Affairs in 1901, the year of Australia's Federation. Life and career Atlee H ...
describing the need for a government school in the town. In January 1914, the Administrator of the Northern Territory, J.A. Gilruth, visited Stuart. He also stated his belief that the government should provide a school, noting that "there would be eleven school-age white children, four
quadroon In the colonial societies of the Americas and Australia, a quadroon or quarteron was a person with one quarter African/ Aboriginal and three quarters European ancestry. Similar classifications were octoroon for one-eighth black (Latin root ''octo ...
s and some
half caste Half-caste (an offensive term for the offspring of parents of different racial groups or cultures) is a term used for individuals of multiracial descent. It is derived from the term '' caste'', which comes from the Latin ''castus'', meaning p ...
children" who should receive some sort of education. He proposed the erection of a teacher's residence with classroom attached.PDF
/ref> In March 1914, Stott telegraphed Gilruth advising that a building where he kept rations for Aboriginal people could be converted temporarily into a classroom. On the same day Gilruth advised that arrangements were being made with the South Australian Director of Education to procure a teacher. The first teacher was Ida Standley, who departed for Stuart from
Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
, South Australia, on 6 May 1914. Her salary was £150 per annum. The school opened in June with 25 students. Standley taught the white children for four-and-a-half hours each morning at the police station. After lunch, 14 "half-caste" children joined her class for one-and-a-half hours. Standley sometimes provided evening classes to "half-caste" adults at The Bungalow. Overnight these "half-caste" children were cared for by Topsy Smith, an
Arabana The Arabana, also known as the Ngarabana, are an Aboriginal Australian people of South Australia. Name The older tribal Exonym and endonym, autonym was Ngarabana, which may have been misheard by white settlers as Arabana, the term now generall ...
woman who had recently arrived in Stuart, following the death of her husband Bill Smith, a miner working in
Arltunga Arltunga is a deserted gold rush town located in the Northern Territory of Australia in the locality of Hart about east of Alice Springs. It is of major historical significance as the first major European settlement in Central Australia. Earl ...
. Smith and seven of her eleven "half-caste" children, were given a tent by Stott, who informed the Administrator that there was no other accommodation for her family. He suggested that two township allotments near the Police Station, and behind the
Stuart Arms Hotel The Stuart Arms Hotel was the first hotel in Alice Springs, Northern Territory (which was originally called Stuart). Located on the corner of Parsons and Todd Street, it was centre of social life for 96 years. History The Stuart Arms Hotel was ...
, should be reserved for the use "half-castes". The Administrator agreed to this, and authorised the building of an iron shed and Topsy Smith was placed in charge of it under the supervision of Sergeant Stott and, by November 1914, she was caring for 16 children. This number continued to grow rapidly with light-skinned children being picked up from Aboriginal camps and placed there. Also in 1914, Standley agreed to accept the position of matron with an extra remuneration of £50 per annum, and they began working together. This became known as The Bungalow although it is unclear who came up with that name or exactly when and, although it conjures up a homely image, the place "soon degenerated to a wretched hovel". Living conditions behind the Stuart Arms Hotel were far from ideal and, despite the great effort of both Topsy Smith and Ida Standley, to keep the place clean and the children clothed. Food was limited and the children would often hang around the Stuart Arms Hotel looking for scraps. Additionally toilet and washing facilities were primitive and there were few proper beds with the residents huddling together on the floor in winter and camping outdoors, and under the trees, in summer. The Bungalow remained in the hotel's "backyard" until 1928 when they were moved out to Jay Creek


Jay Creek

As the number of children living at The Bungalow grew to over 60 and there were increasing concerns over conditions there, and, in June 1925 the Secretary of the Aborigines Friends Association John H. Sexton stated "the environment of the Bungalow for half caste children is not conducive to their best interests". An additional concern was what would happen to the girls living at The Bungalow with the influx of construction workers to Stuart working on the approaching railway line. A new site, west of Stuart, was identified at Jay Creek and a significant amount of developments were promised but were delayed, and a new site searched for when reliable water could not be found nearby. However, ultimately the plan was rushed as government officials were concerned what would happen to the girls living at The Bungalow with the influx of construction workers to Stuart working on the approaching railway line. So, in November 1928, Topsy Smith and Ida Standely, both of whom had wanted to leave, moved to Jay Creek with the Bungalow children (26 boys and 19 girls made the move) and living conditions there were just as poor as they were in town. During this period, between 1928 and 1929, the home was supervised by
Ernest Eugene Kramer Ernest Eugene Kramer (10 May 1889 – 16 February 1958) was a non-denominational itinerant missionary who worked in Central Australia, mostly Alice Springs, from 1913 until 1934 who is known for his camel train caravan mission. Kramer was respon ...
; alongside his wife Euphemia. By 1932, the institution had "water problems" and a new site was proposed at the Alice Springs Telegraph Station.


Alice Springs Telegraph Station

In 1932, The Bungalow moved to the old
Alice Springs Telegraph Station The Alice Springs Telegraph Station is located within the Alice Springs Telegraph Station Historical Reserve, four kilometres north of the Alice Springs town centre in the Northern Territory of Australia. Established in 1872 to relay messages be ...
, was proclaimed an
Aboriginal reserve An Aboriginal reserve, also called simply reserve, was a government-sanctioned settlement for Aboriginal Australians, created under various state and federal legislation. Along with missions and other institutions, they were used from the 19th c ...
on 8 December 1932 with an area of ; this made the land officially "off-limits" for non-Aboriginal people. The site had been vacated by the telegraph staff in the months before and significant alterations were made to the buildings and genuine effort was put in to making it comfortable with, amongst other additions, a large corrugated-iron dormitory was built with rows of double bunks where girls slept in the eastern wings and boys in the western and, for the first time, flushing toilets were available. Emily Liddle (née Perkins), who was 11 when she moved to the new location said: "When we came here, Telegraph, we were shocked to see beds and mattresses. Coming into a mansion after sleeping on concrete floors. We were shocked really... We rushed around and they said, oh, they even got a shower and bathtubs." However, the new site was soon overcrowded, and it appeared that not enough resources were made available; this was particularly apparent after 33 boys were moved from Pine Creek. In 1934 the Superintendent of The Bungalow, Gordon Keith Freeman, who had been appointed in 1930, was arrested for the rape of a 16-year-old girl in the dormitories late at night. This girl bravely wrote a letter to the Deputy Administrator
Victor Carrington Victor George Carrington was an Australian administrator. He was the second and last Government Resident of Central Australia, the short lived Territory of Australia which re-merged with the Territory of North Australia in 1931 to form the No ...
to report the rape and begun her letter with the words "I am longing to have someone help me". Carrington took immediate action and took sworn statements from other girls at The Bungalow and from staff and sadly found that it had not been an isolated incident and, in the subsequent trial, the accuser and five of her fellow Bungalow residents gave damning evidence against him; additional evidence was given by
Hetty Perkins Hetty Perkins ( – 8 December 1979) was an elder of the Eastern Arrernte people, an Aboriginal group from Central Australia. Several of her descendants have had prominent careers in various fields, both in the Northern Territory and in other ...
. Freeman was found guilty, dismissed from his position, and fined £100, but being unable to pay was instead sentenced for three months. Many people did not think this was a suitable punishment with some believing it was too light and many that it was too harsh and, ultimately, he served only 30 days of the sentence. The Bungalow closed in 1942 when children were evacuated south in response to
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. The majority of the children from the institution were sent south to
Mulgoa Mulgoa is a village, located in the local government area of the City of Penrith, in the region of western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Mulgoa is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district. Mu ...
in New South Wales and
Balaklava Balaklava ( uk, Балаклáва, russian: Балаклáва, crh, Balıqlava, ) is a settlement on the Crimean Peninsula and part of the city of Sevastopol. It is an administrative center of Balaklava Raion that used to be part of the Crim ...
in South Australia. Following this the army transformed the buildings into a labour camp for Aboriginal workers during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. The Bungalow reopened in 1945 as an Aboriginal reserve for adult workers, eventually closing in 1960.


Notable people


Residents

*
Edith Espie Edith Espie (1903 – 1983) was a Western Arrernte foster mother and lay social worker in Alice Springs, Australia. Biography Born at Jay Creek, near Alice Springs, Australia, Espie lived at The Bungalow, an institution for Aboriginal childr ...
, jockey and community leader *Topsy Glynn, and her two daughters **
Freda Glynn Alfreda "Freda" Glynn (born 24 August 1939), also known as Freda Thornton, is a Kaytetye photographer and media specialist. She is known as co-founder of the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association Group of Companies, which incorporate ...
, co-founder of
CAAMA The Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) is an organisation founded in 1980 to expose Aboriginal music and culture to the rest of Australia. It started with 8KIN-FM, the first Aboriginal radio station in the country. Based in ...
** Rona Glynn, first Indigenous teacher and nurse in Alice Springs * Alec Kruger, activist *
Herbie Laughton Herbert Patrick Laughton, (7 February 1927 - 2 December 2012) was a country singer from Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. He is also a member of the Stolen Generations. In 2005 he was inducted into the hall of fame at Music N ...
, country music singer *
Gloria Ouida Lee Gloria Ouida Lee or Siew Yoke Kwan (née Hong), also known as Gloria Purdy-Lee (14 July 1908 – 13 April 1995) was a Chinese-Australian miner. She was the daughter of Alice Springs Chinese Market gardener Ah Hong and his Western Arrernte wife R ...
, a
Chinese Australian Chinese Australians () are Australians of Chinese ancestry. Chinese Australians are one of the largest groups within the global Chinese diaspora, and are the largest Asian Australian community. Per capita, Australia has more people of Chinese ...
miner * Bob Randall, elder, singer and community leader * Alec Ross, tour guide


Staff

*
Hetty Perkins Hetty Perkins ( – 8 December 1979) was an elder of the Eastern Arrernte people, an Aboriginal group from Central Australia. Several of her descendants have had prominent careers in various fields, both in the Northern Territory and in other ...
* Topsy Smith * Ida Standley


See also

*
Stolen Generations The Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen Children) were the children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian federal and state government agencies and church miss ...


References

{{reflist


External links


The birthplace and history of Alice Springs

''Bringing them Home Report''
(1997) Child-related organisations in Australia Public schools in the Northern Territory