At first I thought there was very little evidence of the Australian nanny, and thought ~ that's a professional nanny for you - you wouldn't even realise they had been there!
Then I discovered a book on domestic service in Australia, by a professor based in Melbourne. It's a really interesting read. Domestic Service in Australia, by B.W.Higman. There are many details about the industry which have been left out, but I'm sure this will be addressed if another edition is published.
Then research bug got me and I asked Lara from Care For Kidz Nanny Agency if she would help out, we went looking for early Australian Nannies.
Lara found a wealth of information on agencies in the old newspapers held at the State library. I had previously looked through the old yellow pages at Bondi (interesting stuff) and there have been domestic service agencies from the turn of the century advertising, so I presume they were also there before that too.
The Australian Nannies who have made it to the public eye, have not always achieved this status due to their high level of care. Some are notorious.
In 2003, the oldest woman in Australia died in SA - she was a nanny. I would love to find out her history, without imposing on her family's privacy. It would be great to record some details of the early history of nannying here.
Louise Sullivan - a Sydney nanny who was accused of shaking a baby, whilst caring for a child in the UK in the late 1990's is probably the best known nanny here. Sadly the baby died.There are many doubts around the situation, as there is a medical condition which produces similar symptoms to when a baby is shaken.
Another Australian nanny had wrongly been accused of feeding a child peanut butter, when they were allergic and of causing injury. Both allegations were found to be false.
There is a sadder case here in Australia, where a nanny was accused of causing harm to two babies, I have been unable to follow up on the case due to the privacy laws.
Nannies have been in existence since the early ages when a parent had to hand on the care of their child. This often occurred after the mother died during birth, or due to war or estate management commitments. As I have never found the source of the title, I presume it comes from the natural progression from a grandmothers nickname 'nanny'.
For this is the role a mother often took on if her daughter was incapacitated or deceased. A servant or close friend would take on the role in the absence of a relative, or the child would be moved to another home. As society prospered and servants grew more common, travel and warfare took parents away from the family home - or the children were removed for their own safety - the nanny filled the role of caring for the family's children.
Though the origin of the word ' nanny' escapes me, I have discovered many variations on their roles ~ nursery aid, nurse, dry nurse are common throughout English history and fiction. A 'Mandy' in America was a creole servant whose main role was the care and welfare of the children of plantation owners or societies elite.
From the 1850's onwards, it became harder and harder for households to compete with factory work and other alternatives available to working women, to attract workers to the traditional domestic career of estates and wealthy homes in cities. There were many limitations placed on domestic workers, limitations that are not an issue with alternative occupations which were becoming more and more available.
It appears the general domestic (housekeeping etc) responsibilites of employed nannies didn't become widely acceptable until the 1930's overseas, when the nannies were taking up the slack when needed, or a housekeepers job evolved into something more than cleaning house! It is now commonplace in the 21st century for nannies who are employed by working families, to undertake light domestic duties to maintain hygenic and comfortable surroundings for their charges. As community and family connections have dwindled and the need for employment related connections has grown, the traditional direct line to potential nannies from the bush is not filling places, so the majority of nannies are sourced from within the city limits itself.
In Australia, originally a 'mothers help' was common in the bush, though they were rarely a willing party. Convicts, indigenous teenagers and women were passed out to settlers by the government authorities as domestic help. The conditions were often harsh and seemed similar to slavery. There is some mention of domestic staff on the records of passengers of the first ships to arrive here from England, but the information is sketchy and requires more research.
Finding and keeping reliable domestic staff has always been a challenge, there is a pattern however, when employees are treated well, loyalty is often gained and longer employment is the result. In Australia, many placements were filled via the country networks accessing dependable young single women who were seeking employment. In the early 1900's, Sydney saw the emergence of private businesses established on the North Shore, placing domestic staff.
To give you a better picture - in the mid 1890's at 'Inglewood' an estate at Lindfield, Sydney - a beautiful old two story brick home was where the Australian classic 'Seven Little Australians' was written. This was a prosperous era, nurses and nannies were common place in established homes.
Today the homebased childcare placement industry has grown to over 70 agencies in NSW and a handful of interstate agencies placing a small percentage of positions creates by the In Home Childcare needs of the some 24 000 famileis who choose this type of care in NSW.
Regulations have been rumoured to have been in place in NSW and SA from the 70's to late 80's, but the information is difficult to access as regulators have changed in the mid 90's.
Currently the placement industry has some regulations to safeguard the children in it's care. It may be due to the regular reports that the nanny placement sector is unregulated, parents expectations of operators seem low.
Lack of policing and reporting of violations, some unethical operators have established less than desirable work practices which put at risk the families they cater to.
Thankfully, with the increase of information available and educated expectations in a consumer driven market, I am confident positive changes will emerge over the next five years and many of the unethical operators will either change their services or have to close their doors.
Back in the 80-'s, the agencies had many professional nannies on their books, due to being taken for granted by a handful of consultants, a large proportion of professional nannies went underground. As they realise the benefits of using a professionally run agency, they will slowly return to the quality services, as there are agencies which ensure the nanny's needs are a priority in negotiations.
One major step to seperate nannies from the image of 'babysitter', was to have nannies listed as a seperate category in the Yellow Pages, this happened because a dedicated agency owner in Melbourne decided the distinction must be made, so she spoke up on behalf of the industry.
We now have a Public Liability Insurance on offer for nanies which is Australian Guarunteed, in the past there was only one insurance on offer - now there are two. It is possible to pay the Australian Guarunteed policy by the month, making it more practical for nannies. This policy came about from lobbying from a concerned agency operator.
More and more nannies hold formal child development qulifications, offering a better standard of care for children. Though I still rate the experienced informally trained nannies highly, I have seen many carers who obtain their qualifications whilst working, through correspondence courses.
Training is an area which has changed dramatically over the years. We once had a truly homebased nanny course, now the Cert II is based on the Centre Diploma. A TAFE in Victoria had their course accredited and this caused the wash out of several wonderful 'Nanny' courses. The Sydney Nanny College was one of the best, as was (and is) Pam Arnold's adapted course based in SA. It is still possible to complete a nanny course through Pam in SA. See TACON's Training Links for details.
This is an ever evolving industry, if you hold any of the missing pieces of nanny history, be sure to leave it here for everyone to read in a comments post. I'd love to know how the name came about.
Happy Nannying to you all . . . .
Comments