Mini vic.gov.au

This is a low bandwidth version of vic.gov.au. Contents may not be up to date. © Copyright State Government of Victoria

Timeline of Victorian government wardship records

Descriptions of government wardship records. The way wardship and out-of-home care are documented has changed over time. The timeline below describes government wardship records from 1864 to today.

Timeline of wardship records

1864–1968

Three indexes in volume format retained over these years, alphabetical index to children’s surnames of parents and the‘term of expiry’ book which records when children turned 18 (based on their date of birth).

1864–1966

Known as Children’s Registers 1864–1887.

Commencement of the Children’s Registers (also known as Ward Registers). Starting with child number one in 1864 and ending with child 96,000 (approximately) in 1978. Children over 15 years were excluded from 1960. Early registers are from institutions, initially alongside a central system, later only the central system survives as an active sequence. Registers are arranged chronologically by date of admission, and later editions have an alpha index in the front.

1893–1985

Documents the dates on which the terms of wardship for wards of the State would expire. The date equalled the 18th birthday of the wards. Entries are recorded chronologically with dates for boys and girls recorded separately.

1910–1986

Alphabetical by the names of parents of wards of the state. Children’s names are not included but the ward numbers allocated to children are recorded. This index provides a means of accessing state ward case files.

1920–1984

A register of deaths of children who were wards of the state in residential care at the time of their death.

1932–1970

The Street Trading Board’s role included controlling street trading activities of children in public places, specifically in the City of Melbourne. The board issued licenses to sell newspapers and monitored child street trading.

1935–1987

All wards (to June 1961), Family Welfare Division ward case files (July 1961–1987), single number system.

Children’s files (also known as Ward files) for every child who was a ward of the state in this period. Files commence from approximately 1920 but only survive for active cases post the Second World War.

1946–1991

Non-Ward youth training centre (YTC) files, for children committed by the courts to a youth training centre but were not already on a protective order. These utilise a number system starting at 50,000 and going to 55,000.

1958–1974

A central, summary record that documented the admission of children to the care of the department under Section 20 of the Social Welfare Act 1958.

1960–1978

This series consists of a selection of remnant files from the Social Welfare Department, comprising:

Most of these records document the case management of clients at departmental level.

1960s–1997

With the onset of regionalisation, Regional Family files created in each office and encompass all of the departments then programs (that is, adult and children). Files are family, not individual centric and provide detailed picture into local regional issues. These records are highly valuable for Aboriginal families.

This collection represents all the regions that transferred their records into the central department’s archives in the early 1990s. But most of these records were not transferred onto head office and were not retained.

1961–1978

Youth Welfare Division for children over 15 years of age.

Files use an annual single number with A-B prefix to identify the first or second six months of the year. For example, A78.0001 was created in July–December 1977.

Blocks of 1000 issued from withinthe sequence for specific types of clients.

1961–1985

Index cards were created for each of the discrete client file systems and later merged into a single collection, often with individual clients’ cards stapled together.

1961–1984

A central summary record documenting the admission of children to the care of the Family Welfare Division of the department, for the period of time covered by the registers.

1961–1990

These record cards were used to provide a summary history of all youth justice clients who passed through, or were admitted to, Turana between 1961 and 1990. Since all people sentenced under the Juvenile Justice Program were received at the Turana Youth Training Centre.

1966

A copy of a statistical return of Aboriginal ward and non-ward children resident in approved children’s homes as at 30 September 1966. It includes names, ages and other information about the children.

Date range 1983–1998

These files document litigation matters relating to state wards.

1986–2008

Computerised system for all child protection and criminal cases: Statutory Client Information System (SCIS).

All children registered were given a sequential number from 100-0-001 to 103/8/829.

1988–1992

An early prototype of child protection ‘alert’ system – since overtaken by other systems.

1992–2007

A workflow-intensive, child protection/client management system that superseded both the Children at Risk Register (CARR) and the Statutory Client Information System (SCIS). Case workers entered data and material live into the system, which was a cross between a database and a document management system.

1994–2001

RecFind was the corporate system used to record the location of all Department of Health and Community Services paper registry files. Key client-related information – name, date of birth, location – was captured in the client file.

1994–2007

JJCIS was implemented to record information about young people and key events occurring while they were clients of Juvenile Justice. The information provided management with workload data and statistics, and demographics of the Juvenile Justice population. These records replaced the Youth Training Centre Trainee Files.

2001 to current

The TRIM electronic document and records management system adopted for managing the Department’s electronic data and hard copy records.

2007 to current

CRIS replaced CASIS as the primary electronic file system used to document client support information. All people who are eligible for services and request support must have a CRIS file created.

2007 to current

CRISSP is a web-based client information and case management system offered to community service organisations that are funded to provide Child Protection Placement and Support, Disability Services, Juvenile Justice and Early Childhood Intervention Services.

2007 to current

JJCRIS replaced JJCIS to record information about young people and key events occurring while they were clients of Juvenile Justice.

Updated 10 June 2025

About the VIC Government

Grants and programs

Jobs and careers

Arts, culture and heritage

Business and the workplace

Communities

Education and training

Environment, water and energy

Finance and economy

Health and social support

Housing and property

Law and justice

Safety and emergencies

Science and technology

Sport and recreation

Traffic and transport

Working in the Victorian Government