2 Replies to “Hillcrest, North Fremantle by Anne Brake”
Born there 1948 I believe Sister Mclachian was matron at the time . Not 100% on that fact. I knew a lady same age as me , her parents lived at the bottom of the hill on Harvest Rd and did not have a car when the wife started labour her dad put the mother in a wheel barrow padded with pillows and pushed her up the hill to the hospital .
It is really important that we acknowledge that Hillcrest, as a building was the place where an unknown definitive number of newborn babies were permamently removed from their mothers during the decades of the forced adoption era and the stolen generations. Survivors do not view this building with revivre but as a place of trauma. As an act of reconcilliation and healing it would be very appropriate for a memorial to be positioned on the grounds of this building in acknowledgment of all those who have lived a life that was not of their choosing. It is also important to note adoption rates plummetted across the nation from around 1973, due to the implementation of the single parent benefit. However, in WA there was a significant lag in this having an effect on adoption rates. I would dispute that access to the contraceptive pill was the main reason for adoption rates plummetting as the pill was not widely available for WA single women until the latter half of the 70’s, as until then the pill would only be precribed for married women.
Fremantle History Society 
Born there 1948 I believe Sister Mclachian was matron at the time . Not 100% on that fact. I knew a lady same age as me , her parents lived at the bottom of the hill on Harvest Rd and did not have a car when the wife started labour her dad put the mother in a wheel barrow padded with pillows and pushed her up the hill to the hospital .
It is really important that we acknowledge that Hillcrest, as a building was the place where an unknown definitive number of newborn babies were permamently removed from their mothers during the decades of the forced adoption era and the stolen generations. Survivors do not view this building with revivre but as a place of trauma. As an act of reconcilliation and healing it would be very appropriate for a memorial to be positioned on the grounds of this building in acknowledgment of all those who have lived a life that was not of their choosing. It is also important to note adoption rates plummetted across the nation from around 1973, due to the implementation of the single parent benefit. However, in WA there was a significant lag in this having an effect on adoption rates. I would dispute that access to the contraceptive pill was the main reason for adoption rates plummetting as the pill was not widely available for WA single women until the latter half of the 70’s, as until then the pill would only be precribed for married women.