ProvenanceThis item is part of a collection which was gathered at Highgate Park (Julia Farr Services, formerly Julia Farr Centre, formerly Home for Incurables) in July 2020. The Julia Farr Trust /JFC/Home for Incurables provided institutional care on this site from 1879 to 2020. The building is now being sold, and former residents are now in group homes, owned by the Trust, with services provided by Disability SA.The residents featured on the car (Margie and Daryl) loved role playing as police officers and so one of the Art Room team made the car for them to use in their play.SignificanceThe Home for Incurables/Julia Farr provided institutional care from the 1870s to the present day. Founded by private subscription, the Home was financed by bequests and donations given by South Australians for decades, It was aligned with, although not under the control of, SA's public welfare institutions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and received residents from Destitute Board, Adelaide Hospital, Parkside Lunatic Asylum and private homes and hopitals. The Home played a significant role in the care of people with disability and/or long term and complex medical needs, although did not accept residents with contagious deseases. Each resident was nominated by medical or social professionals and approved individually.
Objects selected were judged to be of historical and social significance to South Australia. The secondary, or comparative, criteria applied were provenance, condition, representativeness, and interpretive capacity. Assessing the collection in more detail it became apparent there were six overlapping and complementary areas of significance. Some were public facing, others were focused on life inside the Home:
• The establishment and history of the Home for Incurables / Julia Farr Centre / Julia Farr Services, and the occupation of the Fisher Street site
• The Home as a site of teaching and learning / the increasing professionalization of care for people with disabilities / medical attitudes toward disability
• Resident lives and experiences, primarily from the perspectives of people with disability. This includes the experiences of family and carers / community attitudes toward disability
• Day-to-day care of people with disabilities, changes over time to staffing, equipment, the culture of disability care
• Volunteering, both into the Home by individuals and organisations, but also the volunteering, outreach, and community presence of residents in and for the wider community
• Fundraising, at a personal and individual level, and as an action of the Home and its Auxiliaries.DescriptionThis is a handmade wooden toy police car with photo cut outs of two persons as the passengers sitting in the car. It has got 4B (the ward number) on the roof of the car.Creator (person)Creator (organisation)AcknowledgementDate of CreationDate of UsageAccession NumberHT 2020.1158
