The first superintendent and matron of Ballarat District Orphan Asylum were local public school teachers named Mr. and Mrs.
[1] Other notable superintendents included Arthur Kenny, who served from 1884 to 1925 and oversaw the orphanage's name change, and politician Herbert Ludbrook.
[5][6][7] Charges filed against the then-88 year old former superintendent of Ballarat Orphanage, Hylton David Sedgman, were withdrawn by the Director of Public Prosecutions due to his age.
[citation needed] In 2021, credible allegations of abuse against Sedgman, who acted as superintendent in 1964, were uncovered by Charlotte King while working on a report for the Australian Broadcasting Commission's investigative program Background Briefing.
This emotional and physically punitive institutional regime – which was considered appropriate and not confined to the Ballarat Orphanage at the time – continued until the end of the 1950s.
[12] The Stolen Generations' Testimonies Foundation has documented the stories of Aboriginal children housed at Ballarat Orphanage, such as Kennedy Edwards[13] Uncle Murray Harrison,[14] and Peter Clarke.