They call themselves "Nazzie girls" — children who ended up in the care of the Sisters of Nazareth girls home in Ballarat in the 1950s and 1960s.

Gabrielle Short does not hesitate when she is asked to summarise her childhood here.

"Ninety-five per cent hell, torture, abuse, fear, terror," she says.

Key points: Victims of childhood abuse travel to former girls home in Ballarat to confront nuns.

Victims of childhood abuse travel to former girls home in Ballarat to confront nuns. Order of nuns is now caring for former Bishop, Ronald Mulkearns, who is accused of ignoring complaints of abuse.

Order of nuns is now caring for former Bishop, Ronald Mulkearns, who is accused of ignoring complaints of abuse. Sisters say they accept residents of the now-nursing home "based on their current needs".

In the early 1960s, paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale was their chaplain.

"Up there, in the middle floor there, one of the girls actually tried to jump out the window because she reported the abuse to the nuns, and one of the nuns belted the life out of her until she was lifeless," Ms Short says.

A group of the girls, now women, are back to confront the order of nuns who run the facility as a nursing home to, Ms Short said, "ask why they're giving sanctuary to an enabler of this man who ran amok".

Ms Short has come all the way from Ipswich, near Brisbane, Queensland, and she leads the small group to the front door.

"We've got nothing to lose," she tells the others.

She is angry that the order of nuns here is now caring for the former Bishop of Ballarat, Ronald Mulkearns.

The dying bishop has been accused of shifting paedophile priests across his diocese over three decades and ignoring complaints from parents and victims.

'They want us out. They can't face the truth'

Automatic doors open for the women as they walk into the main entrance and Ms Short asks to speak to the Sister in charge.

An elderly nun with a walking frame soon emerges, and Ms Short asks her why the order is offering care to a man who, she says, enabled priests like Gerald Ridsdale to abuse children.

The women are promptly asked to leave.

Wendy Dyckhoff, who lived here as a little girl in the 1960s, breaks down outside the front door.

"They want us out. They can't face the truth," she sobs, as she watches the nun and her assistant escort Ms Short from the building.

Later, Nazareth House issues us with a statement that says the order accepts their residents "based on their current needs".

"In relation to Bishop Mulkearns, it is for the Royal Commission to examine his conduct and draw conclusions," regional superior Sister Dominica writes.

Former bishop's parents would want him to 'uphold the real truth'

At the front door, we meet with two visitors who offer sympathy to the victims.

"We're the victims of Ridsdale, who was our chaplain here," Ms Dyckhoff tells them.

One of the visitors, 91-year-old Eileen Piper, gives her support.

"I know what you're going through, darling. Be brave, be tough," she says.

"That's what we're doing, even though our legs are trembling."

Ms Piper says she has just been to visit Ronald Mulkearns.

"I had a longing to visit Bishop Mulkearns only because I had a memory of him as a little boy," she says.

"That's what I came for today. To remind him of what beautiful parents he had. I was there to help him through the inquiry. It might soften his heart if he could go there on behalf of the parents who bore him."

We ask what the former Bishop's parents would want him to do when he is giving evidence before the Royal Commission today.

"To uphold his upbringing, uphold the real truth and not be misguided by all the innuendos and extras," Ms Piper says.

"I'm only hoping that maybe when he goes into the stand, he might remember. I wouldn't be very confident. I think he's too ill."

'If they can take care of an enabler ... why not the children?'

Her companion tells me Ms Piper's daughter committed suicide after she was abused by a priest in Melbourne.

One of the Nazareth Girls tells her she has tried to kill herself eight times.

As the women get acquainted, two police cars arrive and the officers take down the names of the women.

Ms Short says she wants the religious order in charge of this institution to acknowledge the needs of the children who suffered there, "to take care of the needs of the children of Nazareth".

"If they can take care of an enabler, who backed this bloke, moved him from parish to parish, if they can take care of him over there, why not the children?" she says.

A photo is produced from her communion in the 1960s.

Gerald Ridsdale is in the centre, surrounded by little girls in white dresses. They are standing at the same statue before us now.

Ms Short points to one little girl at the back, her friend Julie, who she says is dying of cancer.

"She was raped by Gerald Ridsdale on the day, and the nun took her upstairs to the washroom and cleaned her out with a toothbrush," she says.

Ms Short says the victim has never been compensated, despite the fact that the assault led to the removal of her spleen and, later, her kidney.

"We're not asking them for us to move back in here, but there's a lot of needs," she says.

"She's in the public [care], she should have private [care] like he's got. That's their obligation, to look after the children."