VPRS 18006 Intake and Admission Forms (Winbirra Remand Centre)

Full description

This series comprises of intake and admission forms from Winbirra Remand Centre. Winbirra functioned as a remand centre for 14-21 year old girls who had been charged with criminal offences or with protection orders. These girls were held for 3-4 days until their court appearance. They could then be re-remanded by the courts to Winbirra for two to three weeks until a further court appearance. The forms were filled in by staff about each remandee as she was admitted to the centre. Intake report forms were used for this purpose until 1983, when they were replaced by admission forms. The two forms had the same function and contained the same information.

This information comprised:
- remandee's name
- date of birth
- parents' name and addresses
- court appearance date
- information about family circumstances
- description of the remandee's appearance and behaviour whilst on remand
- description of the circumstances leading to arrest.

In 1989, Trainee Information Files began to be kept for Winbirra remandees, as they were for the trainees at Winlaton Youth Training Centre (VA 5093) and Nunawading Youth Residential Centre (VA 5214). From this time, the admission forms were placed on the Trainee Information Files. Admission and Discharge Registers exist for the Winbirra Remand Centre from 1960-1980. Further research is required to determine if VPRS 17922 Admission and Discharge Register include remandees from Winbirra. The registers would contain basic information about the trainees e.g. name, date of birth, dates of admission and discharge, parents' names and addresses. However, registers do not exist for the entire period covered by these intake/admission forms (1977-1989). Researchers should note the registers do not give details about family backgrounds and the circumstances leading to arrest. Therefore, most of the information contained on these forms does not exist elsewhere.

Winbirra was a high security section and was administered by the Winlaton Youth Training Centre (VA 5093) and later Nunawading Youth Residential Centre (NYRC) (VA 5214) but was considered to be separate to it. It opened in 1956 and closed in 1992, at which time the remand function was taken over by the Warrina residential section of NYRC.