Callan Park: ‘The Jewel of the West’: A History of Callan Park Mental Hospital and Estate Volume One 1744–1961

By Edward Moxon

This book is a record of events that happened at Callan Park before 1960.
It is a journey of discovery that uncovers facts and manoeuvring not published before.
In time dramatic changes did happen; there was a paradigm shift from mothering to encouraging independence. The government’s predominant focus, through its bureaucrats, was on costs, structure, and process. Others had different ideas.
The change came through a handful of unlikely people; a female psychiatrist and her friends, two young nurses, one psychopathic doctor, a patient’s brother, a few buck-passing bureaucrats, a newspaper, and a Royal Commission.
This story involves the CIA. Sexual favours; one doctor proudly claimed that there were three things necessary for a happy life, “…to eat in style, to drive in style and to f… in style.” The use of spies to gather information for personal gain or write headlines for a paper. Political gameplay and deals. Lies and empire builders, hatchet people and scapegoats. Callan Park is littered with the refuse of dedicated staff who succumbed to suicide, alcoholism, PTSD, depression, and family breakdown—written off as collateral damage.
Treatments for psychiatric conditions are continually changing, not necessarily due to scientific advances. A popular treatment in the 1920s was isolation, an aperient in the 1940s and 50s, brain surgery, psychotropic drugs and LSD in the 1950s and 60s.
The stage was set to usher in a revolution in the care and treatment of people with a mental health problem and to experience the worse of political intervention. Volume two explores these two concepts.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Apr 19, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669886723

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Copyright © 2022 by Edward Moxon.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Links: History — Australia, History — NSW, History Psychiatric Hospital in Australia, Mental Hospital, Asylum, Callan Park Hospital, Rozelle Hospital, Broughton Hall Psychiatric Hospital, Callan Park Estate, Mental Health, Insane, Garry Owen, Kirkbride, Friends of Callan Park, Psychiatric Nurse, Psychiatry, Health Department of NSW.

Rev. date: 08/26/2022

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CONTENTS

About the Author

Dedication

1903: A world-renowned hospital in Sydney, NSW.

1960: Callan Park — An Atrocious Anachronism

Book Objectives

Preface

Acknowledgements

Photography Credits

Abbreviations

Introduction to Volume One

Chapter 1: 1744–1876

Chapter 2: 1788 to 1881

Chapter 3: 1819 to 1873

Chapter 4: 1874 to 1888

Chapter 5: 1888 to 1939

Chapter 6: 1940–1960

Chapter 7: What the Papers Said

Chapter 8: Biography

Chapter 9: 1930–1961

Appendix

Further Reading

Works Cited

Glossary

LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS

Photo 1.1 EM. Edward Moxon.

Photo 1.2 EM. Bryan Harding.

Photo 1.3 BH. Bill McIntosh.

Photo 1.4 BH. The padded cell at Darlinghurst Reception House.

Photo 2.0 HA. Frederic Norton Manning (1839–1903).

Photo 2.1 HA. Floor plan of the Kent Asylum at Chartham, now called St Augustine’s Hospital. The plan most favoured by Manning, which Barnet modified to become the Callan Park Hospital for the Insane.

Photo 2.2 ML. Henry Parkes’s Ministry. Parkes is second on the right at the front.

Photo 2.3 BH. Moodie Street attendants’ cottage (1878).

Photo 3.0 HA. George Nichols (1856). Member of the first government of NSW and landowner.

Photo 3.1 ML. The Callan Park Estate, 112 acres on Long Cove in 1842. Home of J. R. Brenan Esq. Map showing the Callan Park Estate for sale (1873). Plan of the Callan Park Estate (M2 811.1821/1873/1) (see Appendices 15, 16, and 17).

Photo 3.2 BH. Wide verandah and entrance to Callan House (Garry Owen House) (1985).

Photo 3.3 BH. Callan House (Garry Owen Homestead). A solid two-story building of Victorian Regency style, built of stuccoed brick with a wooden shingle roof.

Photo 3.4 BH. Internal counter lever staircase in Callan House (1977).

Photo 3.5 BH. Batten and plaster wall beneath the MO’s building. Originally the servants’ quarters.

Photo 4.0 HA. The front entrance to the Kirkbride buildings (administration). Note the tower in the background and female wards on the right (about 1895).

Photo 4.1 HA. Herbert Blaxland (1881–1900).

Photo 4.2 ML. Lithograph depicting James Barnet’s original design of the Calan Park Asylum for the Insane. It was published in the Builder: London (6 September 1879, p. 967). The orientation, elevation and size were changed in the final plans.

Photo 4.3 HA. Minute Paper for the Executive Council: Recognition of Callan Park as a Lunatic Asylum in 1876.

Photo 4.4 ML. FL572424. The interhospital ferry Mabel docking below F Ward (1903). Rodd Island is in the background.

Photo 4.5 PWD. Barnet’s ground floor plan of the Kirkbride Block (1886). Callan House is in the centre; Ward 8 was built later (see Photo 4.6). Note the two entrances’ location, the orchard and hay paddock, the reclaimed land, the sports grounds, and the wharves. A plantation of trees extends on two sides of the estate. Keep’s property at this time had not been sold to the government. Water and sewerage lines have been superimposed on an earlier drawing.

Photo 4.6 PWD. Close-up of Barnet’s ground floor plan of the Kirkbride Block (1886), showing the division of male and female sections and the four courtyards. Common facilities and administration are on the central axis. Callan House is on the bottom right. Ward 8 and the stables were built later.

Photo 4.7 HA. Original floor plan for the sewerage system.

Photo 4.8 HA. Drawing showing Callan House, Ward 6 and Wards 3, 7, 7c, and 8, stables, the attendant’s cottage, and the convalescent ward (about 1888). See Photos 4.6 and 7.10.

Photo 4.9 ML. The entrance to the water tower. A time capsule is in the cornerstone.

Photo 4.10 HA. The water tower dominates the landscape. Ward 5 is in the background, with the water tower behind the lawn bowling green (centre left). The photo was taken from the first floor of Callan House in about 1966.

Photo 4.11 BH. Date marker, recreation hall (1883).

Photo 4.12 BH. The water tower.

Photo 4.13 BH. The position of the clock is shown but never installed. The bell chamber is above the clock, but the large brass bell was repositioned into the roof, and a steel tank took its place.

Photo 4.14 BH. A rear view of the recreation hall was built in 1883. The female dining room and pharmacy are on the left. The water tower is in the background.

Photo 4.15 HE. The water tower was situated within the northeast courtyard (1883). The underground water reservoirs are located in the foreground. Drying posts for the laundry can be seen near the man. Behind them, through the three arches, is the coal and bucket store and then the laundry. Provision was made for clocks to be installed in the water tower.

Photo 4.16 HE. Probably Dr Henry and family. The photo was taken about 1895–1900.

Photo 4.17 BH. A view of the Iron Cove Bridge from the top of the water tower, 1977.

Photo 4.18 ML. The library, the medical officers’ and matron’s residence under construction (1883).

Photo 4.19 ML. The building is almost finished.

Photo 4.20 BH. Inviting and imposing steps leading to the matron’s office and residence (see Photos 4.18 and 4.19).

Photo 4.21 HE. The original position of the main gate and lodge on Darling Street (about 1890). It was moved in 1927 to make way for the tram line. The Gary Owen Hotel can be seen through the gates. The lodge is now a child care centre.

Photo 4.22 BH. The main north gate post on Balmain Road (1878).

Photo 4.23 ML. The main gate to the northeast courtyard (1883).

Photo 4.24 HA. Ward 4 in the right foreground before 1890. The photo was taken from the first floor of Callan House. Note the ‘haha’ walls. Compare with Photo 4.25.

Photo 4.25 ML. FL572349. Ward 4 courtyard (1903). Callan House is in the background, surrounded by an eight-foot wooden fence. A ‘ha-ha’ wall or dry moat can be seen behind the attendant.

Photo 4.26 HE. Medical Superintendent’s residence (1898). Later to become Ward 11. Note the established garden.

Photo 4.27 BH. The main southeast gate entrance to the Kirkbride Block (1985). The Chief Attendant’s and pharmacist’s residences are in the background. Later, the building became Ward 1; then the CSRU opened on 5 December 1958, followed by the Mental Retardation Nurses’ Training School in 1975. The school closed in 1986. It reopened for a short time as a training school before being handed over to Sydney University.

Photo 4.28 HA. Ward 1 courtyard (about 1882).

Photo 4.29 HE. Female dormitory (about 1890). Each bed had a locker, pot, chair, and net (compare with Photo 7.6).

Photo 4.30 BH. Attendant’s cottage. In the 1960s, the CSRU used it to house animals. After the School of Nursing closed, Sydney University took possession of the museum and housed the artifacts in this building. From here, most of the archival materials were stolen (see Photo 4.8).

Photo 4.31 BH. The mortuary (1986) outside the southeast gate, built in 1882 and relocated to its present position (about 1900).

Photo 4.32 BH. Surrounding wall where a ‘ha-ha’ wall could not be established.

Photo 4.33 BH. Barred windows on Ward 10. Barnet tried to avoid a prison-like environment, but in places, the window security design was evident.

Photo 4.34 ML. FL572308 (1903). [HA] The hospital laundry was powered by a shaft connected to the engine room and boilers through a tunnel. Rawhide leather belts drive the washing machines. The laundry was abandoned in 1980 when services were outsourced.

Photo 4.35 BH. The laundry was abandoned after services were outsourced in 1980.

Photo 4.36 ML. FL5722 (1903). [HE] Stables in the southwest courtyard adjacent to Ward 2 (1903). In 1916, it was moved to an area west of Callan House to make way for a new kitchen.

Photo 4.37 HE. Staff transport (about 1895). Probably Dr Henry and family.

Photo 4.37 BH. Staff dining room, demolition by neglect.

Photo 4.39 BH. Southeast courtyard. The boiler stack (chimney) is thirty metres high in the left background. The foreground building housed the engine room, boiler house, smithy, painter’s store, and carpenter’s shop. On the left were the stables (Photo 4.36) before they were replaced with the kitchen (also demolished). The recreation hall is to the right, with the tower and laundry behind it.

Photo 4.40 ML. FL572310 (1903). [HA] Original kitchen sited outside the recreation hall (dining rooms).

Photo 4.41 BH. A grand main entrance to the administration building and complex, built in 1883.

Photo 4.42 BH. The main entrance to the hospital is through the administration building.

Photo 4.43 ML. Artist’s impression of bath time (1888). The room was later converted into Male Ward 2X.

Photo 4.44 ML. FL572316. Male bathhouse (1903). [Male bathhouse (1888)]. The bathhouse consisted of fifty-one baths and ten-foot baths. Later, the building was converted into Male Ward 2X.

Photo 4.45 BH. Extensive verandahs for coolness. The hollow posts carried roof water into the underground reservoirs.

Photo 4.46 BH. Servants’ quarters under the medical officers’ residence. They are now used as storage.

Photo 4.47 HA. Staff transport.

Photo 5.0 ML. FL572251 (1903). [HA] View of the Kirkbride buildings from Moodie Street to the front entrance. An early photo showing the land had been cleared for grazing and fenced.

Photo 5.1 HA. Dr Chisholm Ross (1901–1903).

Photo 5.2 HA. Dr Herbert McDouall (1903–1904).

Photo 5.3 HE. Transport was slow, and deliveries relied on horse-drawn carts.

Photo 5.4 BH. Staff accommodation. This building was used for housing female nurses and then medical officers and patients at other times.

Photo 5.5 HE. Mr Keep and families (about 1898).

Photo 5.6 ML. FL572506 (1903). [HA] The nursing staff with Matron Pope. Photo taken by Alfred Small and published in the Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (12 August 1903, p. 411).

Photo 5.7 HE (1898). Brass band entertainment, the top oval pavilion in the background.

Photo 5.8 ML. FL2510 (1903). [HA] Male attendants (1903). Stripes on the sleeves denote rank. Photo taken by Alfred Small and published in the Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (12 August 1903, p. 411).

Photo 5.9 BH. Neglected war memorial constructed in 1925.

Photo 5.10 ML. FL572461 (1903). Cricket Pavillion and tennis courts, top oval (demolished in the 1950s). The building at the right background no longer exists. Photo taken by Alfred Small and published in the Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (12 August 1903, p. 412).

Photo 5.11 HA. Staff soccer team (1924).

Photo 5.12 ML. FL572480 (1903). First-grade cricket match played on the top oval. The Pavilion is packed. Probably a community team versus Callan Park.

Photo 5.13 ML. FL572451.n (1903). [HA] Staff cricket team (about 1920). Some of the players are in both photos (Photo 5.14).

Photo 5.14 ML. FL5724 (1903). [HA] Staff cricket team (about 1920). Patients were included in the selection.

Photo 5.15 HE. Fountain outside medical officers’ residence (about 1901). Probably Dr Henry’s dogs.

Photo 5.16 NLA (165188401/16809313). Male hospital ward (sick quarters). Photo taken by Alfred Small and published in the Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (12 August 1903, p. 411).

Photo 5.17 BH (1980). Water tower, showing the roof catchment area (four acres). Underground tanks are to the right and left of the tower. Stones cut out of the tank holes were used in the buildings. The clock was never installed. The bottom oval is shown in the background.

Photo 5.18 ML. FL572319 (1903). Blacksmith’s shop (photo taken about 1899).

Photo 5.19 BH. Leather belts drive laundry machines from overhead pulleys supplied by an underground shaft that connects the engine room to the laundry.

Photo 5.20 ML. FL572304 (1903). [HA] The steam engine drives the Tanji* water pump, delivering water into the tanks in the tower. A lathe in the foreground. Sump to the underground storage tanks on the left. Photo taken by Alfred Small and published in the Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (12 August 1903, p. 413).

Photo 5.21 BH. Engineers workshop (1970). Emergency bell on the engineer’s building. See Photo 4.39.

Photo 5.22 HE. The piggery, showing prize-winning Tamworth pigs.

Photo 5.23 ML. FL572436 (1903). [HE] Patients are building the road approaching Ward 12 (before 1900).

Photo 5.24 ML. FL572298 (1903). [HE] Leather and canvas repair shop (1903). It was the male dining room. In 1964, it became the gymnasium. Photo taken by Alfred Small and published in the Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (12 August 1903, p. 409).

Photo 5.25 ML. FL572300 (1903). The sewing room (1903). Many female patients were employed here. Previously the female dining room. In 1964, it became the chapel. Photo taken by Alfred Small and published in the Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (12 August 1903, p. 409).

Photo 5.26 ML. FL572419 (1903). Patients are separating seed and hay (area below Ward 16) (about 1898).

Photo 5.27 ML. FL572433 (1903). Patients are caring for the vegetable gardens on reclaimed land. The area is now the bottom oval. The perimeter fence and Wharf Road are in the background. The gardener’s house is among the trees to the left.

Photo 5.28 PWD. Gardener’s cottage (1888). Showing proposed renovation for the deputy Medical Superintendent’s occupancy.

Photo 5.29 ML. FL572313 (1903). [HA] Hospital laundry drying and sorting room. Photo taken by Alfred Small and published in the Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (12 August 1903, p. 411).

Photo 5.30 ML. FL572391 (1903). [HA] Billiard room, Callan House (1903).

Photo 5.31 HA. Billiard room and library for medical officers.

Photo 5.32 HA. A single room in Ward 1.

Photo 5.33 ML. FL572534. The main path from the road entrance to the administration entrance (1903). A pond (artificial lake) is on the left. The pond was filled in when a patient drowned in it and became the sunken garden.

Photo 5.34 ML (1903). [HE] The main north gate entrance off Darling Street into the hospital. The lodge is on the right. Photo taken by Alfred Small and published in the Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (12 August 1903, p. 409).

Photo 5.35 ML. The recreation hall/chapel. A showpiece of design showing the stained-glass windows. Connecting roller doors opened to extend floor space into the dining rooms, to the left and right (1883).

Photo 5.36 ML. FL572295 (1903). [HE] Multipurpose chapel/recreation hall, set up for a church service. Photo taken by Alfred Small and published in the Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (12 August 1903, p. 409).

Photo 5.37 BH. The new chapel in 1972.

Photo 5.38 HE. Sleeping dormitory, Ward 1.

Photo 5.39 BH. Grave of Frederic Norton Manning at the Gladesville Hospital.

Photo 5.40 ML. FL572555 (1903). Recreation hall stage. The stage is full of pot plants. The photo was taken after the federation celebrations (1901).

Photo 6.0 EH. Bill McIntosh.

Photo 6.1 EH. Stan Alchin.

Photo 6.2 JK. A cartoon drawn by Dr Harry Bailey while at Sydney University (Yearbook 1947).

Photo 8.0 JK. A cartoon drawn by Dr Harry Bailey while at Sydney University.

Photo 8.1 ML. [HA] War memorial unveiled by His Excellency (Air Vice Marshal) Sir Philip W. Game, governor of NSW (4 August 1931). It was erected by patients of B Ward in proud memory of those who made the great sacrifice (1914–1918). It was designed and supervised by Douglas Grant. See Appendix 21.

Photo 9.0 BH. The hospital dominates the skyline sitting on a ridge overlooking Long Cove.

Photo 9.1 BH. Ward 12/13. A modern brick building used as an admission ward and rehabilitation ward is now left to deteriorate.

Photo 9.2 BH. Antarctic petrified tree trunk brought back by Dr Sydney Evan-Jones. Ernie Bale, senior outdoor supervisor (E. Bale), is holding the stump at the gardener’s cottage.

Photo 9.3 HA. Dr Sydney Evan Jones at the Antarctic Base.

Photo 9.4 HA. Callan Park football club (1922), Couper Cup winners. W. Warner, F. Williams, C. Evans, J. Rowley, S. Williams, F. Stone, A. Baker, H. Hall, A. Drakagord, C. Hills, R. Lonsdale, A. Tranter, J. Winchester, S. Thompson, J. Turnbull, D. Ashdown, T. Latslaw, Kirkpatrick, C. Senogles, Monk, A. More, A. Swatridge. Monk and Swatridge were later to become heads of nursing.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Illustration 2.0. A selection of innovative restraints used before 1960 (drawn by PA).

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.0. Genera and Species and Their Symptoms

Table 1.1. Cases Produced by Moral and Physical Causes in the Salpêtrière During the Years 1811 and 1812 (Antecedent to Breakdown)

Table 4.0. Opening and Closing Hospital Services (Public Psychiatric Inpatient Care) for Those with a Psychiatric Illness

Table 4.1. Henry Parkes in Government

Table 4.2. Staff at Callan Park (1874–1903)

Table 5.0. Accounts (Payments): 1919 to 1924 (Old Ledger)

Table 5.1. Overcrowding in NSW State Mental Hospitals (1922)

Table 9.0. Tree Planting within the Callan Park Estate

Table 9.1. The Hospital Continues to Grow — Major Constructions (1873–1960)

Table 9.2. Significant Inquiries into the Callan Park (Rozelle) Hospital in Part or Exclusively

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Edward Moxon — CPN, CGN, CMRN, Cert. Recreation, DNE, DNA, MNA, Bed, Postgrad Dip. Sp. Ed., Registered Nurse, Educat or, and Author

Photo%201.1%20EM.%20Edward%20(Ted)%20Moxon%20copy.jpg

Photo 1.1 EM. Edward Moxon.

Ted started training as a psychiatric nurse at the North Ryde Psychiatric Centre in 1962 and was promoted in 1965 to Recreation Officer. He transferred to Callan Park as a Recreation Officer in 1968. After spending time in ward administration and area supervision, he became an educator and then the Principal Nurse Educator at the Mental Retardation Nurses’ Training School, Gladesville Hospital.

The closure of the school prompted a transfer to TAFE in 1986. During this period, he spent time as a Head Teacher (enrolled nursing course). In 1989, Ted worked at the University of Technology as a clinical supervisor and the Macquarie Hospital as a Clinical Nurse Specialist. After further study, in 1996, Ted transferred to the Education Department as a teacher of emotionally disturbed children. He accepted a post as a behaviour consultant to schools on the North Shore of Sydney on retirement. After this position became redundant, he worked as a community psychiatric nurse.

Ted has produced three major research papers, several journal articles, a hospital magazine, and many hospital discussion papers. For most of his life, he was a voluntary youth worker with the Boys’ Brigade, Pathfinders, and the Aboriginal community in Redfern.

Professional positions he has held include President of the Hospital Branch of the NSWNA, crown delegate of the NSWNA, member of the Crown Employees Appeal Tribunal (GREAT), member of the Chairman’s Consultative Committee, Chair of the Hospital Standards Committee, Patients’ Rights Committee, and a member of many others. The Who’s Who publication has him listed. In 2015, he was a founding member and Director of The Way Community Services Ltd.

His broad experience and intimate knowledge of Callan Park have enabled him to produce this in-depth history of Callan Park in a sympathetic and sometimes controversial, if not provocative, style in three sequential volumes. The detailed events and reference material contained in the three volumes in this series will add considerably to the history of Callan Park, the Jewel of the West.

DEDICATION

In memory of my workmate, friend, photographer, psychiatric nurse, firearm enthusiast, and loyal church worker—Bryan Hardy (1937–2016).

Photo%201.2%20EM.%20Bryan%20Harding..jpg

Photo 1.2 EM. Bryan Harding.

With gratitude to Bill McIntosh, my friend and mentor. Bill was a person who put the care and welfare of his friends (patients) first despite personal adversity.

Photo%201.3%20BH.%20Bill%20McIntosh..jpg

Photo 1.3 BH. Bill McIntosh.

1903: A WORLD-RENOWNED

HOSPITAL IN SYDNEY, NSW.

Every patient is treated as an individual, and his or her idiosyncrasies studied, and the humblest patient gets as much attention as the highest, and no efforts are left unspared that may assist in restoring mental health. Every well-organised hospital for the insane is an instrument of cure in itself. The disordered mind recognises at first, perhaps dimly, that his environment is ‘ordered’, the noisy tent to conform to the peaceful surroundings. The depressed find relief in the attention devoted to them by the kindly ministration of the officials and staff, and brightness – as evidenced by well-painted walls, pictures, flowers, green swards, shady trees – is found everywhere. The dietary for both staff and patients are liberal and well cooked; meals are served cleanly and decorously, and the table is appointed with the ordinary vessels, knives, forks found in domestic life outside. In effect, the principle is to make the inmates as comfortable or more so than before their mental illness, to give them competent medical aid, and, by well-regulated work and amusement, to lead them step by step out of the slough of their mental infirmity into a haven of normal mental health.

This article appeared in the Sydney Mail in 1903 describing Callan Park and the legacy left by Norton Manning. The article depicts the official moral treatment philosophy practised in the cottages and quiet wards, but it is doubtful if it applies to the refractory wards. Even so, it would be hard to find a psychiatric unit in 2022 that could honestly say, ‘This is what they do’. Within ten years, this situation had changed dramatically. (See the next page.)

1960: CALLAN PARK —

AN ATROCIOUS ANACHRONISM

Callan Park – the only Callan Park the public knows – is very beautiful just now. Vast lawns with [the] green of spring still on them are shaded by gracious trees, broken here and there by guarded beds bright with annuals. The visitor is met with the heavy scent of flowering stocks.

The park is a social lie. A facade put there to still any qualms in taxpayers’ and electors’ minds. Stone walls may not make a prison, but they certainly breed corruption. For 1,200 of them (patients), the world has shrunk to a place of high walls, locked doors, and barred windows. [Life] is lived, in some of the older areas, on the broken board floors of overcrowded wards, with four feet of air space between beds. It is lived (except in a few modern wards) in an all-pervading stench which clings at the back of the visitor’s throats . . . One fairly robust member of Parliament who toured the worst of these wards recently, the ‘infamous male ward [7]’, had to hurry outside.

It is a blend, the doctors say, of urine, spilt food, soap, and dirt that has soaked into the cracked boards of the century-old floor. One’s first reaction to an inspection of Callan Park is that it is an atrocious anachronism, a squalid relic of Victorian times, something that should be bulldozed into the earth in which it arose.

An article in the Sydney Morning Herald, 21 October 1960, page 2, preceded by a Royal Commission in December 1960.

BOOK OBJECTIVES

1. To add to the accumulated knowledge of mental health services in the Inner West Local Council Area of Sydney.

2. Hopefully, history will enable the government and bureaucrats to tactfully address future issues affecting individuals with mental illness in an empathetic and bipartisan way.

3. To give a voice to many residents, patients, and employees who would otherwise remain unheard.

4. To help the community make informed decisions about addressing mental health issues and preserving history.

5. To record the contributions that the silent majority, the unsung heroes in the service, have made.

6. To identify and examine the political and administrative decisions surrounding changes that shaped the history of the hospital.

7. To record events that happened at Callan Park and the external events that shaped its journey.

8. To satisfy a desire to know the roots of Callan Park’s history.

9. To record the environmental, political, and personal factors influencing the decision-making processes that moulded the Park’s growth and development – before time runs out.

10. To identify future developments about the Callan Park Estate.

11. To record the contributions that staff have made to Callan Park’s development as a hospital and the treatment of mental illness.

12. To collect a reference library of information about the Callan Park, Broughton Hall, and Rozelle Hospitals.

The book is in three volumes.

Volume One: Callan Park Hospital (1788 to 1960)

Volume Two: Rozelle Hospital (1958 to 2008)

Volume Three: The Estate (2007 to 2021)

Thought:

An old German proverb sums up the ethos of working in the mental health service, whether it be 1888 or 2018 – ‘Many a man serves a thankless master.’

PREFACE

Many internal and external variables shaped the history of the Callan Park Hospital. Fundamentally, its staff, its patients, the government of the day, charismatic and visionary individuals, technological advances, the economy, and the community surrounding the hospital were catalysts in this process.

Callan Park’s genesis has its roots in the political, legal, social, architectural, and economic history of New South Wales (NSW) and England and the United States, to a lesser extent. Until the late 1800s, people with mental illness were deemed criminals at law. An asylum was an alternative to gaol. The 1878 Mental Health Act and the later introduction of voluntary status for mental health patients changed all this. Apart from these considerations, the history of the ‘Park’ is replete with the intrigues of politics, economic rationalism, vested interest groups, and personal power games. These are some of the variables that shaped the hospital and closed it.

The men and women who initially staffed the asylum and whose methods of care date from the late seventeenth century were untrained. Management techniques were a mixture of the worst of the English system and colonial penal attitudes. Repeatedly, insufficient finance, the lack of resources, and untrained personnel correlated with overcrowding and a low standard of care given to inmates. These difficulties in time were addressed, and the ‘Park’ became a leader in psychiatric care, eventually forced into a slow death, and then closed in 2008.

In the early 1800s, each successive NSW mental health service administrator saw themselves as a reformer. It was thought that their predecessors and followers were probably less than able or compromised. The time came in the mid-1800s when a modern ‘mental health hospital’ near Sydney was required to escape the stigma and notoriety of existing institutions and solve overcrowding in the state’s mental institutions. Thus, Callan Park was built.

Some of the developments that affected the life span of Callan Park are examined; others are only mentioned. The available data is detailed, voluminous, elusive, and challenging to pursue and record in some instances. Still, it is not within the bounds of this book to record every detail. Even so, it has been necessary to publish this history in three volumes. Volume One covers the years 1788 to 1964. Volume Two brings us up to Callan Park’s closure in 2008, and Volume Three reminisces and follows the estate’s political intrigues and looks at the big picture and the estate’s future. This volume also expands on the oral history recorded by the people involved and includes a chapter on Broughton Hall.

It is noted that what is important to some is not relevant to others. The author found it impossible to canvas all the ins and outs of who did what, when, and why. However, some trends reinforced the decisions governments and others made about Callan Park. These include societal, medical, demographic, economic, and moral changes developed over the last 150 years.

The book is a journey of discovery that uncovers details and manoeuvring not published before. This three-volume book records events at Callan Park and the external events that shaped its journey (see objectives).

A reason for writing this book is to add to the accumulated knowledge of mental health services in the Inner West Local Council Area of Sydney. Hopefully, history will enable the government and bureaucrats to address future issues affecting individuals with mental illness empathetically. The book has also given a voice to the many silent residents, patients, and employees who would otherwise remain unheard.

Finally, the future of the Callan Park Estate rests in the community’s actions. Hopefully, in some small way, this book will help the community make informed decisions about addressing mental health issues and preserving this ‘jewel of the West’, the Callan Park Estate.

What is the future without the building blocks of the past? Knowledge derived from experience and forsaken impedes the future. Firm foundations have been laid for the future use of Callan Park; let us not demolish our inheritance.

Therefore, writing this book has been an attempt to record the environmental, political, and personal factors influencing the decision-making processes that moulded the life, growth, and development of the ‘Park’ before time runs out.

— EM

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A Work in Progress Started in 1978

The following people have been an inspiration. It is easy for the contributions of interested and involved people to fall by the wayside when work takes years of research, probing, questioning, reading, and verifying. Frustration and daily living demands leave little time for long periods in archives, libraries, and interviewing people. Such has been the constraints in writing this book. Nevertheless, without the challenge and encouragement of friends, these books would not have been written.

A debt of gratitude is owed to many workmates, friends, patients, relatives, and organisations mentioned in these pages for patience in putting up with long-winded and sometimes dull conversations.

Thank you to the following:

Mr Stan Alchin, Director of Nursing at the Rozelle Hospital, for permission to interview staff and for constructive support and memories.

Mr Philip Amprimo, a gifted young artist, did the illustrations.

The archives research assistant at the Department of Lands for finding maps and registration.

Dr Helen Barnes, DMS, for permission to photograph the hospital and access materials.

Mr A. Brunker, Public Works Department historian, for a wealth of information.

Ms J. Faddy, psychologist and historian, for sharing information.

Mr Bryan Hardy, friend and photographer.

Mr Milton Hook, author, who kindly read a draft in progress and gave constructive criticism.

Mr Ken Leong, architect and historian, for the long conversations and acts of discovery amongst the dust and ruins of Callan Park and his contribution to the history of Broughton Hall.

The Reynolds Estate for sharing the extensive research that Peter Reynolds had accumulated about Callan Park and Broughton Hall. The collection is now in the Inner West Municipal history archives.

The librarian at the Mitchell Library who helped navigate this most valuable resource.

The librarians at the State Archives for their tolerance of stupid questions and for finding valuable information.

The NSW Nurses and Midwifery Association librarians Jeanette, Cathy, and associates for digging into the archives.

Ms Amie Zar, librarian at the Inner West Municipal Library (Local History Department).

Dr T. Lonie for his support and interest.

John Maitland (university supervisor) for his invaluable help in clarifying the direction of the original thesis, the precursor to these books.

Ms Charlotte Roza, submissions representative of Xlibris.

Dr Peter Shea, the Medical Superintendent at the Rozelle Hospital, for encouragement, access to materials, suggestions, and proofreading some early drafts.

Mr I. Stubbins, the NSW Health Department’s librarian, for reading an early draft and his constructive criticism.

The lady who typed up the early manuscripts.

Alison Buckley, who accomplished the impossible by editing the final draft.

Mr W. Martin for sharing insights, documentation, and experiences.

All those who contributed to the oral history of Callan Park and did not hold back on issues that could have opened old wounds and for being sensitive and honest.

The anonymous and known people who shared photographs and documents.

All the unnamed (at their request) and named contributors who allowed their stories to be told.

The many patients the author has had the privilege to work with and share experiences.

The Inner West Local Council of Sydney for their support and access to library resources and for providing a grant to complete this book.

Fay and my family deserve medals for their forbearance and tolerance of the piles of research I accumulated in the face of potential failure. My wife’s last wish was for me to finish this book. Here it is.

Finally, to Xlibris, the publishers, who agreed to review these volumes and print them.

— Ted

PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS

The author would like to thank those who have contributed to this unique collection of photos and images. A photo conveys a thousand words. The work by Peter Ongley and Bryan Hardy in restoring and printing many of the photos is gratefully acknowledged. Regretfully, many worthwhile photos, maps, and charts have not been included in this volume because of space and are filed for future reference.

Please note that over the years, photos have been shared among