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Yarra Bend Lunatic Asylum:

A look into it’s past


By Helena Khoury

Source of Image above: Photo of Yarra Bend Asylum, 1878, Charles Nettleton, Courtesy
of Trove, accessed 10th September 2018

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Abstract:
The aim of this illustrated essay is to present the history of Lunatic Asylums
during the 1800’s through specific detailing of the Yarra Bend Lunatic
Asylum. This will be complete through discussing the detailed events of its
beginnings, progress, events and finally its closure. The intention from this is
to create a hypothesis regarding the opening of the Yarra Bend Asylum and
how its closure impacted other asylums to open and offer different methods
of treatment for the mentally ill.

Source of Image right of text


box: Print of General View of
Yarra Bend Asylum, 1862,
Edgar Ray, Melbourne,
Courtesy of Trove, accessed
10th September 2018.

The Beginning:
The Yarra Bend Lunatic Asylum was the first permanent institution developed in
Victoria. The development of asylums in 1800 Australia, generated from the need
to treat what society believed and viewed as the mentally ill. The idea of an asylum
developed through society, it “caught the imagination of the city to become the
very symbol of madness in Victoria”i. The Yarra Bend Asylum opened in 1848

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which was 13 years after the foundation of Melbourne and was an institution for
the mentally ill. As mentioned by Stephen Garton, “the history
of mental illness and the history of lunatic asylums are not the
same thing”ii. The mental health services in Australia which
were believed to be the opening of these asylums, began with
inhumane and immoral forms of treatment but slowly through
time, history shows the development of more humane
treatment policies. This piece explores the history of the Yarra
Bend Asylum through their management system and
challenges.
Becoming the first asylum in Victoria, the need of this facility
was increasing, and as stated by The Port Phillip Patriot and
Morning Advertiser in 1848: “The daily increasing necessity
for the establishment of an asylum of this description, has at
length forced itself upon the consideration of the
government”,iii therefore leading to its development in
Source of Article: Snapshot of
Newspaper Article regarding
Melbourne, Victoria. This asylum was a ward of an already
Lunatic Asylum, The Port Phillip
Patriot 1846, courtesy of trove,
developed Lunatic Asylum in New South Wales called Tarban
accessed 3rd of October 2018
Creek Asylum, which opened in 1838 and ten years later
established the Yarra
Bend ward in Victoria,
“The site fixed upon is
on the Merri Creek,
distant about three and
half miles from
Melbourne”iv. When it
first became established
it was known as the
‘Lunatic Asylum, Merri
Creek’, however in 1851
when Port Phillip
Victoria separated from
New South Wales the Source above: Print of The Yarra Bend Lunatic Asylum, ANON,
1863, Melbourne, courtesy of Trove, accessed 10 September 2018.
th

Asylum was given its own right and became


known as the ‘Yarra Bend Lunatic Asylum’v. In
August 1846, The Argus Newspaper described the site as “… 620 acres has been
selected for the establishment of the new lunatic asylum at the junction of the
Merri Creek and Yarra Bend River, adjoining the Aboriginal ground reserve at
Dight’s Mill”vi, giving specific description of its location which presents how the

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newspapers and press were so aware of its opening and was described to be in a
calm location near the creek.
The patients in the asylum were referred to commonly as “lunatics” because this
was an accepted term during this time and they were administered because the
asylum was created help aid them back to sanity and offer what was believed to be
treatment.vii From the beginning there was indications of how the Asylums and
society viewed the individuals who were being admitted. The Argus Newspaper
stated: “… the new Lunatic Asylum is now open for the reception for its
unfortunate visitants, … the building at present will accommodate 25 patients…
ten of the
cells are
fitted up for
Source of image
right of text
box: Snapshot
of Yarra bend the reception
Asylum
information
sign, 2011, L.J
of violent
Gervasoni,
Courtesy of
lunatics”.viii
trove, accessed
th
4 October
This
2018.
statement
presents a
description
of the
Asylum as a
place to be
admitted
because of
bad fortune
and result of bad luck when using the terms “unfortunate visitants”. This ward
then became a central part of the history of the care and treatment of the mentally
ill in Victoria. The Argus Newspaper in 1886 stated how the “Yarra Bend was
founded when traditions of coercion and restraint had full sway, but she has
improved her ways mightily of late years”.ixThis goes on to show how at first the
asylum was one that didn’t consist of appropriate methods however in later years
improvements began to occur.

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The System and its troubles:
Asylum’s in the 1800’s have been researched and become quite known to run such
adverse hostile like treatments during their course of action. A 2014 article in the
Herald Sun discusses the Victorians psychiatric patients’ experiences in the 1800’s
hospitals and states that: “Patients in Victoria’s hellish psychiatric institutions of
the 1800’s were submitted to gruelling treatment including restraint bags, strapped
chairs and soul destroying isolation cages”.x This type of behaviour from the
institutions was what was believed to
be the way to cure the mentally ill,
therefore in order to control what they
didn’t fully understand they took
“controlling measures in the form of
physical restraint”.xi
The Yarra Bend Asylum system of
Source of image above: Photo display of Wrist Shackle- Yarra bend Lunatic Asylum, 1850 Museum
admission and discharge is an th
Victoria, Courtesy of trove, accessed 4 September 2018.

adapted
version of the English system and has similarities which
influenced the Yarra Bend system. “In England the
admissions and discharges were ultimately sanctioned by
the Parish Magistrate”xii and similarly for Yarra Bend final
decisions for admission and discharge were made by the
Governor of the Colony with specific commands that
need to be met. For example, in order to be discharged
from the Yarra Bend Asylum the Governor may grant
you release after a formal assurance of sanity is presented,
this is completed through a psychiatric test that is signed
by two medical practitioners if they believe the individual is deemed stable. xiii
Source of image above: Portrait of a patient in England
Patients were admitted to Yarra Bend Asylum as
Asylum restrained by wardens, 1869, courtesy of
welcome Collection, accessed 3rd September 2018.
either a ‘pauper’ or a ‘supported patient’ and men and
women were kept separate. This meant that those
who were paupers were inmates that had all costs paid by the government which
was a more common choice otherwise supported patients had relative that were
able and chose to pay for their care in the institution. xivIn the early months of
opening the asylum it had the administration of twenty-five patients and some
came from Melbourne gaols. It was deemed that “more than half were labelled as
dangerous”xv.

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Forms of theoretical treatment of the mentally ill were found to be “practises of
the filthiest, vilest, most immoral and sinful Source of image below: Drawing of Yarra Bend Asylum patient in the bag, 1862 by

nature”.xvi This included the “uncontrolled


rd
Charles Federick Somerton, Herald Sun, accessed 3 October 2018.

attendants” using forms of punishment


which were classified as “treatments”, for
example drenching the patients and leaving
them soaking wet for hours with the
purpose “to get cool”, but in reality, was
immoral and unjust. xvii
A serious issue that is presented amongst
the 1800’s institutions is an abuse of power
of those who are supposed to be in a
position to help. With reference to the Yarra
Bend Asylum, specific authorities through
great lengths have displayed immoral and
unjust behaviour towards the “unhappy
lunatics”. xviiiThe patients were dominated
through coercion and punishment instead of
having therapeutic measures taken and
moral behaviour given to insure their
recovery.xix An example of this type of
horrific treatment and an abuse of power is
analysed in The Social Committee’s Report
with reference to the Colonial Surgeon’s
actions being deemed “ungentlemanlike”
towards patients, specifically female. With the report proposing the Yarra Bend
Asylum to be managed with an immoral fashion they present this with describing
the “extremely flagrant nature” of the Responsible Officer of the Government.xx

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The Select Committee was introduced by the Legislative Council of Victoria in
1852, with the purpose of enquiring “into the
condition and management of the Yarra Bend
Lunatic Asylum and to take Evidence”.xxi This
committee was developed with this specific intention
because of the public pressure through the press
who wanted to gather the governments attention Source of
image left of

and create this committee. The committee was a text box:


Snapshot of

method of legislative power to gather insight and Select


Committee

evidence of the asylums management system. With


evidence
report title
page, 1860
their specific and mandatory instructions, the Victoria, John
Feres
committee discussed their findings in a report. The Government
printer
use of the phrase “unhappy lunatics”xxii in the report Melbourne,
accessed 3rd

was medically accepted in the 1800’s as compared to October 2018.

the modern era of medicine, and the phrase


“unfortunate creatures”xxiii presents the fact that
these patients weren’t viewed as people and humans but rather something that is
distinct from a human being and adversely not in control of one’s self.

Overcrowding and Ending:


The ending of the Yarra Bend asylum was not the end to the development of more
asylums in Australia. The Yarra Bend was one of the first asylums in the country
which definitely had its faults but as time went on, small improvements seemed to
develop. As the 20th century began the services the Yarra Bend facility were
providing were shown to be extremely old fashioned and outdated, and the need of
more modern and educated methods to treat mental illness were becoming
enabled. xxiv
During the mid-1850’s the Yarra Bend Asylum started to become overcrowded
and reached the administration of nine hundred patients in 1863 which is fifteen
years after its opening.
This became problematic because living conditions started to become hard and
patients began “living in tents, huts and later cottages in the hospitals extensive
grounds, while large numbers of other lunatics remained confined in the colony’s
gaols”. xxvTherefore, resulting in possibility of placing people in homes and foster
care, The Argus Newspaper discusses how it believed by doctors and secretaries
that “the boarding out of children is a success, but it is recognised that there is a
wide difference between boarding out children and of imbeciles”xxvi. The Yarra

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Bend Asylum was then closed in 1925 and demolished in the 1930’s, it is the only
Asylum that has completely disappeared. xxvii
The Yarra Bend Asylum was observed by R. Wilson to be unsuccessful because of
“a badly selected site
and the ill construction
of a building which is
overcrowded are
difficulties in the way of
complete success”xxviii.
As time went on the
aim and method of
having an asylum for
the treatment of the
mentally ill began to
change but treatment
methods were still immoral. It is evident that the Source of image above: Print of Yarra Bend Lunatic
Asylum, 1982, Graeme Butler, Courtesy of trove,
1800’s consisted of behaviour and methods which th
accessed 28 September 2018.

were not moral and efficient, whereas towards the


twentieth century, doctors began to use their expertise to treat the “lunacy more
vigorously and demanded the right to treat the ill rather than just be
incarcerated”xxix. Through time, elements of management systems began to change
therefore, more buildings were developed such as the Kew Asylum in 1867 which
had over one thousand patients by 1889 and became the biggest hospital of this
nature. Also, terms used such as alienist, asylum and lunatic became overridden by
more appropriate and preferred language which is psychiatrist, mental hospital and
patient. xxxHowever, even though small changes occurred it was still evident that
the treatment of the mentally ill consisted of inhumane actions. The Kew Asylum
treatment methods consisted of abuse of power and controlling what was believed
to be incontrollable through vigorous and drastic measures.
The history of lunatic asylums is something that is quite corrupt in nature. Studying
the history of Yarra bend Asylum and becoming known to the methods used and
how the mentally ill were described, presents something which is completely
immoral.

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Sourve of images: Isolation
cell Kew Asylum, 1870,
Museum Victoria, courtesy
of Museum Victoria
Collections.

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i
Catharine Colerborne, Dolly Mackinnon, Madness in Australia: Histories, heritage and the asylum (Univeristy of Queensland Press, 2003) pp. 51-80

ii
Catharine Colerborne, Dolly Mackinnon, Madness in Australia: Histories, heritage and the asylum (Univeristy of Queensland Press, 2003) pp. 51-80

iii
Anon, ‘Lunatic Asylum’, The Port Phillip Patriot and Morning Advertiser, Tuesday 7th April 1846, pg.2, in trove [online database] accessed 25th
September 2018.
iv
Ibid.
v
Richard Bonwick, The history of Yarra bend Lunatic asylum, Melbourne (Melbourne: University of Melbourne, 1996)

vi
Anon, ‘Yarra Bend Asylum’, The Argus, Friday 16th April 1886, pg.6, in Trove [online database] accessed 26th September 2018.
vii
Richard Bonwick, The history of Yarra bend Lunatic asylum, Melbourne (Melbourne: University of Melbourne, 1996)
viii
Anon, ‘Yarra Bend Asylum’, The Argus, 21st July 1859, pg.7, in trove [online database] accessed 2nd October 2018.

ix
Anon, ‘Yarra Bend Asylum’, The Argus, Friday 16th April 1886, pg.6, in Trove [online database] accessed 26th September 2018.
x
Mitchell Toy, ‘Victorian psychiatric patients grim fate in helish 1800’s hospitals’, Herald Sun, ‘Department of Internet’, 2014, in Herald Sun
News Online [online database], accessed 12th October 2018
xi
Catharine Colerborne, Dolly Mackinnon, Madness in Australia: Histories, heritage and the asylum (Univeristy of Queensland Press, 2003) pp. 51-80

xii
Richard Bonwick, The history of Yarra bend Lunatic asylum, Melbourne (Melbourne: University of Melbourne, 1996
xiii
Ibid
xiv
ibid
xv
Pauline Prior, Asylums Mental Health care and the Irish (Irish Academic Press, 2017)
xvi
Lee-Ann Monk, Attending Madness: At work in the Australian Colonial Asylum (Netherlands: BRILL, 2008) pp. 44-70
xvii
Victoria, Legislative Council Parliament, Report from the Select Committee of the Legislative Council on the Yarra Bend Lunatic Asylum : together with the
proceedings of the Committee, minutes of evidence, and appendix, Melbourne, 1852, < https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/papers/govpub/VPARL1852-
53Vol2p539-634.pdf> accessed 3rd September 2018.
xviii
ibid
xix
Lee-Ann Monk, Attending Madness: At work in the Australian Colonial Asylum (Netherlands: BRILL, 2008) pp. 44-70
xx
Victoria, Legislative Council Parliament, Report from the Select Committee of the Legislative Council on the Yarra Bend Lunatic Asylum : together with the
proceedings of the Committee, minutes of evidence, and appendix, Melbourne, 1852, < https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/papers/govpub/VPARL1852-
53Vol2p539-634.pdf> accessed 3rd September 2018.
xxi
ibid
xxii
ibid
xxiii
ibid
xxiv
Pauline Prior, Asylums Mental Health care and the Irish (Irish Academic Press, 2017)

xxv
ibid
xxvi
Anon, ‘The Overcrowding of Lunatic Asylums’, The Argus, April 1887, pg.10, in Trove [online database] accessed 26th September 2018.
xxvii
PROV, Premiers office, VPRS, Yarra Bend Asylum, 1883
xxviii
R.W Wilson, A few observations relative to the Yarra Bend Lunatic Asylum (Journal of Mental Science, 1865) pp. 591.
xxix
Catharine Colerborne, Dolly Mackinnon, Madness in Australia: Histories, heritage and the asylum (Univeristy of Queensland Press, 2003) pp. 51-80
xxx
Ibid

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Bibliography:
Primary Sources:
Anon, ‘Yarra Bend Asylum’, The Argus, 21st July 1859, pg.7, in trove [online database] accessed
2nd October 2018.
Anon, ‘Lunatic Asylum’, The Port Phillip Patriot and Morning Advertiser, Tuesday 7th April 1846,
pg.2, in trove [online database] accessed 25th September 2018.
Anon, ‘Yarra Bend Asylum’, The Argus, Friday 16th April 1886, pg.6, in Trove [online database]
accessed 26th September 2018.
Anon, ‘The Overcrowding of Lunatic Asylums’, The Argus, April 1887, pg.10, in Trove [online
database] accessed 26th September 2018.
Anon, ‘To Builders and others, Yarra Bend Asylum’, The Argus, 17th December 1849, pg.4, by
Trove [online database] accessed 11th October 2018.
Victoria, Legislative Council Parliament, Report from the Select Committee of the Legislative Council on
the Yarra Bend Lunatic Asylum : together with the proceedings of the Committee, minutes of evidence, and
appendix, Melbourne, 1852, < https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/papers/govpub/VPARL1852-
53Vol2p539-634.pdf> accessed 3rd September 2018.

Secondary Sources:
Wilson, R.W, A few observations relative to the Yarra Bend Lunatic Asylum (Journal of Mental Science,
1865) pp. 591.
Bonwick, R, The history of Yarra bend Lunatic asylum, Melbourne (Melbourne: University of
Melbourne, 1996)
Colerborne, C, Mackinnon, D, Madness in Australia: Histories, heritage and the asylum (Univeristy of
Queensland Press, 2003) pp. 51-80
Prior, P, Asylums Mental Health care and the Irish (Irish Academic Press, 2017)
Colerborne, C, Families, patients and emotions: asylums for the insane in colonial Australia & New Zealand
(Social History of Medicine, 2006)
Kirby, K, History of Psychiatry in Australia (England: University of Tasmania, 1999)
Toy, M, ‘Victorian psychiatric patients grim fate in helish 1800’s hospitals’, Herald Sun,
‘Department of Internet’, 2014, in Herald Sun News Online [online database], accessed 12th
October 2018
Monk, L A, Attending Madness: At work in the Australian Colonial Asylum (Netherlands: BRILL,
2008) pp. 44-70
PROV, Premiers office, VPRS, Yarra Bend Asylum, 1883

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