St. John's Orphanage, Demolished orphanage site in Goulburn, Australia

St. John's Orphanage was a two-storey red-brick complex on Mundy Street in Goulburn, designed by architect EC Manfred, with an attic, a basement and red tiled roofs. The taller gabled front carried a small cross and a niche with a white statue above three tall windows, with a flat-roofed entrance porch below; a long two-storey wing ran to the right. The entrance block stood at the westerly end, reached by stone steps because the pavement sat several feet above the natural ground.

Bishop John Gallagher laid and blessed the foundation stone on 17 March 1912, and blessed the building again at its opening in late 1913. Run by the Sisters of Mercy and the Catholic Church, it housed boys aged 5 to 16 and was extended several times. It merged with St. Joseph's Orphanage for girls in 1976, closed in 1978, was rented to a Youth with a Mission base until 1994, and was demolished in 2023.

The orphanage was run by the Sisters of Mercy and the Catholic Church, who gave residents a religious education and trained them in agriculture on about 3 hectares of garden land. Only about four per cent of the more than 2,500 people who stayed there were actually orphans. Former residents recall severe beatings and a single set of rarely washed clothing, while others describe the nuns as tough but fair.

The orphanage was demolished in 2023, so there is no building to view; the site on Mundy Street has been redeveloped as a mixed-use development by businessman John Ferrara. The lot covered 24,000 square metres, with the main front facing north and entrance gates on Mundy Street. The southern side connects off Combermere Street.

During World War II, the facility far exceeded its intended capacity of around 100 residents, housing over 200 children at times. A notable aspect is that most of these children were not actually orphans, making it function more as a general children's home.