Profile | Goodna Asylum

Site Profile

Operational Names:

Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum 1865 - 1880

Goodna Asylum for the Insane 1880 - 1898
Goodna Hospital for the Insane 1898 - 1940
Brisbane Mental Hospital 1940 - 1963
Brisbane Special Hospital 1963 - 1969
Wolston Park Hospital 1969 - 2001
The Park - Centre for Mental Health Treatment, Research and Education

2001 - current

Operating Under Government Departments:

Colonial Secretary's Office
10/01/1865 to 06/08/1896

Home Secretary's Office
06/08/1896 to 05/12/1935

Health and Home Affairs Department
05/12/1935 to 26/09/1963

Department of Health
26/09/1963 to 03/04/2012

West Moreton Hospital and Health Service
01/07/2012 - Current

Heritage Classification:
State Heritage

Date entered:
21 October 1992

Types:

Archaeological:

Archaeological potential Artefact scatter
Burial ground:

Cemetery - Private

Education, Research, Scientific Facility:

School - Special

Farming - Agriculture/Dairying/Grazing/Horticulture:

Accommodation - Barracks, huts
Farm - Dairy
Farm
Piggery

Health and Care Services:

Benevolent Institution - inebriate home.
Benevolent institution home - physically/intellectually disabled
Office/Office Building/Administration Centre
Benevolent institution/home
Hospital - psychiatric/mental institute/asylum
Hospital - repatriation/veteran’s
Mortuary/morgue

Recreation and Entertainment:

Golf course
Swimming pool/Baths - in-ground
Cricket ground

Religion/worship:

Chapel

Residential:

Villa

Retail, Wholesale, Services:

Laundry

Utilities - Gas and Electricity supply:

Electricity Power Station - coal/gas/oil

Utilities - drainage, sewerage, waste disposal:

Rubbish dump

Utilities - water supply:

Dam/reservoir

Utilities - water supply:

Pumping station

Themes:
Peopling places:

Family and marking the phases of life

Exploiting, utilising and transforming the land:

Pastoral activities

Exploiting, utilising and transforming the land:

Agricultural activities

Exploiting, utilising and transforming the land:

Managing water

Exploiting, utilising and transforming the land:

Valuing and appreciating the environmental landscapes

Working:

Unpaid labour

Building settlements, towns, cities and dwellings:

Developing urban services and amenities

Maintaining order:

Policing and maintaining law and order

Creating social and cultural institutions:

Worshipping and religious institutions

Creating social and cultural institutions:

Sport and recreation

Educating Queenslanders:

Providing primary schooling

Providing health and welfare services:

Providing health services

Providing health and welfare services:

Caring for women and children

Providing health and welfare services:

Caring for the aged and infirm

Architects:
Queensland Department of Public Works
Tiffin, Charles

Designer:
Cannan, Kersey

Construction periods:
1843 - 1865, Early Asylum Site (1865), including former Simpson Residence Site (1843-44)
1860, Former Sandstone Quarry and Track (1860s)
1866 - 1951, Female Wards 1 & 2

(1866 additions and modifications added in 1868, 1870, 1875, 1905, 1906, 1923, 1937, and 1951)
1866 - 1978, Wolston Park Hospital Complex (1866 - 1978)
1870 - 1950, Early Road Network (1870s - 1950s)
1885 - 1924, Bostock House (1885, extended 1901, c1924)
1890 - 1958, Residence (1890s - 1910s, relocated c1958, c2000)
1890 - 1972, Recreation Hall (1890, extended c1914, remodelled c1972)
1895 - 1910, Male Recreation Grounds (by 1895) and Cricket Pavilion (1910)
1895 -1912, Former Cemetery Site (1895 - 1912)
1898 - 1917, Fleming House (1898, extended c1917)
1898, Medical Superintendent’s Residence and Garden (1898)
1902 - 1949, Morgue (1902, extended 1949)
1902 - 1955, Female Bathroom Block (1902)
1902, Male Bathroom Block (1902)
1912 - 1920, Visitors Garden (c1912) and Visitors Pavilion (1920)
1912, Assistant Medical Superintendent’s Residence and Garden (1912)
1913 - 1945, Former Cemetery Site (c1913 - 1945)
1914, Reservoir and Pump Houses (1914)
1915, Lewis House, McDonnell House, and Noble House (all 1915)
1916 - 1919, Piggery Remnants (1916 - 19)
1916, Early Farm Ward Kitchen and Dairy (1916)
1917, Powerhouse (1917)
1917, Anderson House (1917)
1917, Administration Building (1917)
1917, Hospital (1917)
1918, Laundry (1918)
1918, Farm Overseer’s House (1918, relocated within complex area c2009 - 13)
1920 - 1925, Gailes Golf Club Course (1925)
1934, Osler House (1928), Pearce House (1934)
1936, Gladstone House, Jenner House, and Kelsey House (all 1936)
1944, Shelter Shed for Female Patients (by 1944)
1944, Garage (by 1944)
1944, Dawson House (1944)
1948, Repatriation Kitchen Block (1948)
1948, Repatriation Wards A, B, and C (all 1948)
1950 - 1956, Dam (1950) and Pump House (by 1956)
1951 - 1955, Female Recreation Grounds (1951-5)
1951, Cafeteria (c1951)
1951, Change Room and Stores Shed (c1951)
1951, Packing Shed and Patients Shelter (c1951)
1954 - 1955, Repatriation Recreation Grounds (c1954 - 5)
1954, Farm Ward Building and Grounds (1954-6, Basil Stafford Centre)
1961, Repatriation Occupational Therapy and Recreation Hall (c1961)
1961, Chapel (1961)
1964, Later Farm Ward for Male Patients (c1964, later called Weeroona)
1967- 1973, School Building for Child Patients with Intellectual Disabilities (1967), Swimming Pool (c1973)
1978, Villas (c1978)

Historical period:
1840s - 1860s Mid 19th century
1870s - 1890s Late 19th century
1900 - 1914 Early 20th century
1914 - 1919 World War I
1919 - 1930s Interwar period
1939 - 1945 World War II
1940s - 1960s post-WWII
1970s - 1990s Late 20th century

Style:
Arts & Crafts
Classicism

Persons In Charge:

Kersey Cannan - 1860 - 1869

Henry Challinor - 1869 - 1872

John Jaap - 1872 - 1877

Patrick Smith - 1877 - 1881

Richard Scholes - 1881 - 1894, 1896 - 1898

James Hogg - 1898 - 1908

Henry Byam Ellerton -1909 - 1937

Basil Stafford - 1937 - 1950

J.E.F. McDonald - 1943 - 1944

Clive Boyce - 1950 - 1965

Orme Orford - 1965 - 1976

Harry (Don) Eastwell - 1976 - 1978

Victor Matchett - 1976 (Acting), 1978 (Acting), 1981 -1982

James Wood - 1982 -83 (Acting), 1983 - 1990

Policy/legislation:

Mental Hygiene Act 1938 (Qld)

Residency and treatment were influenced by the Mental Hygiene Act 1938 (Qld,) which aimed to medicalise mental illness and required active treatment for people with a mental illness. Despite this, the Mental Hygiene Act 1938 (Qld) maintained the custodial and institutional model of nineteenth-century asylums, with broad powers for involuntary detention and no legislated patient rights to be informed of or participate in their treatment plans, or to advocate for their own review or discharge.

The Mental Health Act 1962 (Qld)

The Mental Health Act 1962 (Qld) saw the commencement of government directions to shift psychiatric services into general hospitals, aiming to focus treatment outcomes on rehabilitation and limit the need for admissions in an isolated asylum setting.

Mental Health Act 1974 (Qld)

The Mental Health Act 1974 (Qld) shifted language describing people with a mental illness from ‘inmate’ to ‘patient’. A subsequent amendment in 1983 saw the establishment of the Mental Health Tribunal to assess fitness for trial or detainment under involuntary orders. Although the Mental Health Act 1974 (Qld) aimed to modernise terminology and practice, it did not yet provide a statutory definition of mental illness (that was introduced later in the Mental Health Act 2000 (Qld) following the closure of Wolston Park Hospital), or fully provision institutions and treating teams to value patient consent in decision making about their own treatment and/or confinement.

Mental Health Act 2000 (Qld)

The purpose of this Act is to provide for the involuntary assessment and treatment, and the protection, of persons (whether adults or minors) who have mental illnesses, while at the same time safeguarding their rights and freedoms and balancing their rights and freedoms with the rights and freedoms of other persons

Treatments and Medications:

ECT

Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) is a medical treatment that rapidly relieves symptoms of severe psychiatric disorders. ECT involves the delivery of a small, pulsed electrical current to the brain sufficient to induce a seizure for therapeutic purposes. ECT is performed whilst the person undergoing treatment is under general anaesthesia.

Insulin Coma Therapy

Insulin coma therapy, or insulin shock therapy, is a historical (circa 1930s-1950s) psychiatric treatment used to treat severe mental illness by delivering large doses of insulin to patients to induce a coma. The practice was phased out of mental health treatment plans following the introduction of antipsychotic medications beginning in the 1950s.

PRN

PRN, or pro ne nata (Latin for ‘in the circumstances’), medications are medications that are administered to manage symptoms as determined by an individual’s assessment of a situation, as opposed to a prescribed schedule. This does not typically mean that a medication is administered to exceed a prescribed daily amount, but rather that it is to be administered only if needed. The administration of PRN medications is required to be monitored, recorded and reviewed by the treating team to ensure that it remains appropriate.

Psychotropic medications

Multiple psychotropic medications are referenced by either generic or trade names throughout this report. They include the following, with generic medication name first, with the trade names in brackets and capitals:

• haloperidol, • chlorpromazine (Largactil or Thorazine), • paraldehyde, • promazine.

Psychotropic medications such as these medications have been used in the treatment of mental illnesses. Promazine and paraldehyde have not been used routinely since the 1970s. Since the advent of newer antipsychotic medications in the late 1990s, the use of chlorpromazine and haloperidol has become less common. They are now used only rarely and in particular situations, including when medications with a lower side-effect burden are not effective.

Restraint

Restraint refers to practices used as an intervention considered justifiable to protect the safety of patients and/or staff. It may refer to:

• physical restraints (e.g. limitations of movement such as holding a patient by the body),

• mechanical restraints (e.g. limitations of mobility such as restraining a patient to a bed or chair),

• chemical restraints (e.g. the use of PRN psychotropic medications. Note that the use of medications within historical and current mental health services is considered as treatment within an acute scenario as opposed to a mechanism of restraint, or

• environmental restraints (e.g. locked wards, isolation rooms or restrictions of movement between areas).

Seclusion

Seclusion refers to the practice of isolating a patient in a room or area that they cannot leave. It is intended to be used in extreme circumstances only as a measure to prevent serious harm to the patient or others.

Opening Up & Closing Down: Notes on the End of an Asylum

Wolston Park Hospital, 1865 - 2001: A Retrospect

Courtesy of the Queensland State Archives, here we see the paperwork advising of the change from Brisbane Special Hospital to Wolston Park Hospital in 1968.

Site Buildings

* denotes the oldest remaining building since the asylum's opening

Female Division

• Female Ward 1 & 2 (Preserved) *

• Original Female Ward 1 & 2 (Demolished)

• Female Refractory Cells (Demolished)

• Female Ward 3 & 5, Female Ward 3, Cameron House (Demolished), named after the former Commonwealth Minister for Health, The Honourable Donald Alistair Cameron OBE

• Female Ward 4 Dawson House (Preserved)

• Female Ward 6 Bostock House (Preserved)*

• Female Ward 7 Anderson House (Preserved)

• Female Ward 8(Demolished)

• Female Ward 9 (Unknown)

• Female Ward 10 (Unknown)

• Female Ward 11, Lewis House (Preserved)

• Matron Quarters (Demolished)

• Nurses Quarters (Demolished)

• Female Toilets, Sewing Rooms (Preserved)

Male Division

• Male Ward 2 (Unknown)