Centacare Tasmania was established in 1960 by Archbishop Sir Guilford Young.
The direct impetus for the foundation was due to the following combined factors:
Fr Eric Perkins, Director of the CFWB, Melbourne (est. 1936) and Monsignor J F McCosker, Director of the CFWB, Sydney (est 1941), had campaigned vigorously for the Government to include the allocation of monies for the support of marriage counselling, in the proposed legislation. It was generally accepted amongst the Churches that divorce was a social reality and as such, should be legislated for. The Catholic Church had a definite interest in supporting the institution of marriage and the protection of the family.
Frs Perkins and McCosker sought a mandate from the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference to form a committee and have a Bishop appointed as a Deputy for Welfare. The National Catholic Welfare Committee (later to become the Australian Catholic Social Welfare Commission) came into being. One of the earlier recommendations of Fr Perkins, now speaking on behalf of the NCWC, was that the new legislation should provide for and fund community services in family and marriage counselling. The question of subsidisation for marriage counselling services was not received enthusiastically by the Government where expenditure was limited as far as possible to Government ventures and it appeared to create an unhealthy and expensive precedent.
While the Government asserted that pressure coming from cohorts of controlled Christians should be ignored, concession was eventually made that some support would be given to the NCWC proposal. The Federal Opposition of the time referred to the Government’s decision regarding marriage counselling subsidies as a “sop to the Churches”.
In 1959, Frs Perkins and McCosker addressed the Bishops’ Conference. They briefed the Bishops on the content of the new Bill and advised them that the Attorney General (Sir Garfield Barwick), had agreed that the Government would provide subsidies for Marriage Counselling services. They urged each Bishop to establish a family welfare agency in his own diocese to develop services for families and also also conduct marriage counselling. The Matrimonial Causes Bill passed into Australian Law in December 1959, however, the original allocation of approximately £120,000 was extremely modest, given the universal need in the community for expert assistance in human relationships.
In December 1959, Archbishop Young appointed Fr Clem Kilby, at that time a Curate in the New Norfolk Parish, to set up a Marriage Counselling and Family Welfare Centre, initially known as the Catholic Family Welfare Bureau (1960 -–1977). Establishment and all running costs of the CFWB were to be met by the diocese until the subsidy for marriage counselling was known. Even then, any shortfall in income would remain a diocesan responsibility. The unknown future of the new work seemed assured and for the first three years, the Bureau was located in a room on the first floor of the Church Office in Macquarie Street.
By early 1963, a large debt incurred by one of the parishes placed extreme pressure on the financial resources of the Diocese. The CFWB Director was advised that the Diocesan costs of £1,500 for the establishment of the Bureau had to be repaid at 1.5% from the Commonwealth Government Grant and fund raising. Meantime, the accommodation at the Church Office was proving to be ill-suited to meet the needs of the new work and the Bureau moved to a property made available by the Sisters of Charity, at 11 Harrington Street (later known as 44 Sandy Bay Road, where it remained until 1988).
Fund raising was of critical importance from the beginning and the Director formed a Welfare Auxiliary in 1962. The task was to raise monies to cover the running costs, wages of a full-time secretary and ultimately. A social worker. During the most crucial years of its establishment, through street stalls, Art Unions, bingo nights and raffles, the Auxiliary became the life line of the organisation.