Nunawading Youth Residential Centre (also known as Nunawading Youth Training Centre)

Full description

The Nunawading Youth Residential Centre was established on 17 September 1991, on the former site of Winlaton Youth Training Centre (VA 5093), as a facility for 10 to 14 year-old male and female offenders. The centre was located at 186 Springvale Road Nunawading.

The Children and Young Persons Act 1989 required that the provision of services for children and young people on protective orders be separated from those provided to young offenders in custody. The Nunawading Youth Residential Centre functioned as a youth training centre for young people sentenced to detention, and not for children placed on protection orders.

Baltara Youth Reception Centre closed in 1992 and the children were transferred to the Nunawading Youth Residential Centre. A decrease in referrals as a result of diversion programs and community-based sentencing saw the permanent closure of the Nunawading Youth Residential Centre on 3 August 1993. Its residents were sent to the Parkville Youth Residential Centre (VA 5166; see also VA 5086), a new facility built on the site of the former Baltara Reception Centre (VA 5090).

The Nunawading Youth Residential Centre comprised residential sections within the compound (including Warrina and Karringal), Wimbirra Remand Centre and the Leawarra Hostel. In 1992, Wimbirra closed and the Warrina residential section took over the remand function. The Leawarra Hostel closed in 1992.

In 1993, the Nunawading Youth Residential Centre had a population of about 25 sentenced youth at the time of its closure. These residents were relocated to Parkville Youth Residential Centre.

Legislation and record keeping:

The Children and Young Persons Act 1989 required that the provision of services for children and young people on protective orders be separated from those provided to young offenders in custody. The Act established different divisions in the Childrens Court to completely separate child protection matters from criminal custodial matters.

The Children and Young Persons Act 1989 also replaced the terms ward of state (introduced by the Neglected Childrens Act 1887) and trainee (introduced by the Social Welfare Act 1960), with the new term, children in need of protection. The old terminology was phased out in the 1990s. After this, both child protection cases and sentenced young people were classified as clients, the term used today for all Victorian care leavers.

Young people who entered into the youth justice system before implementation of the 1989 Act, kept their trainee case history files, and not the later Client Relationship Information System institutional files (JJ CRIS prefix). This explains why the older records continued until the late 1990s, well after the terminology had changed.

The term client is still used for all care leavers in Victoria.

Also see:
- Winlaton Youth Training Centre (VA 5093) is the predecessor agency, situated on the same site at 186 Springvale Road, Nunawading.
- Nunawading Youth Residential Centre, Education Centre No.4794 (VA 3962) represents the education function of Winlaton/Nunawading.