The first bill for the protection of Aborigines was drafted by the New South Wales government in 1838, following the Myall Creek massacre in June of that year.

Thus began a systemic government approach to the regulation and control of the lives of Aboriginal people that became ever tighter, until the success of the 1967 constitutional referendum brought significant change.

"The objectives of the Board were to provide asylum for the aged and sick, who are dependent on others for help and support; but also, and of at least equal importance to train and teach the young, to fit them to take their places amongst the rest of the community".

[1] In Darlington Point, Reverend Gribble established the Warangesda Aboriginal Mission in 1880 and, in 1883, set up a separate girls' dormitory.

The Board was of the opinion that the children would only become good and proper members of "industrial society" if they were completely removed from their families and not allowed to return.

The result was an official assimilation policy formed on the premise that "full-blood" Aborigines would be soon extinct and the "half-castes" should be absorbed into society.

The sesquicentenary of the European colonisation of New South Wales in 1938 was marked by a National Day of Mourning and a call for the abolition of the Protection Board.

[1] In the 1960s, the work on "attachment theory" by British psychiatrist John Bowlby, began to influence the institutional care of children in Australia.

[1] The precursor to Kinchela, Singleton Boys' Home, was established by the Board for the Protection of Aborigines in December 1918 on the grounds of a former mission.

The home was intended to accommodate the boys removed from their families under the Aborigines Protection (Amendment) Act[6] until they were old enough to be sent out to work.

The boys were to receive training whilst in the home so they could be gainfully employed in manual or agricultural work when they turned 15 years of age.

Under the Aborigines Protection Act boys between the ages of 5 and 15 were removed from their families if in the opinion of the Board (or those enacting its laws, the police or reserve managers) it was "in the interest of the moral or physical welfare" of the child.

[1] Kinchela Boys Home was 16 mi (26 km) from Kempsey on 32 acres (13 ha) of land alongside the Macleay River.

In 1952 the home was described in Dawn magazine (published by the Aborigines Welfare Board) as having lawns, gardens, swimming pool and a playground.

The boys also participated in local sports activities during the 1950s, gaining a reputation in swimming, football, boxing and surf lifesaving.

The Land Council leased it to Benelong's Haven, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre for Aboriginal people, for 41 years from 1976 to 2017.

The Deputy Premier of New South Wales and Minister for Aboriginal Affairs used the occasion to formally apologise to the former Home Boys and congratulated them on their courage in returning.

The smaller parcel of 2 acres 3 rods and 38 perches fronts South West Rocks Road alongside the Macleay River.

Along the eastern boundary of the front lot were a number of ancillary buildings housing the milk separator, stores and a wood shed which doubled as a punishment room.

A verandah was constructed interconnecting the complex of main buildings so that it could function during floods, fit outs were made for offices and accommodation and three new houses were built next to the former football field.

The nation was made aware of how widespread the practice of removal was, which affected every Aboriginal community but was outside the consciousness of mainstream Australians.

The Kinchela Aboriginal Boys' Training Home provides contemporary Australia with physical evidence as a means to comprehend the pain and suffering inflicted by past assimilation practices.

[1] Kinchela Aboriginal Boys' Training Home was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 17 February 2012 having satisfied the following criteria.

The Boys' Home is a direct example of how the Board's policies were implemented and the government acted as a paternalistic force in Aboriginal lives.

The Boys' Home as a training facility emphasised labouring and agricultural careers demonstrating the entrenched social theory of the 19th and greater part of the 20th centuries that Aboriginal people were inferior in intelligence and only capable of manual tasks.

The employment of a former resident as a manager in the two years before the home closed, demonstrates the beginning of changing attitudes at the time of the Constitutional referendum concerning Aboriginal rights in 1967.

It demonstrates the implementation of Social Darwinism as Government policy which believed that "full blood Aborigines" would become extinct and the rest of the "half caste " population would be assimilated or absorbed into white society.

The Home provides verification of past assimilation practices and the potential for greater understanding and compassion towards those who suffered as a result.

The original buildings together with descriptions of their former use, provide an insight into the domestic routine and the life of the home and methods used in raising Aboriginal wards of the State.

The place has rarity as the only surviving built evidence of the assimilation policies which dictated that Aboriginal boys be institutionalised and trained as labourers in NSW.