[color=pink]The Vagabond, The Magdalen Asylum, as published in the Melbourne Argus, 1876[/color]

"Many good Protestants believe that a Convent is a place of locks, and bolts, and bars; of oubliettes and dreary cells; of fasting, penance, and mortification, varied occasionally by a little active immorality - for there are people who credit the abominable lies of "Maria Monk" and the "Baron de Camin". On the the Continent, I have seen Nunneries which outwardly might come up to the popular idea, but the high walls and many locks were, I believe, principally designed to keep out intruderes."

"But this discipline is softened by the kind womanly sympathy of the nuns, who look on the fallen ones - not as lost souls, but as strayed sheep, whom it is their duty and pleasure to gather to the fold of the Good Shepherd, for here and hereafter."

"It is what is commonly known as an 'enclosed Order', the nuns, from the time of their profession, never leave the Convent grounds, unless by dispensation to found new Branches...Their only bonds are moral ones, for anyone wanting to leave could walk out the front gate at any hour of the day."

"They are reclaiming the lowest and worst kind of outcasts, the old miserable "man-eaters' of society. As regards other unfortunates, gradually sinking through the depths, charity displayed in time may prevent their falling so low as to make it necessary for the to lose their last atom of self-respect by associating with the fallen ones at Abbotsford. If you can reclaim the new Magdalen without publicly proclaiming her shame, so much the better; but where that is not possible, this Asylum steps in, and the work being done there deserves and requires the sympaty and support of all classes and all creeds in Victoria."

[color=pink] Desma Jean Guthrie, Caring for the "Fallen Ones": an examination of the role of "fallen women" in Melbourne society, and the conduct of the Female Refuges, 1870-1890,, 1981 [/color]

p.1 "It appears likely that the majority of women who entered these Refuges did so voluntarily, although their options were probably very limitited, and many, as will be shown, were very young and probably desperate.

p.2 "Despite the charitable motives of the founder of these Refues, they operated on the assumption of female guilt. Admission to these reformative institutions therefore placed an invisible but indelible mark on a woman, which made transition back into the mainstream of society a difficult process - perhaps too difficult for some women who chose to spend the rest of their lives within convent walls rather than face a hostile society..."

"Female Refuges would perhaps seen to have been the only option available to women as an alternative to prostitution, in a society which operated on the basis of gross economic inequality, combined with double standard of sexual morality which discriminated against the female - especially the female poor."

p.4 A Report on the Social Evil, prepared by David Blair, 1873:

"It is beyond doubt that by far the largest number of fallen women in Victoria have become so of their own deliberate choice, either from a love of idleness and luxurious habits or from an inherent propensity to vice."

p.16 The Constitution of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd: Our Mission and SPirit

"The Church entrusts to us a share in her mission of reconciliation. She looks for the lsot one, brings back the strayed...So we are envoys for Christ...Our spiriti is evangalical...One person is more precious than the whole world...Our primary apostolate is to girls and women in personal and social and family difficulties...Our love should waken in them a sense of their worth and dignity as Children of God...to see God's image in every person...We strive to promote the full human and spiritual development of those in our care."

p.18 "...This (The Vagabonds article in the Argus) suggests the woman was given the option of going to the Magdelene Asylum rather than being sent there, although probably the only other alternative would hav ebeen a gaol sentence (or entry into antoher Refuge)."