Royal Commission Case Study 33: Salvation Army children's homes, Southern Territory
Request a correction or replyRecord class
Institutional event
Evidence status
Official finding
Authority role
Salvation Army officers at Box Hill, Bayswater, Nedlands and Eden Park boys' homes
Organization
The Salvation Army, Australia Southern Territory
Archive classification
This is the archive's application of its published inclusion test. The cited record appears below.
Salvation Army officer rank carried direct custodial and disciplinary authority, reinforced by religious obedience, over children who had no other guardian; that authority both enabled abuse and determined whether complaints were believed.
- Institutional obedience or isolation
- Pastoral or clerical authority
Evidence structure
Proceedings
2016-07-01 · royal commission finding
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Australia — Case Study 33. The Commission heard from 12 former residents of Box Hill, Bayswater, Nedlands and Eden Park describing physical and sexual abuse by Salvation Army officers between 1965 and 1977. It found the Army's policies and procedures did not enable prevention or detection of abuse; children who reported abuse were commonly punished, disbelieved, or ignored. The Commission found the Army knew of sexual offending at Box Hill from as early as 1947, including against Captain Arthur Clee, who was simply transferred between homes rather than reported.
Documented coercion mechanisms
- Salvation Army officer rank and custodial authority over resident wards
- punishment and disbelief of children who reported abuse
Cited record
Sources
- official statutory inquiry report inquiry report Royal Commission, 'Case Study 33: The Salvation Army children's homes, Australia Southern Territory.'
Official findings on Box Hill, Bayswater, Nedlands and Eden Park.
- legal practitioner summary background Ryan Carlisle Thomas Lawyers, 'Bayswater and Box Hill Boys' Homes — where child abuse was rife.'
Corroborates Commission findings on Captain Arthur Clee and the Army's transfer-rather-than-report pattern.
Source provenance
Source access and integrity log
This log records source retrieval and file integrity. It does not mean that an automated process independently confirmed every statement in the source.
- Source and tier basis
- https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/case-studies/case-study-33-salvation-army-childrens-homes-australia-southern-territory Corpus classification: official-statutory-inquiry-report; evidentiary role: inquiry-report.
- Retrieval
- 2026-07-27 · Retrieval failed
- Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
- Source and tier basis
- https://rctlaw.com.au/legal-blog/2021/bayswater-and-box-hill-boys-homes-where-child-abuse-was-rife/ Corpus classification: legal-practitioner-summary; evidentiary role: background. SHA-256 966de3234471682c794ed904f1ee483062ceba01455207cf9a39e2b3774409e9
- Retrieval
- 2026-07-20 · Preserved
- Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
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Related record
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