Understanding Orphan Ratings In Australia: A Guide

Australia has an Orphan Drugs Program, which aims to ensure the availability of a greater range of treatments for rare diseases. The program is based on a close collaboration between the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The TGA covers all the costs of the orphan drug designation process and then balances its expenditures with other components of the healthcare system's overall budget.

Explore related products

Orphan

$3.79

The Bad Orphan

$2.79

Orphan: First Kill

$3.79

Orphan

$2.99

Little Orphans

$1.99

The Orphanage

$3.79

Orphanages in Australia no longer exist

The term "orphanage" in Australia was also used interchangeably with terms like benevolent asylum, orphan school, infants' or children's home, and foster home. Orphanages were intended for orphans, abandoned or neglected children, and those from impoverished families. In some cases, families voluntarily placed their children in orphanages due to a lack of alternatives for support, with the hope of reuniting in the future. However, most orphanages preferred to admit school-age children rather than infants or toddlers.

Life within these institutions was far from ideal. While they provided basic education and training to prepare children for future servitude or labour, the daily routine was heavily focused on religious observation. Children were expected to contribute their labour to the running of the orphanage, with older boys tending to gardens or livestock and girls and younger boys performing domestic chores. The Catholic Church favoured single-sex institutions, and those accepting both genders typically separated boys and girls at adolescence.

Today, Australia no longer relies on orphanages for child welfare. Instead, responsibility for orphans, adoption, and child welfare falls under the jurisdiction of State governments, except in the territories, where it is managed by the Commonwealth. Organisations like CLAN (Care Leavers Australasia Network) now provide support and advocacy for individuals who were raised in orphanages, children's homes, missions, and foster care in Australia and New Zealand.

Explore related products

Orphan Train - Digitally Remastered

$2.99

Orphans

$3.99

The Orphanage

$1.99

Orphan Train

$2.99

The Orphan Killer

$4.99

The Orphanage

$2.99

Orphan children were historically removed from their families

Orphan children in Australia were historically removed from their families and placed in orphanages or children's homes. The practice of removing children from their families has a long history in Australia, dating back to the 19th century. During this time, orphanages and children's homes were the primary form of out-of-home care for orphaned, abandoned, or neglected children.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, government and charitable agencies specifically targeted Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children for removal from their families, creating what has become known as the "Stolen Generations". This term refers to the widespread practice of forcibly removing tens of thousands of Indigenous children from their parents and communities, placing them in institutions or with white foster families. The goal of this assimilation policy was to train mixed-race children to work in white society and eventually marry white people, thus assimilating them into Anglo-Australian society. Official government estimates suggest that between one in ten and one in three Indigenous children were taken during this period.

The first orphanage in Australia was established on Norfolk Island, followed by the Female Orphan School, founded by Governor King in 1801 in Sydney. Various types of records about orphans in Australia exist, including orphanage registers, school records, apprenticeship records, and charitable relief office reports. These records can be found in national archives, state archives, and local repositories and libraries.

It is important to note that the majority of children in orphanages and children's homes were not actually orphans. Many had one or both parents still living or other living relatives. These children often suffered from neglect and abuse while in care, and the trauma experienced has had lasting impacts on their lives, even affecting their own abilities as parents. In 2009, the Australian Parliament formally acknowledged and apologized for the harsh treatment and ongoing trauma suffered by these "Forgotten Australians".

Explore related products

The Orphaned

$2.99

Australian Kin Classification (Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology, Series Number 23)

$67 $71.99

The Australian Soil Classification (Australian Soil and Land Survey Handbooks Series Book 4)

$46.41

Preamble, Classification and Rules : Adopted at the All Australian Trades Union Conference, Held in Melbourne, January, 1919 1919 Leather Bound

$35.99 $63.89

The Australian Soil Classification (Australian Soil and Land Survey Handbooks Series, 1)

$43.99

A Classification and Detailed Description of the Barleys of Australia : Being the Second Report of the Special Committee on Seed Improvement / Published under 1922 Volume no.22-29 [Leather Bound]

$47.99 $69.88

Australian orphanages were rife with abuse

In the 19th and 20th centuries, Australian orphanages were rife with abuse. During this period, government and charitable agencies removed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, placing them in institutions, creating what has been known as the "Stolen Generations".

Between 7,000 and 10,000 children were moved from the UK to Australia after World War II. They were recruited by religious institutions from the Anglican and Catholic churches, as well as charities such as Barnardo's and the Fairbridge Society. These children were often deceived into believing they were orphaned and were subjected to physical labour, neglect, and sexual abuse.

A former child migrant sent from Wales to an Australian orphanage told a child abuse inquiry that it was a "feast of kids" for paedophiles working there. He described how he was forced to perform sex acts by Brother Lawrence Murphy and that if he had told anyone, he would have been beaten. Another witness, Mr Cosgrove, recalled how Brother Murray had fondled him and forced him to perform oral sex.

The impact of the abuse suffered by these "Forgotten Australians" has been long-lasting, with many survivors still suffering the effects in their adult lives. Their partners and children have also felt the impact, which has flowed through to future generations. The University of Melbourne also apologised in 2009 for their involvement in the unethical use of orphans as test subjects for experimental medication and drugs.

The first orphanage in Australia was established on Norfolk Island, followed by the Female Orphan School, founded by Governor King in 1801 in Sydney. Orphanages and children's homes in Australia from the 1920s to 1980s were under-resourced, poorly supervised, and lacked government scrutiny.

Explore related products

Verb Classification in Australian Languages (Empirical Approaches to Language Typology [EALT], 25)

$224 $224

Australian Beetles Volume 1: Morphology, Classification and Keys (Australian Beetles Series)

$179.85

Classification—Content Regulation and Convergent Media (ALRC Summary 118) (ALRC Reports)

$0.99

Fungi of Australia Volume 1A: Introduction - Classification

$83.95

The Australian Soil Classification [OP] (Australian Soil and Land Survey Handbooks Series, 4)

$46.95

Nominal Classification in Aboriginal Australia (Studies in Language Companion Series)

$129.01 $173

Australian orphanages are now tourist attractions

In Australia, orphanages have a long and complex history. In the 19th and 20th centuries, government and charitable agencies removed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, placing them in institutions, creating what became known as the "Stolen Generations". The country also received thousands of child migrants from Britain and other parts of its empire, often under false pretenses and duress.

The first orphanage in Australia was established on Norfolk Island, followed by the Female Orphan School, founded in 1801 in Sydney by Governor King. Over the years, various types of records have been kept on orphans and orphanages, including orphanage registers, school records, apprenticeship records, and charitable relief office reports. These records can be found in national, state, and local archives, as well as libraries.

However, orphanages in Australia are now a thing of the past, with knowledge of the harms of institutional care leading to their closure decades ago. Instead, the focus has shifted to alternative forms of care, such as foster homes and receiving homes. Despite this, Australian schools, particularly private ones, have increasingly engaged in "orphanage voluntourism," taking senior students to volunteer in orphanages abroad. This practice has been criticized for doing more harm than good, fueling an industry based on child exploitation and removing children from their families.

The Australian government has taken steps to address this issue, becoming the first country to recognize "orphanage trafficking" as a form of modern-day slavery. This legislative change aims to bring attention to this issue globally and encourage other countries to adopt similar measures. While orphanages themselves are no longer a tourist attraction in Australia, the country continues to grapple with the legacy of its own historical practices and the impact of voluntourism abroad.

Explore related products

Australian Languages: Classification and the comparative method (Current Issues in Linguistic Theory)

$188

Orphan (Rpkg/BD) [Blu-ray]

$8.55

Orphan First Kill

$11.18 $12.43

Orphan: First Kill

$3.79

Orphan (2009) - Collector's Edition [Blu-ray]

$20.99 $34.98

Orphan

$10 $34.98

Orphan drugs are available for rare diseases

In Australia, orphan drugs are available for rare diseases. The Australian Orphan Drugs Program was established in 1997 to encourage research and marketing of therapies aimed at treating rare diseases. Orphan drugs are defined as medicines, vaccines, or diagnostic agents intended to treat, prevent, or diagnose rare diseases or conditions that affect a small proportion of the population.

The program addresses the challenges associated with developing drugs for rare diseases, which often involve lengthy and costly processes, with a high level of uncertainty. Sponsors are typically reluctant to invest in these drugs under usual marketing conditions due to the small target population, making it difficult to recover the capital invested in research. To overcome these obstacles, the Australian Orphan Drugs Program offers incentives such as waiving evaluation and registration fees, which can amount to significant savings.

The program also takes into account the evaluations of orphan drugs by the US FDA, with additional criteria for drugs that have not been evaluated in the USA or do not meet US criteria. One of the key purposes of the program is to make drugs available for diseases like leprosy and trachoma, which affect the Aboriginal population. The program is currently awaiting the outcome of a review to ensure it aligns with its original purpose and addresses concerns raised by patient groups, medical professionals, and the pharmaceutical industry.

While Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme provides subsidies to make certain drugs more affordable, the inclusion of orphan drugs in this scheme is still under discussion. The funding of orphan drugs is a significant concern, as their high cost may prevent some patients from accessing them. The review of the Australian Orphan Drugs Program is expected to address these concerns and potentially expand the definition of orphan drugs to include more therapies for rare diseases.

Frequently asked questions