On Monday Maurice Blackburn Cashman solicitor Vivian Waller filed applications on behalf of the eight women and six men, requesting a hearing in the Supreme Court on the grounds her clients had been victims of cruelty, physical beatings and sexual abuse while residents at the former Victoria St home.

The applicants are seeking leave to sue both the State Government and Child and Family Services Ballarat Inc - the successor of the Ballarat Orphanage which was demolished in 1965.

It is alleged at least 10 of the 14-applicants were sexually abused between the late 1950s and 1960s, with three male staff members implicated in the allegations.

Ms Waller said her clients claimed the physical abuse was carried out by a large number of staff members, both men and women.

"The allegations in these cases include sexual assault and rape of young children and adolescent boys and girls, as well as violent beatings with canes, straps and the rubber wheel off a pram," she said.

"People have slowly been coming forward with this information over the last two or three years and I am sure there are others out there still summoning up the courage to speak to someone."

Child and Family Services Ballarat Inc chief executive officer Kevin Zibell told The Courier the company's solicitors had received a summons late yesterday afternoon.

"The fact is that the orphanage ceased to exist in 1965 and we became Child and Family Services in 1998," he said.

"There are links but the business of the current organisation is quite different and separate."

Mr Zibell said he was not in a position to comment further until he had seen the claims.

He said the company's board would meet tonight to discuss the issue.

It is understood a summons was served on solicitors acting for the State Government yesterday morning, however Community Services Minister Bronwyn Pike did not return calls to The Courier.

Ms Waller said the 14-applicants, some of whom still lived in the region, were aged between 6 and 15 years when the alleged abuse took place.

She said they were each seeking damages through the civil proceedings.

"They just want their stories to be heard."

"This is something they have carried with them all their lives ... it is very difficult to leave behind."

Applicant Janetta Nelson, 46, of Geelong, was at the orphanage between 1961 and 1964 and said a staff member would regularly visit the girls' dormitory at night and take girls to his quarters.

Ms Nelson said she was repeatedly sexually assaulted and raped by him.

Coralie Messina, 56, of Queensland, lived at the home between 1951 and 1963 and said she was beaten by staff for any minor wrongdoing. "I was hung on a coat hook with my feet off the ground and left there, helpless to get down," she said.

"Later at the orphanage, a staff member sexually molested me. He raped me repeatedly."

Ms Waller said while it was not alleged all children at the orphanage suffered abuse, it was not surprising some had kept quiet given the "institutionalised culture of the violence".

She said many former orphanage residents still lived in the Ballarat area and the latest revelations may encourage them to speak out.