Modern state social welfare services (as distinct from the
commonwealth's broader social security provisions) originate
from two welfare developments in colonial Tasmania: provision
for children and the poor. The first state institution for
children, the King's Orphan Schools, later the Queen's Orphan
Asylum, opened in Hobart in 1828, and by 1865 housed over 500
children. Because of the level of delinquency and waywardness of
many young children there was a growing concern for the future
generations of the colony. While philanthropy was not prepared
to care for criminal children, there were those who wanted to
give children, now seen to be the victims of a penal system, a
chance to grow up as good citizens. Voluntary boards opened the
Hobart Girls' Industrial School in 1864 and, following the
passage of the Industrial Schools Act (1867), the Boys' Home and
Industrial School in 1869, the Girls' Industrial School in
Launceston in 1877, and St Joseph's Industrial School and
Orphanage for girls, a Catholic instit