Event at Willow Court February 11-12th.

The latest events at Willow Court will be held in February. The 11-12th should be great days with tours “supervised walks” plays from the Derwent Players and tours of the Archaeology Sites. Don’t miss this one!

Students and Associate Professor Heather Burke from the Archaeology dig will tell visitors about their work while local historian and ex-employee, Tony Nicholson will instruct guides and lead the guided walks around the buildings. Both Carlton and Alonnah Wards will remain locked as per the Derwent Valley Council’s decision at the last meeting due to no risk assessment being done for these wards. Tony is a local published and respected historian who started working at the site in the 1970’s. Archaeology and history walks are only on the Sunday.

The Derwent Valley Players will present two of their plays and serve high tea to booked guests aĺl for $25 with the choice of two performance times on Saturday and two on Sunday.

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Archaeology digs and open day approved.

The archaeology digs proposed by Flinders University have been approved at the last meeting of the Derwent Valley Council on Thursday night. The digs are at the Ladies Cottage (J ward) on the privately owned section, Frascati House and at Willow Court. Also included in the proposal is an open day for members of the public to see and hear about what is happening.

The Council also approval a proposal by the Friends of Willow Court during a public meeting for “supervised walks” around the Barracks area on the same day. The Council will look at approving a media release by the committee once it is submitted. The submission was passed with a number of amendments, they are; that all people visiting the site have appropriate safe footwear, that access to Carlton and Allonah House be restricted to the outside only and that any media release be put to the General Manager and the Mayor within three weeks.

The open day will be on February 12th. Detailed information about Friends of Willow Court activities will be released soon.

 

Archaeology at Willow Court

Community Open Day

 

Sunday 12th February, 2017

10am-4pm

Willow Court, New Norfolk

 

The Willow Court Barracks is one of the nation’s oldest hospital buildings, built between 1830 and 1833 to treat convict invalids and free settlers. A second barracks building (now demolished) was attached at the rear for patients with mental health issues—this was the first purpose built asylum in Australia.

 

Archaeologists have been working at the site of Willow Court since 2014 to try to understand the daily life of patients and staff in this institution across 170 years. As the longest lasting, continuously used mental health hospital in Australia, Willow Court is a rare example of changing attitudes to mental health, its nature and its treatment across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

 

Come and meet the archaeologists, learn about the excavations, ask questions and contribute to understanding the site and its history. Entry and tours are free.

 

The archaeological work at Willow Court is supported by the Derwent Valley Council, Flinders University and the University of Tasmania.

 

All ages are welcome.

 

Willow Court History Group are not associated with the Derwent Valley Council, Friends of Willow Court or any paranormal groups.

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Millbrook Rise

Building on the Millbrook Estate was completed in 1934 and a new convalescent hospital was ready to be occupied. 

Millbrook Rise Hospital shared some staff and medical experience but the main connection was for the administration of the hospital. It remained mostly separate, even having it’s own Act of Parliament. Extra buildings (wings) were added during the second world war as the work increased. 

Click below to gain access to the original 1934 publication which advertised the new hospital.

The first Staff were, Matron (Miss Kendrick), two Nurses, Housemaid a Cook and two Attendants. Sir John Gellibrand headed up the Veterans Trust which set up the hospital and also became the Trust’s representative on the Advisory Committee for many years.

[wpecpp name=”Donation” price=”$5″] Please assist by donating to keep works like this publicly available.

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Galvanic battery treatment

 

Boyd’s Battery Galvanic Pendant, used as a personal delivery device to cure many ailments.

 The Galvanic battery has had a mixed history as a medical device. Many items were sold that had huge medical claims and benefits in the domestic market during the early 1900’s, however most had little to no evidence to support the claims being made about their properties. 

You could cure or aid conditions such as pelvic floor disorders, conditions of the eye and you could derive some benefit in reducing nasal discharge. The batteries came in different forms and could be attached to the body by different methods. One could slip a couple of batteries into your shoes, put on the custom made pendant or you could also wear a set of custom made spectacles, all would deliver a “therapeutic dose of electricity”. I’m unsure where the user with “pelvic floor conditions” would attach the batteries!

As a professional medical tool in the mid to late 1800 there was some evidence of benefit, particularly for some conditions. Despite this evidence it was also clear that experimenting took place and treatments were also used to punish or force desirable change in patients at Willow Court. 

Doses appeared to change from short shocks to “half an hour under the Galvanic Battery” and the history books are unclear about how this was administered. Some suggest that they would be done with the knee and hip baths and there is also confusion with the name of the treatment at times in patient records, some refer to Galvanic Battery and on other occasions Magnetic Electricity. The most likely reason for this confusion could be the people writing reports not knowing what the machine was actually called. It must be remembered that most of the staff were convicts and ex-patients at this time and the literacy skills low.

Below we have an exert from “The History of Lachlan Park” by Gavin Murray Crabbe. He discusses the patient records of C. M. who was admitted in 1859. He is subjected to the Battery for half an hour sessions daily. Dr Crabbe is unclear about the change of dose and tries to put together the artifacts that were found in the Barracks before the completion of his book to piece together all possibilities that could explain if we were talking about different machines or simply doctors taking different approaches.

Some reaction to the treatment were not expected as described below with patient J. B. in 1871.

It was very clear from the reports on patients files that the threat of the “battery” was often enough for patient who, were able to cover their symptoms, to do so to avoid the unpleasant experience.

There are some great records of treatments in the 1800’s and archive files are available to explore. There are also some periods of time, under different Doctors, at the Hospital that record keeping was poor, and so our available history also suffers. The medical staff at the time were required to manage the hospital and all patients, often numbering 200 – 300. At times the records indicate there was only one doctor employed.

 

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ECT Machines and electricity treatments

Electro Convulsive Therapy ECT is a practice which has a long history at Willow Court and throughout Mental Health Services for many years. It’s use has been therapeutically beneficial for many patients and contriversial for others.

The use of electricity for therapy has been recorded throught history, with evidence being about in England  since 1814, France in 1755 and even the use of electric catfish in the sixteenth century. These earlier recording was used to remove “evil spirits” and the later, was recorded treatments for psychogenic blindness. Finally in 1814 electricity was used for depression in England, however none of these treatments induced convultions as we know the modern ECT treatment does today.

It also has been used as an experimental device and also some record of miss use as a punishment method to treat patients that were diagnosed with “mania” or ” being “difficult”. 

Lawrence Edward Cullen, in writting about his memories of working at the hospital at New Norfolk from 1936 til 1978 recorded that the first use of ECT was “approximately 1937”. However this maybe an incorrect recording of the history of the treatment at the hospital because the treatment wasn’t presented until 1938 by the inventors, Ugo Cerletti and Lucio Bini at a Swiss conference.

“It was at this meeting (1938) that Bini presented the first report on the use of electricity to induce seizures. Two reports were read. Accornero and Bini reviewed the experiences with insulin coma in Rome, and Bini described his first experiments to induce epileptic attacks in dogs using electric currents. These descriptions were the first public discussions of what was to become electro shock therapy”. (Norman S Ender, PHD The Origins of Electro Convulsive Therapy  ECT)

Lawrence Cullen however did tell us that the first recording of the therapy was in the sick ward (or B Ward) and was administered by Doctor Isobel Williams who joined the hospital staff in 1938, and the patient was known as Charles S. “Charles became apprehensive about the treatment and even when the doctor was ready to carry on the treatment, would jump out the window into the airing court of the ward in his under clothes”. He goes on to report that, “after a course of treatment he was discharged and went back to the mainland”.

Raymond P., another patient “would admit that he was frightened of ECT but would readily submit himself for a course because he felt the derived benifit from it”.

But electricity was used long before this time as Doctor Gavin Crabb records in his rare book, the history of Lachlan Park Hospital. There were records that indicated the use of electricity for theraptic use as early as 1851 and disappeared from the records by 1876. The picture below is of the machine that was found in the upper floor of the Barracks building. This is the device Doctor Crabb believes was in use during that time.

“It was used here (Willow Court) quite frequently , and the results were almost exactly the same as we get with ECT”. Crabb tells us who would have received this treatment, “patients who had scarcely moved or spoken for a long time, who refused to eat, were impulsive or showed other signs pointing to schizophrenia or depression.

This picture was of a machine found in the attic of the Barracks pre 1955 and is recorded in the book “The History of Lachlan Park”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This Machine is currently in the hands of a person who is a collector of artifacts on Willow Court and is reported as being from Willow Court.

This machine is also reported as being from Willow Court and is also held in private hands.

This machine is recorded on the log of assets held by the Derwent Valley Council on behalf of the people of Tasmania.

This machine is also recorded on the log of assets held by the Derwent Valley Council on behalf of the people of Tasmania.

 

  

 

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