The Gold Rush in 1851 meant sorrow and suffering for many adults. The story of children of this period is not as well known. The roving life of parents in search of gold, their fluctuating fortunes and frequent fatal accidents in the mines contributed to the plight of their offspring. In 1852 Canvas Town on the west side of St Kilda Road, in Melbourne, held over 7,000 people. There were, of course, many waifs and strays who suffered the hardships of a canvas town and the general social misfortune of the times. The ground was swampy and children’s diseases often swept the encampment. Death was commonplace. There was also a large number of children in gaols in 1858, not because they had committed any crime but because there was simply nowhere else to go. Finally a number of children during this era were confined to workhouses by magistrates.

At least 160,000 Australian men and women are single parents as the result of separation, divorce, death of the spouse, or birth out of wedlock (Social Welfare Commission, 1976). With the custody, care and control of approximately 282,000 children, these single parents can face an array of social problems and, as Schlesinger (1972) observed, warrant greater attention from the helping professions.

In my twenty years experience in social work, my particular interest has always been working with children. I know many of you are from children’s homes and I feel very much at home among child-care workers having spent 9 years as social worker at Pallister Girls’ Home which was then an ‘open’ home for Court Committed school girls. I also spent several years in an adoption agency which brought me in touch with unmarried very young girls — children really — and a certain number of older children who were surrendered for adoption.

Epilepsy is one of the oldest and most mysterious conditions known to man. Although as long ago as 460 BC, Hypocrates claimed that seizures were due to afflictions of the brain, the myth has persisted until modern times that epilepsy is a manifestation of devil possession or a punishment of sin by God. The sudden onset of attacks and equally sudden disappearance only confirmed the long held view that supernatural powers were at work.

‘A Child’s Heart’ is a short story written by Herman Hesse concerning an eleven year old boy. As an account, in the first person, of the child’s emotions it provides an insight into child development.

The child, for reasons unknown to himself, stole dried figs from his father’s study on finding his father absent. There followed manifold expressions of guilt such as misery, remorse and resentment. Hesse describes his attitude toward his father as one of “reverence and rebellion” which “contested in my overladen heart.”