Callan Park: ‘The Jewel of the West’

Edward Moxon

Description

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.

Sujets

• Social History
• Histoire
• Callan Park, New South Wales
• History

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris AU
• Date de parution: 19 avril 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669886723
• Langue: English

Extrait

CALLAN PARK: ‘THE JEWEL OF THE WEST’
A HISTORY OF CALLAN PARK MENTAL HOSPITAL AND ESTATE VOLUME ONE 1744–1961
EDWARD MOXON
Written by E. Moxon
Photography by B. Hardy

Copyright © 2022 by Edward Moxon.
 
Library of Congress Control Number:
2022902978
ISBN:
Hardcover
978-1-6698-8674-7

Softcover
978-1-6698-8673-0

eBook
978-1-6698-8672-3
 
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
 
 
 
 
Xlibris
AU TFN: 1 800 844 927 (Toll Free inside Australia)
AU Local: [phone] ([phone] from outside Australia)
www.Xlibris.com.au
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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 fore