File:On deck - Sobraon (3682708645).jpg

Dated:No date
Digital ID: http://investigator.records.nsw.gov.au/asp/photosearch/search.asp?digitalid=4481_a026_000004&B1=Search
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The ships Vernon (est. 1867) and Sobraon (est. 1892) were Industrial Schools for Boys. Boys received a combination of moral training, nautical and industrial training and instruction, and elementary schooling. The ships were made use of this way as there were no separate boys' reformatory schools until 1895.
The Vernon was docked at Cockatoo Island. The Sobraon, which replaced the Vernon in 1892, was used until 1911, when the remaining boys were set to the Mittagong Farm Home for Boys and the Brush Farm Home for Boys.
The Industrial Schools Act of 1866 authorised the Governor to proclaim "any ship or vessel or any building or place together with any yards, enclosures grounds or lands attached thereto to be a 'Public Industrial School' ". Any vagrant or destitute child under the age of sixteen could be directed by two Justices of the Peace to attend an Industrial School and to remain the responsibility of the Superintendent until the age of eighteen, unless apprenticed out or discharged.
More information can be found in http://investigator.records.nsw.gov.au/Advanced.aspx -> Advanced Search -> Agency -> 411
This series of photographs was taken by officers of the Government Printing Office during the years 1860s-c.1920. The photographs cover a wide variety of subjects, for example, public buildings, railways, tramways, street scenes, harbour views, Sydney University, groups of people, ships, public occasions, the Botanic Gardens, military camps, wharves, dams and waterways, statues and slums.