Ngala Mothercraft training centre and home, Kensington
130 Years
Ngala operated beneath the banner of many different names, including The House of Mercy, Alexandra Home for Women/ Mothers and Babies and Ngal-a Mothercraft Home. Is regarded to beone of the states oldest NGO’s.
Unlike the other forced adoption institutions in WA, The Alexandra Home / Ngala had no religious affliations, however operations were underpinned by a committee of elite women from Perth society.
The government funded purpose built facility opened in 1959 at Kensington, where unmarried mothers lived and worked for many months as unpaid domestics until they gave birth at either KEMH or South Perth Community Hospital. Their newborns were later transferred seperately, back to Ngala and held at an onsite nursery for weeks and months, until they were collected by adoptive parents. Mothers were prohibited from seeing their newborns at Ngala, yet some nursing staff would secretly take them to hold their baby before they left the facility to return to their former lives. Personal records are available and are held by the Department of Communities.
The State Library of WA and the WA State Archives both hold a signficant collection of Ngala records and documents, some of which will require the permission of the Ngala CEO.
