Shiloh Farm School
1952 to 1963
From “Find and Connect” website
Care Provider, Children’s Home, Farm School, Home, Protestant and Youth Training Cent
Shiloh, in Broomehill, south of Katanning, was a farm school for up to 16 boys who were wards of the State, referred by the Child Welfare Department. It was run independently by Mr and Mrs Beck on their farm, ‘Langwell’. Boys went to school on the property. Shiloh’s aim was to reform ‘delinquent’ boys through long-term placements and the development of farm skills. Shiloh closed in 1963.
In a 1963 education thesis (p.65), Lawrence Whitmore described Shiloh in some detail. The home, he wrote, was large with ‘numerous bedrooms’ and the property was completely unfenced, so that there was no physical force barring an inmate’s escape, if he wishes to make such a move. The boys who were placed at Shiloh by child welfare authorities were all considered to be ‘delinquent’.
According to Whitmore (pp.69-70) 53 boys had been sent to Shiloh in the ten years since it opened, there had rarely been more than 16 boys housed there at any one time, and some boys had been there for more than eight years.
Shiloh was run by Mrs Beck on what Whitmore (pp.70-77) described as Christian principles, being: companionship (friendliness); acceptance; security (‘the majority of those sent to Shiloh know what it is to feel insecure’); disciplining, consisting of ‘reasonable limits’, ‘consistent application’, ‘punishment… is designed to fit the offender and the offence’, and ‘self-control’; faith, including ‘morals and religion’. It was a Protestant organisation, but accepted children from all denominations.
Boys attended a school on site and were actively engaged in all aspects of farm work.
Shiloh Home, 1963
Student adding poultry to the menu
Teaching a calf to drink. All part of the boys work at Shiloh
FROM MEMBERS
BROOMEHILL HOMESTEAD
From Ruth Griffiths (via Merilyn Stewart’s Gnowangerup History)
Yes this is Langwell; John went to this house for 3/4 years for schooling, with some of his brother’s, it was a boarding school for State Wards and children from remote farming areas which, at the time, John and his brothers were from Mongup near Borden and no school buses. Langwell became Shiloh. Norman Henry and Alice Beeck ran the boarding school. They also had a very excellent Merino stud (Collinsville Blood).
From David Kindred (via Merilyn Stewart’s Gnowangerup History)
The School part was known as Shiloh. Ron Carmody was a teacher and played football for Broomehill. The students used to be involved in our (Broomehill) sports namely Pat Chuck and Frank Leonard who I recall.”
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