The voices of Victoria's wards of the state will be heard at a highly anticipated two-week hearing of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Melbourne.

The fourth public hearing of the inquiry in Victoria will examine three state-run institutions that operated between the 1960s and 1990s - Turana Youth Training Centre and Baltara Reception Centre in Parkville, and the Winlaton Youth Training Centre in Nunawading.

It is estimated tens of thousands of boys and girls may have passed through the gates and potentially into the hands of sexual predators.

Norman Latham will be one of the first to give evidence at the hearing.

The 69-year-old left primary school in year 4 and was later put into Turana.

He does not have any photographs of his childhood.

"I was only 14 at the time when the rapes first started," Mr Latham said of his alleged abuse at the hands of two staff members.

Mr Latham said he was threatened when he tried to speak up about his treatment.

After more than 50 years, police charged one of his alleged abusers and the case proceeded through the courts.

But the case was abandoned last year, just days away from the start of the trial.

Mr Latham said he was "devastated".

Instead, he will tell his story from the witness box at the royal commission.

"I'm looking forward to getting the story out there, getting his name out there," he said.

"Hopefully, other victims will come forward."

Time people received 'justice and fairness': Premier

Mr Latham said he hoped the hearing would produce new leads for the specialist child exploitation police taskforce, or "SANO".

He said his abuse in state care had followed him around for his entire adult life, and had become more difficult to bear since his wife passed away in 2006.

"The pressure would get to me that much I'd just go missing for three four five weeks at a time on alcohol," he said.

"Then I'd wake up and wonder where I was... then I'd do the same again."

Victoria's wards of the state were not included in the State Government's landmark Betrayal of Trust report released two years ago.

Premier Daniel Andrews said it was time their voices were heard.

"It's central to them getting justice and fairness and decency," he said.

"It's something they've been denied for far too long."

Wards of the state 'abandoned' by government

Leonie Sheedy of the victims and survivors' advocacy group CLAN (Care Leavers Australia Network) agreed.

"We were the children of the government," she said.

"The government has a lot to answer for.

"We got abandoned. A lot of our people have committed suicide, a lot of them live on the fringes of society and a lot of them will never speak out.

She said those excluded from the betrayal would be able to their say "at long last".

"The lack of care towards children who had no-one to turn to...our country needs to be ashamed of what happened to us."

The hearing is scheduled to run for two weeks.