[1] The Parramatta Girls Home served the dual purpose of both a reformatory and training school, with girls committed to the institution on "complaints" under the Child Welfare Act 1939 (NSW) as "delinquent" — uncontrollable, absconding from proper custody, breached probation; "neglected" — exposed to moral danger, no fixed place of abode and destitute, improper guardianship, truant; or "offences juvenile offenders, Crimes Act" — stealing, assaults, robbery, murder, sex offences, malicious damage.
The closed operations of the institution, authoritarian rule, daily routine and poor conditions, encouraged a climate of abuse and bullying.
In securing their own safety, girls would form allegiances, and, as with the culture in prisons, developed a lover (or kinship) system through exchanged notes, hand-holding, kissing, scratching initials into their body and secret codes — ILWA (I love worship adore/always), or TID (till I die), or SML — used to express affection.
A rebuffed girl would often resort to a form of retaliation called "dogging" or a "top off", meaning that she would report her rival to an officer for a breach of rules.
Until 1961, girls who had committed a "secondary" (institutional) offence, called "conduct to the prejudice of good order and discipline", were sent to Long Bay Prison for three months.
[2] Parramatta Girls Home was officially closed in July 1974, but continued to operate as a welfare institution under a new name, "Kamballa" and "Taldree".
[3] A 2004 Senate Inquiry by the Community Affairs References Committee included statements by twenty former residents of the Parramatta Girls Home about their experiences there.