| Riverbank, Caversham |
| Years of Operation | From 1960 - 1996 |
| Role Of Facility | Secure treatment centre (“reformatory”) for teenage male offenders, which developed to provide non-secure accommodation in the grounds and a hostel in the city.
In the Annual Report of the Department for Community Welfare in 1976, Riverbank was described as treating up to 43 “male adolescent offenders” aged between 13 and 18 years. “It provides external maximum security boundaries as a protection to the community and within this secure boundary it allows for a replica of a normal community.”
In 1979, the Annual Report noted that while Riverbank accommodated “the more persistent and serious offender, a number of the boys are less serious offenders who have displayed an inability to settle and benefit by open placement.”
Also in 1979, the Welstat (welfare statistics) report defined Riverbank as an Institution (ie a “residential child care establishment that is mainly for child offenders, children on remand for alleged offences or uncontrolled children, and that has, as one of its aims, the full-time secure detention of its child.)”
By 1981, Riverbank was described as “the central point of a treatment system” that comprised the secure residential centre, a metropolitan annexe at Victoria Park, and a community support (after care) service.
By1984, Riverbank’s normal capacity was 40 boys, usually in the 16 to 18 year age group. Following the closure of Hillston, Riverbank’s role changed to catering for “offenders who are more than 16 years of age or those, who regardless of age, have been recommended to serve a period of detention in excess of six months.”
In 1986, Riverbank could accommodate 38 boys in maximum security. In 1987, 36 boys could be accommodated. |
| Sponsoring Agency | Originally Departmental - predessors to the current Department for Child Protection; from 1 July 1993 responsibility transferred to the Ministry of Justice; from 2005 to the Department of Justice. |
| Address(es) | Hamersley Road, Caversham (Riverbank), with a Hostel (“Fourteen”) in Francis Street, Perth and, later, an Annexe in Victoria Park. Signposts has separate entries for “Fourteen” and “Victoria Park (Riverbank) Annexe” and these should be consulted. |
| Aliases | Riverbank Reformatory, Riverbank Secure Treatment Centre for Boys, Riverbank Maximum Security Centre |
| Brief History | The Annual Report of the Child Welfare Department in 1958 noted that:
“money was set aside to commence the building of a closed reformatory at Caversham, where 11 acres of ground have been purchased. This building will be the first in Australia deliberately planned from the outset as a maximum security reformatory for boys. The Public Works Department, Architectural Division, in consultation with the Child Welfare Department officers, have planned a building which, while giving maximum security, should provide a wide variety of occupational interests and the ancillary services necessary to undertake the care and reformation of the less tractable delinquent boys.
The purpose of this institution is not merely to protect the public by the secure incarceration of the inmates, but so to treat those inmates that their anti-social attitudes are changed and they learn to accept their proper law-abiding role in the community.
There are two dangers to be avoided in the administration of such an institution. The first is that public pressure may tend to make it a place of committal for the more spectacular offenders, e.g., for car thieves only. Secondly, public pressure may wish to reserve it for absconders from other institutions. Neither of these pressures should be allowed to obscure the essential point that the purpose of the building and its staff is to reform boys, not merely to imprison them.”
The 1959 Annual Report provided an update:
“The maximum security Home at Caversham is progressing and should be ready for occupation by March, 1960. A selection programme for staff was instituted by the Psychology and Counselling Service, Perth Technical College. In March 421 applicants were screened and 30 men were finally selected for training. This group has been attending the Technical College on a part time basis for instruction three hours per week. They have been responsible for payment of their own fees and attendance at classes to date has been reported as 100%.”
Following the closure of Hillston in September 1983, Riverbank annexed McDonald House] in Mt Lawley in addition to the Victoria Park Annexe which had been acquired earlier. [See separate entries in Signposts for Hillston and McDonald House].
By 1986, Riverbank reported offering “a varied programme of trade, educational and recreational activities, aimed at replicating the normal working week in the community.”
A more detailed chronology of major events, admissions and discharges is included in Table 38.
Riverbank was de-commissioned as a juvenile institution and mothballed in 1996, due to the establishment of a new juvenile detention centre, Banksia Hill. (Report from the Office of the Inspector of Custodial Services.) |
| Records | Records of young people in secure detention at Riverbank up until 1993 when the facility came under the control of the Department of Justice are held by the Department for Child Protection. |
| Access | While access to records is restricted to protect the privacy of individuals, people are encouraged to enquire. |
| Contact Details | Freedom of Information
Department of Communities
Locked Bag 5000, Fremantle WA 6959
Telephone: (08) 6217 6888
Country free call: 1800 176 888
Email: foi@communities.wa.gov.au
Website: www.communities.wa.gov.au |
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