Appalled by conditions at Adelaide's destitute asylum, headmaster's wife Julia Farr starts girls orphanage in 1860
Julia Farr and her first South Australian welfare project: the Anglican Orphan Home, opened in 1861, in the former German and British hospital building in Carrington Street, Adelaide city.
Images courtesy State Library of South Australia
Julia Farr came to South Australia in 1854 in a supporting role as the frail wife of St Peter’s College’s second headmaster: the popular and effective George Farr.
Ultimately, Julia Farr's legacy to South Australia proved as lasting as her husband’s. But she began life in the colony by devotedly helped her husband at the college. Besides supervising the dairy and poultry, she took over the running St Peter’s boarding school.
After visits with her friend Caroline Emily Clark, Farr was saddened by the plight of girls in the province’s destitute asylum off North Terrace in Adelaide city.
In 1860, she gathered a committee of like-minded women to provide the girls with a home and training them towards earning their own living. After initially opening at Stepney, the Anglican Orphan Home began on her birthday, August 14, 1861, in the former German and British hospital building in Carrington Street, Adelaide city, but later moved to 588 Fullarton Road, Mitcham. In 1935, it was renamed Farr House.
Julie Farr’s place on the Orphan Home committee was taken over eventually by her daughter Julia, granddaughter Mary Clift and great granddaughter Joan Clift.
George Farr retired from St Peter’s College in 1878 and Julia helped him with parish work at St. Luke’s Church in Whitmore Square.
Julia Farr also turned her energies to planning a home for those with physical disabilities. The first committee was founded in 1878 and a house was bought in Fisher Street, Fullarton, where the building remains.
When the demand grew, more buildings were added and, in 1906, when Julia Farr was 82, she laid the foundation stone of a new wing. For more than a century, the home was known as the Home for Incurables but, in 1981, it was renamed the Julia Farr Centre (and later Julia Farr Services).
