Pastoral Relationship with People with Intellectual ... - Theses

913.1 A South Australian HistorySouth Australian institutions that accommodated and served people withdisability in general, and intellectual disability particularly, evolved from initialforms of colonial institutionalisation that focused particularly on those defined asdestitute poor and/or lunatics.3.1.1 Early Welfare Support for the Destitute PoorOn the basis that the workforce brought to the colony of South Australiaofficially, and usually, excluded paupers from British or Irish parishes, it wastheorised and argued that there was no need for the implementation of a PoorLaw because, in economic terms, there would be no marginalised socialgroupings and therefore no social dependants. 225However, in reality, social dependency soon emerged as a pressing issuethat required the attention of the Emigration Agent who had responsibility in thenew, freely-settled colony for the supervision of migrants and for attending totheir welfare upon arrival. As such, he was soon providing a series of baseshelters in the Adelaide parklands that were intended as accommodation for thosedeemed to be sick or destitute. The agent drew criticism for developing a form ofemergency shelter that was seen to attract people of depraved character.Apart from providing shelter the agent also had responsibility for theadministration of rations and medical necessities to these people. He could alsoimpose the requirement of undertaking employment, the refusal of which couldlead to significant punitive actions being imposed in accordance with governmentregulation. This early regulatory system was the basis for government welfareaction in the developing colony. 226By October 1841 over 2000 men, women and children were in receipt ofsome form of welfare relief on a weekly basis. This led Governor Grey to appointa Board of Emigration which was to work alongside the Emigration Agent todevelop a more systematised form of welfare support to respond more adequatelyto the perceived menace of what he referred to as the ‘pauper population.’ 227225 Dickey, Brian. Rations, Residence, Resources: A History of Social Welfare in SouthAustralia since 1836. (Adelaide: Wakefield Press, 1986), 2.226 ibid., 4-5.227 ibid., 8-9.