Berry Street preserves and holds historical records for all services. Heritage Services work with people who spent time in care at Berry Street, Sutherland Homes and Lisa Lodge to access their records.
This is a confidential, free service for care leavers and their families.
Berry Street's history
From 1877, many children were placed in Berry Street's care, formerly known as ‘The Victorian Infant Asylum and Foundling Hospital’ and the 'Berry Street Babies Home’.
There are 3 agencies that are now collectively known as Berry Street:
- Sutherland Homes for Children in Diamond Creek: established in 1909 and amalgamated with Berry Street in 1994
- Lisa Lodge in Ballarat: established in 1970 and merged with Berry Street in 2012
- Berry Street.
Heritage Services
Berry Street preserves and holds records and information for all Berry Street services.
The Heritage Services' focus is on providing access to records for care leavers, adoptees and their families.
The content of records varies depending on the era it was created, with earlier records consisting mainly of register book entries and more recent records of a larger volume.
After you submit an enquiry, you can choose to not continue with it at any point.
Services available
The Past Client and Heritage Services provides 2 types of support:
- Berry Street record searches: access to and copies of care leaver records held by Berry Street
- supported access to records held by Berry Street.
Record searches
Types of records held:
- records of children who were in our care (this may include admission forms, register entries, ‘boarding out’ information, residential and foster care records, Looking After Children records, care plans and photos),
- records of counselling, therapy and education services.
Supported release of records
Care leavers can access support in a range of areas:
- when applying for and receiving record,
- with in-person (or video conference) record access,
- after receiving records,
- with referrals to relevant agencies,
- regarding allegations or complaints,
- transcribing.
How care leavers can make a complaint to Berry Street
If you are a care leaver who experienced abuse in care with Berry Street you can lodge a complaint with us or make an application through the National Redress Scheme.
Find out how to lodge a complaint.
Complaints from past care leavers.
If you would like to speak to a Heritage services member about a complaint please email redress@berrystreet.org.au
Apologies
We are dedicated to learning lessons from the past, and commit ourselves to ensuring that everybody across the whole organisation will work together so that the mistakes of the past are not repeated.
Read Berry Street's Apologies to those who suffered harm in our care.
Request your records