Julia Farr

Julia Warren Farr née Ord (14 August 1824 – 21 April 1914) was an English-born South Australian philanthropist.

Julia was a daughter of Major Robert Hutchinson Ord (1789–1828), whose family were associated with Greensted Hall, Essex, and his wife Elizabeth Ord (née Blagrave). She was young when her parents died and she and her siblings went to live with an uncle.

She married (Anglican) Rev. George Henry Farr, Vicar of St. Wenn's Church in Cornwall, in 1846 after a four-year engagement, the delay being occasioned by her uncle's disapproval, the Ords being Plymouth Brethren and in much wealthier circumstances.

In 1854 George Henry Farr was offered the position of headmaster of St Peter's College, Adelaide, which he promptly accepted, hoping the drier climate of South Australia would improve his wife's delicate health. George and Julia, their six-year-old daughter Eleanora and Julia's half-sister Edith Bayley sailed to South Australia aboard Daylesford, arriving in Adelaide in July 1854 after a long four-month voyage during which an outbreak of measles affected the children, the ship ran out of provisions, and the captain, missing the entrance to Gulf St Vincent, nearly ran the ship aground at the Murray Mouth.

Their first few weeks did not augur well for life in the new colony: the ship's Adelaide agent had gone broke and the captain had to borrow money from passengers before he could continue to Melbourne. The only transportation they could find at the port was an old cart that broke down in Hindley Street and the women had to put up for the night at a temperance hotel (George had been taken to the college the previous day by the government health officer). The next day was Sunday and Julia Farr and Edith Bayley were expected at the 11 am service at the College chapel, but they could not find a cab and had to walk the two miles of what must have been rudimentary, and possibly muddy, tracks in their best clothes. The Farrs' accommodation was not yet habitable and they had to board with Mrs Baye, the college matron.

Farr assumed responsibility for running the boarding school for the College, overseeing the dairy and poultry that supplied the kitchen.

Farr was concerned at the plight of orphaned girls who had been committed to the Adelaide Destitute Asylum, an unsatisfactory situation in many ways. She organised a group of like-minded friends and founded the Church of England's Orphan Home for Girls. Located near the corner of Carrington Street and East Terrace, previously a German hospital, it opened in October 1861. The all female founding committee consisted of Millicent Short (wife of the first Bishop of Adelaide), Mrs. Jane Kent Hughes, Lady Amelia 'Emily' Grace Cooper, (wife of Chief Justice Charles Cooper), a Mrs. Prankerd, Stuckey and Farr.

The girls were looked after, fed, clothed and educated to the age of 14, then most found employment as servants to middle-class households. The first secretary of the Home was H. Kent Hughes, and matron Mrs. Sarah Birt. The Home was relocated to 588 Fullarton Road, Mitcham in August 1909, after the management of the home bought the residence of T. O'Halloran Giles (son of pastoralist Thomas Giles). The Home was renamed Farr House in honour of Julia Farr 1935 and closed in 1982.