Lachlan Park Fire Cart

 

 

fire cartThis is the hand pulled wooden Lachlan Park Fire Brigade cart built on a metal spring trailer type chassis, with red painted exterior and cream painted interior . ‘Lachlan Park Brigade’ is written in red and black (just discernible) on both sides. The wheels and rear drop flap are missing. Manual fire carts were used at the hospital from the early days, but were constantly criticised for being too small and lacking power. This fire cart was used by the Lachlan Park Brigade. Willow Court was named Lachlan Park Hospital from 1937 to 1968.

One of the things that could be on display when Willow Court is opened.

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Current reading and Olga House.

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I am currently reading “A Background to the History of Nursing in Tasmania” by Beatrix Kelly. This book has a section (20 pages) devoted to Mental Health Nursing and Willow Court and the interactions with other providers of care including Port Arthur, Cascades Asylum, Hobart General Hospital and St Johns Park among many others. Most of her research comes from Dr G M Crabbe’s “The History of Lachlan Park Hospital” although she has made this very readable. There is only one photo of the site and that is Olga House. Now the Willow Court  Antiques shop which was known as the Boys Cottage. This is a book that is available through second hand book shops for a reasonable $25.

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Olga House was included in a 2003 conservation plan and contains a short history. Of interest is the missing tower and chimneys and the “unsympathetic” modifications.

O ward

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Millbrook Rise

One new book to arrive today was this 1930’s publication of Millbrook Rise. It contains all the early information and an array of pictures taken during the very early stages after the construction. The small book also clearly lays out the future intentions for the accommodation services and shows the facilities available to guests. Doctors were welcome to visit and have a tour of the facilities and the fees are also laid out at 5 pound and 5 shillings a week. There is a good scan of the last page which is a floor plan. Staff moved between Lachlan Park and Millbrook Rise and the Millbrook site came under the Royal Derwent Hospital banner. It is the only remaining part of the hospital complex still in operation. The book is considered to be rare.
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Two New Articles.

Two New Articles are now uploaded for you to view, they are the Michael Ganley Campus Rationalisation Report 1993.

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“With implementation of Community Integration programs and the reduction in the numbers of  residents on both campuses the DHHS has commissioned this review to identify possible ways to rationalise the building stock and services, with particular reference to heating arrangements, to reduce ongoing running costs while improving the physical environment for the residents and staff. The present condition and suitability of all buildings has been assessed and seven options identified indicating the implications and costs of various differing approaches.” This report was made by Micheal Ganley and sets out all the values of all buildings as well as construction type and ability to be used or reused or re-purposed. It also includes, the still open, Mill Brook Rise Campus.  This is a rare report and not publicly available.

agreement for sale

 

The second document is the sale agreement between the then Minister and the Lachlan River Community Holdings in 2001

 

 

 

A full range of documents can be found on the Articles Page or click on either of the reports to be taken to the page.

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Ladies cottage

ladies cottage

In 1880s the then administrators of the hospital at New Norfolk, the Official Visitors, in their first report state that their recommendations were based upon personal observation and investigation. Their research involved the current world wide thinking on the best “mode of domiciliating the Insane”. They reported that the newspaper reports of the Royal Commission of Hospitals for the Insane in Victoria find the evidence in favour of the Cottage System was overwhelming. They conclude that “the separation and classification that this system affords, combined with out-door employment, are of paramount importance in the successful treatment of the insane.” They believe that they must attempt to create such a regime at New Norfolk.

This Pavilion System of accommodation was linked with improvements in the grounds around the buildings as is alluded to above and is articulated in some of the other recommendations of this Royal Commission such as:

“That the grounds generally be rendered more attractive by planting ornamental trees, shrubs and flowers.”

Generally there were recommendations that the yards be extended and otherwise improved by planting trees etc. and by being neatly fenced.

The view that the pavilion or cottage style of building was superior was reinforced in the recommendations of the 1883 Royal Commission including the erection of new buildings to accommodate 100 patients.

“In such new buildings the Pavilion and Cottage Systems to be combined, and to be so disposed, and of such size and character, as to afford every provision for the classification and the comfort of the patients, for the reception for visitors, and the general administration of the Institution. Each pavilion should provide accommodation for from 6 to 12 patients.”(Gowlland p75)

The design of this building along the current international model was a sign as Joan Kerr says in her preface to “Out of Sight Out of Mind, Australia’s Places of Confinement 1788-1988” by James Kerr “of identification with the free nations of the world … part of any colonial place’s bid for external recognition”. (Kerr p4) She goes on to say that “Asylum architecture alternates between favouring large institutional blocks and small cottages emulating the domestic “normalcy” of suburbia.”(Kerr p5)

An attendant at the Yarra Bend Asylum which was also based on the pavilion system described the cottages thus:

“Each of these has accommodation for sixteen patients and one attendant. They are all built alike with verandahs in front bordered with pleasant creeping plants. The gardens in front of each are carefully laid out … To see the intelligent-looking men strolling in the cottage gardens or sitting under the verandah, one would never think they were mad and the inmates of an asylum”.

The Ladies Cottage was separated physically from the barracks building complex and had the wall and a fence around it. It also had a ha ha in front of it so that patients could use the garden and could look out to the landscape but also be secure. James Kerr explains that:

“The ha ha was device popular in eighteenth Century English country estates which provided a barrier to stock but did not interrupt – an important aspect of landscape planning at the time. It was achieved by the simple expedient of sinking a wall out of sight in a trench and was supposed to have been named after the surprised ejaculation forced upon a visitor’s lips on discovering that the seeming continuity of sward was a deception. It became an important element in the design of airing yards for Australian asylums from the 1860s on to the early twentieth century. It enabled the patients to relate to the carefully landscaped surroundings and to whatever views were available.” (Kerr p158)

The emphasis on providing pleasant grounds was an aspect of therapy in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. There was a belief in the power of nature “to recruit the flagging spirit” says Kerr 5. Not only were the gardens carefully laid out but they were populated with fauna including alpaca, deer, kangaroos and emus like those seen in the above photo of the Ladies Cottage at New Norfolk.

The Official Visitors asserted in 1888 that the recommendation of the 1882 Royal Commission regarding the closing of Burnett and Gray Streets be carried out as the Asylum was open to the public gaze, especially the Ladies Cottage, Crabbe reports that it was observed “The walls were thronged with people laughing at the patients,” The New Norfoik Municipal Council agreed as long as the properties affected, being Murray Hall, Alwright’s, Sharland’s triangular paddock of 2,5 acres, the house owned by Dr Macfarlane (Frescatti?) and the church property of 15 acres were purchased, An Act of Parliament for the closing of the roads was passed in 1890

In 1903 a second storey was added to the building providing a further 25 beds, In 1908 the violent and noisy patients from the Ladies Cottage were accommodated in the newly closed in verandah section of the Female Refractory Division.

Extract from the Willow Court Conservation Management Plan. Nelson, Barwick, Slatyer and Loveday 2003

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Current Reading

Current holiday reading can be fun, but getting copies of publication to read can be harder to do. Today I picked up a copy of Marion Geyssel’s Royal Derwent Hospital, Willow Court. RDH Marion GeysselWhile a great, and recent publication of a pictorial record it has had its share of detractors for its content and views of Mental Health Services in Tasmania. The cost of this book , like any Tasmanian publication is gaining momentum and if you can find this in any second hand shop it will set you back about $45.00. The other reading I have really enjoyed was Lawrence Edward Cullen’s Royal Derwent Hospital, past to present 1936-1978. This has been a joy to read and was written from a past employee’s perspective, and I must say this is an accurate and great insight into the hospital’s changes over that part of it’s history. It should be remembered that during that time, the East Side of the Hospital was created and setup, the oval Wards were opened and set up and the old Wards were closed and demolished. Treatments like Electro Convulsive Therapy, Insulin Therapy, Malaria Treatment – GPI, Deep Narosis and new medications were all introduced and used and this publication stated the times they started and even the administering Doctors. There is also a wonderful piece about some of the “unforgettable characters” that made up the Patients and some of the wonderful skills they brought, such as key cutting, bookmaking (betting), scavenging and business entrepreneurship. This also has some good plans from 1936 to the more current 1978.

This small publication is available to view at the Tasmanian Archives office (I would thank LG for my copy) and Marion Geyssel’s publication is out of print and you would have to hunt around the secondhand book stores.

RHD past to present 1936-78 1936 nuring numbers

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