Female Wards 1 & 2

In 1866, a ward for fee-paying patients was constructed on an adjacent ridge approximately 400 metres northeast of the main asylum buildings and was completed on the 5th June 1866, but was not occupied until 24 June 1868. because of insufficient funds. By then, additions of stone and timber, consisting of eight refractory cells and a lavatory, laundry, nurses' quarters and a large tank, had been made to make the building more suitable as a general female. The ward was built so that patients could receive better treatment than "pauper lunatics". 

The building was constructed from local sandstone extracted from a quarry near the former Male Division, which was owned by Joshua Jeays, who later became Lord Mayor of Brisbane. Also, it supplied stone for the construction of Old Government House (1862) and Parliament House (1865).  With plans prepared by Colonial Architect Charles Tiffin and construction by William Crumb, with some inmate labour. The superintendent, Dr Cannan, claimed responsibility for the building's design, based on principles recommended in the standard treatise on asylum construction at this time, Conolly's The Construction and Government of Lunatic Asylums.' Built by WE Wright. However, the Asylum was not in a position to accept fee-paying patients, and the building remained unoccupied for two years until alterations were made to enable female inmates to be transferred to this block.  A partial second storey was added, constructed to the design of Charles Tiffin in 1875, and other substantial alterations and additions were made to the building in 1905-6, 1923, 1937 and 1951. This building housed female inmates for more than 100 years and was the first of several in the separate ‘female area’. Female Wards 1 & 2 is mostly intact,  and is a large building of different construction phases standing on a slope near the top of a ridge toward the southern end of the Female Patients Area. Its surrounding land falls steeply to the west to the Brisbane River and gently to the south, where it was formerly fenced off as a yard.  This affords the building visual prominence from Ellerton Drive and extensive panoramic views of the Brisbane River and the surrounding area from the southwest to the north. Originally built (but never used) as a ward for fee-paying patients, the building has been extended and adapted for use as a general ward for female patients.  In 2020, it is vacant, and its interior has been stripped of floorboards, some floor structure, fixtures, ceilings, and fittings. The building has a complex layering of significant fabric from different periods of construction, and considerable alterations of earlier fabric.

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Chronology

1866: construction

1868: additions - 8 refractory cells, toilet and laundry

1870: alterations

1875: second storey added and verandah extended to east and north

1904: building re-roofed

1905: ground floor extended to the west

1906: the building was converted to two storeys

1923: Two new bathhouses were added to the southern elevation; verandahs were added to the southern elevation, and the ends of the northern verandah were extended

1937: verandah widths increased to 4.5 m

1951: two-storeyed ablutions were added to the south-east and south-west ends of the building

1955: new upstairs bathing and toilet facilities, and new clothing store rooms and nurses' day rooms downstairs

1984 fire to the ground floor, western end

1988: floors and ceilings were removed for safety reasons