Many Former residents and families are now recalling their experiences growing up as children in Ballarat Asylum, Orphanage / Children's Home having the courage to tell their stories so the history can be better understood either by videos, books or oral recording.
Australian National Library of oral history sound recording of true stories of honesty and courage sharing their childhood life experiences .
![]() An Orphans Escape As late as 1961, nearly seven thousand children were in the custody of Victorian institutions or under the care of the Children's Welfare Department.
Frank Golding and his two brothers were among this number. On Christmas Eve 1940, the boys - Frank (not yet three), Bob (four), and Bill (six) - found themselves on the doorstep of an orphan asylum. They were certainly not orphans, but the boys spend most of their lost childhood inside the walls of the Ballarat Orphanage. It would take Frank fifty years to learn what had been happening 'outside the wall' while he was inside, and what had happened to his parents, why didn't they come for him, why wouldn't anyone tell him.....Frank's childhood puzzlement lasted half a lifetime. Frank finally found out that his parents deeply cared for the boys, but the battle for their children had been at a huge cost.
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![]() "Behind and Beyond the Brick Walls"
By Bob Golding. A lively account of his life with courage, compassion and humour. |

Freemasons on the Goldfields is an intriguing story of men and lodges, secrets, symbols, jealousies, achievements and civic pride. It traces the craft from the early stonemasons and cathedral builders of Europe to the establishments of lodges in Australia and Victoria . Dorothy Wickham shows how the growth of freemasonry in Ballarat reflected the rapid expansion in welfare and services the growth of commerce, the interest and support for education and the arts, and the beautification of the environment.
The Freemansons also behind getting the Ballarat Orphan Asylum up and running. The book tells a little about how it all started.