Home Fam-Court Hundreds of Children Go Missing From Care in Victoria Each Year

Hundreds of Children Go Missing From Care in Victoria Each Year

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(L) Ash Potter ran away a 100 times over three years , and (R) Allan Mclean slept under the Coburg Train Station as a child

Dee McLachlan

Last week the ABC last week reported,

“Each year more than 600 children living in state care in Victoria are reported missing to police. Some shelter under train stations, while others live rough in city laneways, hidden in plain sight. So why are these children running? … Victoria’s Commissioner for Children has announced an investigation into why hundreds of children are going missing from the state’s residential care system each year.”

I could give the Commissioner some additional reasons. When filming in Adelaide last year, we visited what was once the Glandore Young Boys Home — an orphanage. In one of the rooms Rachel Vaughan began pouring through the history and digging into the 600 children that went missing from Glandore many decades ago.

What happened to them?

I was told by reliable sources that the home was considered a “stable” for local pedophiles. On Friday afternoon interested persons would come around and, with nick names, identify the young lad that was to be taken “home” for the week-end. It was supposedly a privilege to get picked so that they could spend their week-end away from the boys home — but in fact many became toys for those protected abusers.

On Sunday night some of the boys might not return. The pedophile would simply say that the boy sniffed freedom — and ran away. There were 600 missing (disappeared) children — mostly marked down as ‘runaways’. But there was a much more sinister aspect to their mysterious disappearance. Maybe many did run away. But, I have been told that many were simply killed — either to silence them, or maybe they were killed for fun. I don’t discount some form of “hunting party” existing in the sixties.

So, back the ABC story. The number 600 a year in Victoria, I presume, refers to the police getting a report of a ‘missing kid.’

By the end of 2017 there were 10,312 children in Out of Home Care in Victoria. Australia-wide 6.7% of children are placed in alternative living arrangements such as residential care or group homes. That means there are approximately 690 kids in residential care or group homes in Victoria. So how do we make sense of the 600 reports of missing children (mainly from residential care)? Many runaways and are brought back.

We know that when Ash Potter (picture) was young, she estimates she ran away more than 100 times in the three years she lived in residential care, and that Allan Mclean (picture) slept under the Coburg Train Station as a child.

Why do 600 kids in residential care do a ‘runner’ and go missing in Victoria?

Do some kids go “missing” to never be found — like in past decades in Adelaide.

Enough of my natter, I now print the article from the ABC below, that can be sourced here:

The ABC article [abridged]

Victoria’s Commissioner for Children has announced an investigation into why hundreds of children are going missing from the state’s residential care system each year. It follows an ABC report which revealed more than 600 children are reported missing from the state’s care each year, with the vast majority of them going missing from residential care.

Some young people told the ABC they had felt safer sleeping on the streets of Melbourne, than they did in their residential care unit.

Residential care is a type of care where rotating shift workers look after small groups of young people who are housed together.

“The establishment of the inquiry is in response to our concern about the very high number of young people who continue to be absent or missing from residential care, seen through our incident monitoring function,” Commissioner Liana Buchanan said.

“In broad terms, the inquiry will examine why young people are absent or go missing from residential care, the harm that occurs when they do, and what measures can be recommended to address this.”

Residential care ‘falling apart’

Victoria’s Shadow Minister for Child Protection, Nick Wakeling, said it was clear the residential care system was broken.

“It is heartbreaking to think that children would see a life on the streets as a better option than a residential care setting,” he said.

Mr Wakeling said there needed to be a bigger investment from the Victorian Government into foster care, so that children were not housed in residential care.

“It is no surprise that children are fleeing residential care when we have had report after report that shows that children who are placed in residential care continue to be exposed to abuse and further neglect,” he said.

Reason Party MP Fiona Patten said children were being removed from their families because of abuse or serious risk of harm, but child protection workers were not considering whether children would be exposed to similar risks in residential care. “If our residential care facilities themselves don’t meet that safety threshold, then it is a fundamental failure of the system,” she said. “First and foremost if we take a child from a dangerous environment, we must put them in a safe one, that is the whole point of child protection.”

Victoria’s child protection and out-of-home care system is broken. [And in the other states.] It has not been designed for — and not funded for — the overwhelming level of demand or for the complex levels of trauma children have experienced.

Expert says workers need better training

Joseph McDowall is a director at the CREATE Foundation, which represents young people in care, and a visiting fellow at the Queensland University of Technology. He has recently finished a study of young people who have left out-of-home care across Australia.

He says of the 325 young people interviewed, more than half said they had been absent for at least a day from their care placement, and a third said they had been absent for at least a week. Dr McDowall said those numbers of missing children were higher than what state governments usually report.

“Young people are voting with their feet, they are saying we are not happy here where we are and we are going somewhere else,” he said.

He said there was a range of reasons why children were leaving their placements, but his survey showed the most common reason was because of conflict or abuse in the care facility… 

…The Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare CEO Deb Tsorbaris said… it was challenging work.

“When you are working with small children who have been removed from their family, have often had multiple placements, have a range of trauma history and really in many ways what you want is to make life easier for them and develop some hope, it is a really tough job and not for the faint-hearted.”

[End of ABC article.]

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28 COMMENTS

  3. I found out in recent days there is no head of power for many family court “laws.” This may have been a reference to the proclamation of the law concerned.

    Moreover, any family court laws which have not been given Royal assent as per Section 58 – Royal assent to Bills & Recommendations by Governor-General, of the commonwealth Constitution Act 1901, are invalid. One only has to go into Section 1 or 2 of each Act and look for the date on which it was proclaimed. If it has not been proclaimed it is not law. A valid proclamation will start with the words: “Be it enacted by the Queens Most Excellent Majesty….” A proclamation date will also be shown. The reference to the date of proclamation will read (Assented to day, number, month year)

    What is useful to know when using this information in court is to quote Section 108 of the Constitution Act 1901 which is about Inconsistency of laws.

    It reads “When a law of a State is inconsistent with a law of the Commonwealth, the latter shall prevail, and the former shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be invalid.” Hope this helps someone.

  4. So what’s the governmental concern here, curing a disease or getting rid of a few uncomfortable symptoms ?
    Because it goes without saying that, so far as the former goes, the very best that any State or Federal agency could do is to get the hell out of the way.

    • I don’t know what you mean in this instance, Berry. Surely you don’t mean “Let trafficking run rampant as free enterprise”?

      • The ABC article has nothing to do with trafficking per se
        But now that you mention it, every form of corporate crime is part and parcel to the governmental system of the Age

      • Seems to me that the ABC feature is purely & simply about “putting too many troubled kids together in an institution”(1.45 min):

  5. “They just need more training”.

    How is it that the same worn out response is always issued re any sort of complaint about any sort of public servant’s failure to observe a fundamental restriction or requirement ?

    I can only think of one sort of work-out that might fix such a problem and it has nothing to do with sitting in on Uni lectures

  9. The children of Glandore boys home, and Goodwood orphanage were the playthings of the Paedophile elite and the Adelaide medical fraternity. Nothing more. They were used and abused, and simply thrown away afterward. There are more than 30 000 babies in one Adelaide cemetery. Unwed girls from the McBride hospital were worked to the bone whilst pregnant, then had their babies stolen from them. Adelaide, Victoria – similar royal names, similar endemic abuses of their people and children. My fathers paedo child porn producing gang in Adelaide had connections to Geelong in Victoria. I am not at all surprised that the children taken from their families in Victoria abscond from their ‘care’ placements. Better to run the gauntlet and ‘possibly’ get raped and killed than stay in state ‘care’ and undoubtedly be raped and run a very high risk of being murdered. I heard a statistic not long ago which made sense of the madness. 90% of porn actors were sexually abused as children. I had previously been told it was 70%. Of the total number of internet downloads, porn makes up 50%. That’s a LOT of downloads. So all that childhood abuse serves many purposes: it fuels the sick, Paedophile procurement desired by the elite – plenty of corruption enabled via the use of honey pots, not to mention there is safety in numbers; the child abuse ensures further generations of porn actors to make billions from; the children who don’t survive the abuse – through murder or suicide – keep the numbers of ‘useless breathers’ in check; and finally the destruction of the family unit ensures no connectedness between individual family members. No family = no suppirt base to launch a counter attack. Some of the children do survive however. Some don’t go into the porn industry. Some create their own famines of like minded survivors and fight back.

  10. Mother of God! Rachel, you have said it all and then some.

    Society will be able to make good use of your experience.

    To me the most important thing you mentioned is “safety in numbers.” We should deprive the perps of their (political, legal) safety. Pick ’em off!

  11. Rachel, this is a bit far out, but do you have any comment on the handwriting shown at 3.26 in this video? If not, just ignore my question. Thanks.

    • fixing bayonets was an annodate to that issue i think thats the right word im not educated most infantryman arent but most of us carry a book out bush and r well read im pretty shore i wouldnt bloody well stuff it up hahaha

    • In my experience, there are many judges who believe themselves to be above the law. The judiciary requires a complete and thorough investigation into it and the political system that supports it.

      Where does police corruption originate? – all of the above – but it is only the police who get investigated!

  16. Instructions to y’all Protective parents, from Shakespeare in Twelfth Night:

    “If this letter falls into your hands, think carefully about what it says. By my birth I rank above you, but don’t be afraid of my greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. Your fate awaits you. Accept it in body and spirit. To get used to the life you’ll most likely be leading soon, get rid of your low-class trappings. Show some eagerness for the new upscale lifestyle that’s waiting….

  17. Institutionalized pedophilia is rife throughout the world – hence Trump’s executive order of December 21, 2017, to combat Human Trafficking and target the proceeds from such an horrendous criminal enterprise.

    There is also another problem with our young not mentioned on this thread – the lack of parental control that government has come to mitigate for the perceived ideal that any child – regardless of gender or age above 12 years – may simply walk away from the family environment into a Centrelink office, and provide a sob story that then gets them ‘government assistance’ that includes protection from being forced to return back to the family environment, if they choose not to.

    Many of these kids come from single parent families.

    So, what happens to these kids? Many of them end up on the streets!

  21. For 5 consecutive years I was one of those 600 children reported as missing.
    I was not a sexual slave in care, I was not trafficked into prostitution, not murdered(obviously) and I was not handed on a silver-plater to pedophiles.
    Prior to being a child ‘in state care’ I was abused emotionally, mentally, spiritually, physically and sexually; I was subjected to countless superficial injuries, on occasions I was cut by blades, had bones broken and as a direct result of the sexual abuse I suffered – I’ve lost a kidney and have lost the chance at probably ever fulfilling my one and only dream- to have children.

    Where did I go? I ran away..
    Where did hundreds and hundreds of the other kids go? They also ran away…

    (I can only speak for the other kids that I knew personally) Parts of this article are entirely misleading! Sexual abuse for the majority in care these days is committed by the other kids. Whilst peoples intentions may be good, this whole incessant “save the children” stuff has actually become just as harmful and damaging to children in care as the sexual abuse is and ever was! If not worse! The rules that are in place now to “protect the children” are so f*** extreme that the emotional impact of them is so bad that kids nowadays feel so trapped and isolated that they feel their only option they have left is to kill themselves or it forces them to do stupid s*** like steal cars just to try and get away! & we all know how that ends!

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