Information

Tufnell Home was a boy’s home that was an important social institute of Brisbane, housing orphans, homeless and others. In May 1893 the Sisters of the Sacred Advent offered to provide one year’s training and preparation for domestic service to orphan girls of 12 and 13 years. To care for the homeless girls the Sisters occupied the recently closed Eton Boys School at Nundah. The home was known as ‘Home of the Good Shepherd’ and was officially opened in July 1893 by Lady Norman, wife of the Governor of Queensland. The work began with 15–30 State children and expanded the next year with the Sisters offering to receive, for private payment, orphans or children with one parent living. From 1895 the Sisters endeavoured to raise funds to purchase their own building. A gift from Mrs Tufnell, in memory of her late husband, Bishop Edward Wyndham Tufnell, the first Anglican bishop of Queensland from 1859 to 1875, was put aside for this purpose. A further donation in 1900 from Mrs Tufnell resulted in a property, with a good house, being purchased from Mr Charles Gardner, owner of the Nundah Coal Mine. The new home, to be named Tufnell Home, was adapted to accommodate about 50 children and was already full when it opened on 6 February 1901. In 1914 a chapel was built and dedicated on Whitsunday, 2 June 1914 as the Chapel of the Good Shepherd. By late 1971 the management of the Home passed to the Anglican Diocese. The role of the Home gradually changed. However, older children stayed at the Home to complete their education until 1991. The original home bought by the Sisters has been demolished but the chapel and other buildings built since the 1960s are still standing.

Citations

Ray Kerkhove, 2015, Aboriginal Campsites of Greater Brisbane (Salisbury: Boolarong), 59; From Pioneering Days—Nundah Northgate Virginia. Nundah & Districts Historical Society

Image Citations

Map References

MLMS. 8 chain series 1904–1917—Brisbane. 8 chains to the inch. Cadastral map of Brisbane and Suburbs sheet 2. MLMS 8 Chain