In 1954 a Geelong historian, Philip Brown, suggested that the children’s home, then referred to as an orphanage, be renamed as Glastonbury to honour 100 years of association and assistance provided by the Austin family to the children’s home. The Austin family held a property in England on which there were the ruins of a historical church, Glastonbury Abbey.
In the same year, Glastonbury aligned with the wider community by joining a new cooperative fund-raising venture, the Geelong Community Chest which it supported through fund raising efforts and received a share of the proceeds.
From the mid 1960’s the profile of children placed in care changed as improved living standards substantially reduced the number of orphaned, neglected and abandoned children. Increasingly, the issue of child abuse became a major community concern. This concern focused on physical abuse and neglect. Later emotional and sexual abuse became major community concerns as well.
During it’s history Glastonbury was reliant on support from the Geelong community and experienced significant financial challenges in maintaining a service to disadvantaged children from the Geelong and Western District areas.
In the late 1970’s Glastonbury was invited to take over St Cuthbert’s Home in Colac and established family group homes there and in Geelong with a view to closing the children’s home. During the mid 1980’s the children’s home was closed and ten family group homes were developed for the care of children and large sibling groups.
Since then Glastonbury has specialised in providing care for large sibling groups through the family group home program. This has enabled large sibling groups to be kept together as a family which has provided most significant support for children.
