Forced adoption survivor Jen McRae thrilled as Juniper confirm name change of Beryl Grant Community Centre

A forced adoption survivor group have said they are “relieved” to hear that the name of an Albany community centre bearing the legacy of a “prolific” forced adoption perpetrator will be changed. Great Southern Adoption Support Group chair Jen McRae started a petition to rename the Beryl Grant Community Centre in September 2024 on the basis that “WA’s baby thief” did not have a legacy to be celebrated. Receiving 1171 signatures, the petition was updated in March with an indicated successful outcome, but the official renaming confirmation was only made by the centre’s operators, Juniper Aged Care, on Friday. Juniper chief executive Russell Bricknell said that although a new name is yet to be determined, signage and reference to Beryl Grant will be removed as soon as possible. “We believe the right and respectful move is to change the name of the community centre,” he said. “We will continue working closely with advocates, stakeholders and the local community to ensure the new name reflects the area’s unique character, its landscape, and the deep cultural connections people have to this place.” Herself a forced adoption survivor, Ms McRae said that seeing Ms Grant’s name — who facilitated hundreds of forced adoptions during her 21-year tenure as matron of Ngala Mothercraft and Training Centre — on the building was traumatic for many babies and mothers involved in the forced adoption era. “For newborn babies, we don’t have a concrete memory the same our adult mothers do, but that trauma is embedded deep in our brain stems,” Ms McRae said. “Her name certainly represents the very experience of what it means to be forced adopted, but she violated a whole new convention of human rights against newborns and their mothers. “It adds to a whole new need to re-correct history as when someone violates the human rights of a group of people they shouldn’t be celebrated for that. “Adopted people did not have a voice up until very recently, but now that we’ve found it, we’re going to keep using it and we’re not going to slide away into silence again.” Ms Grant, who died in 2017, held orders from the British Empire and Australia, served as Juniper’s first female chair, the national president of the Royal College of Nursing and the matron of Ngala during the peak of the forced adoption era. Ngala was one of several institutions that forcibly removed the newborn babies of unwed women and placed them in the care of married couples from the 1940s to 1980s. Though her suggestion to rename the building after local Menang woman Bessy Flowers was shot down, Ms McRae agreed this served as a “good learning experience” for organisations in the dangers of naming buildings after people. “People can be problematic,” she said. “You might name a building after someone in 2025 and then 10 years later you realise they’re a bit of dubious character. “The fallout comes with having to explain why you’ve named your centre after someone who actually has turned out not to have a good legacy.”