Riverview Home for Boys/Riverview Training Farm

The Riverview Home for Boys was established by The Salvation Army in 1898 in Ipswich, Queensland as the Industrial School for Boys Riverview. In 1911, the Home was transferred to the Queensland State Children Department, closing it in 1926. Between 1926 to 1935, the Home was taken over again by The Salvation Army, changing its function from a boys reformatory to a training farm for local boy and British child migrants over the age of 14. In 1935, it became once again an Industrial School for Boys before becoming in 1956 the Riverview Home for Boys. In 1966/1967, it changed its name to the Riverview Training Farm for Boys and the Endeavour Training Farm in 1969, keeping that name until its end of operations in 1977.

Between 1965 and 1977, Riverview was home to about 50 and 60 boys at any one time. 5 The boys were either:

  • wards of the State;

  • suffering from family abuse or neglect; or

  • sent there by their parents.

Riverview also took boys placed by courts after being convicted of a criminal offence. Most convictions were for car theft and ‘break enter and steal’. A small proportion were convicted for ‘sex offences’. About a quarter of the inmates were likely to be Aboriginal. Life at Riverview was very hard, with the Forde Inquiry finding that there was a generally poor standard of living and with living conditions at some places being described as dire. By the early 1970s the facilities at Riverview are reported to have been old, dilapidated and run down. Furthermore, the Forde Inquiry, found that those boys who were placed at Riverview received little education. For example, it was recorded in 1971 that boys received less than two hours’ schooling per day.

Over the past 22 years, three separate government inquiries - Forde Inquiry (1999); Forgotten Australians - Senate Community Affairs References Committee Inquiry (2004); and the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse (Case Study No. 5 - 2015), found that The Salvation Army and the State of Queensland had failed in its management and care of children placed at the Riverview group of homes. All three inquiries in particular found that physical and sexual abuse of boys at Riverview (including other Salvation Army homes) by employees of the The Salvation Army and between residents, from 1956 until the home closed, was often quite brutal and had occurred quite frequently, and that the Salvation Army and the State of Queensland had not protected boys at the Home/Industrial School/Training Farm from this abuse. The Royal Commission, in particular, found certain Salvation Army employees and the Salvation Army itself failed in its duties:

  • There was a culture of frequent physical punishment which was on occasion brutal by The Salvation Army from 1956 until their closure, which encouraged fear of officers;

  • Sexual abuse of the boys by officers or employees of The Salvation Army was often accompanied by physical violence or the threat of physical violence;

  • Captain Victor Bennett (deceased) engaged in brutal and excessive punishment of the boys under his care as manager of Riverview Boys’ Home between 1969 to 1974; 

  • Captain Lawrence Wilson (deceased) frequently used cruel and excessive physical punishment against the boys under his care at Riverview;

  • During Captain Lawrence Wilson’s service as an officer, The Salvation Army did not take any disciplinary action against him for the sexual or physical abuse of boys that occurred at Riverview during his time as a probationary lieutenant between 1957 to 1959 and as manager in 1974; and

  • During Captain Lawrence Wilson’s service as an officer, The Salvation Army did not take any disciplinary action against him for the sexual or physical abuse of boys that occurred at Riverview.

Furthermore, the Forde Inquiry and the Royal Commission found that from at least 1973, senior officers of the Queensland Department of Children’s Services were well aware of frequent sexual activity between many of the boys at Riverview Boys’ Home, including occasions of rape. However, due to the shortage and urgent need of accommodation for unwanted children, the Queensland Government declined to cancel The Salvation Army’s licence over the operation of Riverview.

Moody Law has in the past and is still representing clients who have made allegations of sexual and physical abuse against members of The Salvation Army at various institutions around Australia.

We invite former victims to tell us confidentially what information they may have, and we will explain what options are available to help with these cases.

Call us or complete the confidential enquiry form below.