Child abuse commission to probe Neerkol

The operation of a central Queensland orphanage where nuns conducted a decades-long "reign of terror" against children will by examined by a royal commission.

The Neerkol orphanage, operated by the Sisters of Mercy, has previously been exposed by the Forde Inquiry in 1998 and 1999 as a place where physical, sexual and psychological abuse was rife.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will travel to Rockhampton in April to hold public hearings into the orphanage's operation between 1940 and 1975.

The scope of the hearings will include the experiences of orphans, and the responses of the Sisters of Mercy, the Catholic Diocese of Rockhampton and the Queensland government.

The royal commission will begin on April 14.