Rozelle Hospital was formerly known as Callan Park.

Mental Health is an interesting and complex field that is difficult to understand without appreciating the historical, social and political context of the mentally ill and their treatment.

The First Fleet arrived in Australia in 1788 and the developing colony had to deal with a number of insane convicts who were amongst the first arrivals. Often little distinction was made between criminality and insanity when sentencing people to the Australian colony.

There is little literature available which accurately describes the early treatment of the mentally ill but one can imagine the trauma, stress and appalling conditions endured by the transported convicts. Often convicted unjustly, the person was separated from their family, perhaps forever, and transported to an uncertain future. The convicts were closeted together below deck, many in irons, often suffering undernourishment, scurvy, cruel discipline and a hopeless despondency.

No statistics were kept on the insane in NSW until the establishment of the first asylum at Castle Hill in 1811. Life was harsh in the new settlement and according to Shiraev (1979:9) some of the insane were "in the gaols and convict hospitals, but the majority probably suffered an early death in the competition for survival".

Social deviants were often treated brutally and alcoholism was rife in the new colony. Governor Bourke in 1820 wrote that ‘a lunatic asylum is an establishment that can no longer be dispensed with. In this Colony the use of ardent spirits induces the disease called delirium tremens, which frequently terminates in confirmed insanity’.

Public perceptions of mental illness were clouded by myth and ignorance. It was believed that mental illness was caused by such things as nostalgia, flogging, sunstroke and being lost in the bush. The medical establishment and lay mental health workers divided the causes of mental disorders into moral and physical, a subject that was highly debated at the time.

Psychiatry in New South Wales can be divided into four periods of varying administrative policy and treatment (Shireav, 1979:6).

• 1788 to 1839 - The Primitive Era. (The Beginnings)

• 1839 to 1860 - The Moral Treatment Era. (The Romantic)

• 1860 to 1945 - The Physical Treatment Era. (The Classical)

• 1945 to the present day - The Modern Era. (The Revolution in Therapy)

Before the close of 1850 many fundamental issues relating to the treatment of the mentally ill had been established and there was a determined effort to provide decent conditions.

The history of The Rozelle Hospital provides a fascinating account of the development of a mental health service and the changing societal attitudes which accompany the care and treatment of the mentally ill.

In 1873, due to severe overcrowding at the Hospital for the Insane at Gladesville, the Parkes Government purchased the "Callan Estates" (then a rural setting) of just over 100 acres for £12,500; with the express purpose of building a large lunatic asylum. There was some opposition by local residents but this was rejected by the Goverment and in 1884 the new asylum for the insane at Callan Park was officially opened. The main group of stone buildings was named the Kirkbride Block and were described by the press of the day as a "magnificent pile of buildings, forming a conspicuous object of the locality and visible for many miles around".

Dr. Frederick Norton Manning and the Colonial Architect, Mr. James Barnet were instrumental in pushing the government to establish Callan Park.

Manning was born at Rothesthorpe, Northamptonshire, England in 1839. He graduated in medicine at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland in 1862 and worked as a naval doctor coming to Sydney in 1867. He was invited by Henry Parkes to become the Medical Superintendent at the Tarban Creek Lunatic Asylum (presently called the Gladesville Hospital) but before taking up this position he went overseas to study and inspect methods of patient care and institutions. On his return the following, year he took up the position of Medical Superintendent at Tarban Creek.

On 1 July, 1876, Manning was appointed by the Colonial Government as the Inspector of the Insane for mental institutions, with the exception of the Parramatta Asylum for criminals.

Manning was noted for his humanitarianism. His constant desire was to ensure that his patients received treatment for their illnesses rather than confinement in a "cemetery for deceased intellects".

In 1875, Manning went on leave to England to study the then modern-day asylums. He was particularly impressed with an institution being constructed at Chartham in Kent, and he persuaded the architects, Giles and Gough, to hand over copies of their drawings. When Manning returned to Sydney in 1876 he showed the drawings to James Barnet, and he in turn modified them to suit Australian conditions such as including long covered walk-ways, larger windows, wide verandahs, and higher ceilings.

A contract was awarded to Low and Kew for two hundred and fifty thousand pounds to build the asylum. Building started on 23 April, 1880 and by January 1885, the vast complex of buildings was completed. The buildings became known as the 'Kirkbride Block', named after the eminent American, Dr. William Kirkbride, who was renowned for his pioneering work and thoughts on progressive mental health care. Kirkbride's concepts provided for a self-contained community, with a variety of wards designed to provide separate accommodation and activities to match the various stages of a patient's illness and convalescence.

Photo: The original Kirkbride buildings circa 1900. These buildings were refurbished in the 1990's and are now occupied by Sydney College of the Arts

The Kirkbride Block was mainly built from sandstone that was actually quarried on site. Because of this there are two large underground water tanks that each hold about one million gallons of water. The water tower stands 100 feet high and it holds two large tanks. Water was pumped by a steam pump at night to fill the tower tanks from the underground tanks. One tank was used for drinking and cooking, as well as for washing and bathing, while the other was used for fire- fighting purposes. Water to the underground tanks came from the roofs of the buildings down through the hollow iron verandah supports during wet weather. The architecture of the water tower is of the Italianate style, while the rest of the buildings are of the Victorian free classical style. The whole complex commands an excellent position so that patients could have an all-round view of Sydney and the Blue Mountains, but not feel hemmed in. The sloping banks at the rear of each ward area, with what are called ha-ha walls, gave that feeling of not being incarcerated. In short, the then 'modern' thinking on progressive mental health care was practiced in this hospital. One will not find such a grand piece of architecture like it anywhere in Australia.

Photo: Circa 1900. The hospital is located in picturesque parkland on the shores of Iron Cove Bay. Today these parklands are used by the local community for recreational and sporting events.

A 'Pleasure Garden' for the patients was created in front of the Kirkbride Block. The surrounding 11 acres of ground were planted with mainly native trees and shrubs and landscaped by Mr. Charles Moore, Curator of the Botanic Gardens in the 1880s.

Dr. Frederick Norton Manning died on 18 July, 1903, from a stomach ulcer. He was buried in the cemetery at the Gladesville Hospital. Mr. James Barnet, retired in 1890 and died on 16 December, 1904, after a distinguished career in public architecture in which he was responsible for most of the public buildings in Colonial New South Wales.

The Broughton Hall Psychiatric Clinic was established in 1921. The two former hospitals, Broughton Hall Psychiaric Clinic and Callan Park are divided by Wharf Road.

Broughton Hall, built in 1842 is one of two original grand homes on the site. Today it is closed and in a state of disrepair due to fire damage and vandalism. It was previously used as a hospital ward for adolescent patients (re-named Rivendell) until this service was moved to the Walker Mansion at Concord in the 1970s.

Dr. Sydney Evan Jones began his distinguished career in 1921 at Broughton Hall, and was appointed in 1925 as the Medical Superintendent. He remained in that position until his death from cancer in 1948.

Born in Adelaide in August 1887 he graduated in medicine at the University of Sydney, Evan Jones was an innovative and scholarly psychiatrist who served as a physician on Douglas Mawson's 1911-1914 expedition to the Antartic.

Jones, like Manning, took a great deal of interest in the welfare of his patients. He believed that the Broughton Hall grounds should be used "as machinery whereby a patient's mind could be directed from neurosis to normality". Jones designed and landscaped the gardens around the more established trees and lawns of the old estate.

It is reported that he offered continuing free accommodation for convalescent patients who, as skilled but unemployed artisans in the 1920s depression, were to work with him to construct the ponds, bridges, walls, steps and footpaths. One observes, when viewing the grounds, that most of the buildings have been built around the edge of the gardens and many pockets of picturesque gardens still remain.

‘The Glen’, a secluded area with bridges and ponds, has a wide variety of mainly native trees and ground cover, with plenty of palm trees and bamboo. The area has recently undergone a re-planting of rain- forest trees and ferns in order to eventually take over the tree canopy of the much older and larger trees.

Jones was a man of many interests. Besides practicing medicine and psychiatry, he took great interest in landscape gardening, horticulture, photography, architecture, chemistry, oriental culture and palaeontology (the study of fossil animals and plants in former geological periods).

Broughton Hall was a centre of innovative treatments and a major training hospital. A day hospital and an out-patient clinic were established to provide continuing care in the transition to community life.

On the 3^rd of September, 1976, Callan Park and Broughton Hall Psychiatric Clinic were amalgamated by the New South Wales Government to be officially called The Rozelle Hospital.

Despite overcrowding with 1,078 patients being recorded in 1890, the Hospital at the turn of the century was considered to be one of the "finest Institutions in the Commonwealth for the housing and treatment of person, suffering from mental disorders" (Leong, 1985:17). Two World Wars and the Great Depression brought social upheaval and hardship and further overcrowding. Demands for financial austerity eventually lead to the hospital falling into disrepair and neglect.

In 1998 the hospital has 264 beds.

Public Inquiries

The hospital has been subject to a number of Royal Commissions and Inquiries over the years leading to additional wards, more staff and improved standards.

In 1959 the Rozelle Hospital Admissions Centre was built to provide acute care after the closure of the Darlinghurst Reception Centre.

The McClemens Royal commission into Callan Park Mental Hospital (1961) acknowledged the material privations and low quality custodial care that was evident and made many recommendations for improving this.

In 1983 the Labor State Government accepted the recommendations of The Inquiry into Health Services for the Psychiatrically Ill and Developmentally Disabled (The Richmond Report) and many changes were implemented to improve the quality of patient care.

A change of State Government in 1988 brought an abandonment of the recommendations of The Richmond Report and a new inquiry into mental health, known as the "Barclay Committee" was set up by the State Liberal Government. This committee produced the Report on the National Inquiry into the Human Rights of People with Mental Illness, (The Barclay Report) in 1993.

The Carers

The humane care of the mentally ill is dependent to a large degree on the character, training and attitudes of the Carers.

Skull (1979:182) in describing asylums in nineteenth century England, states:

‘The dirty work of dealing with the patients on a day-to-day, hour-by-hour basis was left to a staff of attendants, themselves recruited from the dregs of society, men and women who, in return for long hours spent in close, defiling contact with the insane, received suitably low status and financial rewards.’

This was the paradigm that Australia inherited in the care of the mentally ill. Carers or attendents in the early days were mainly convicts, often completely untrained and lacking basic nursing skills. These early attendents acted more as gaolers, lacked any kind of scientific knowledge and often, as far as we are aware, were unsympathetic and often deliberately cruel to their charges.

In 1814, Governor Macquarie, concerned with the conditions of those unhappy "persons laboring under the affliction of mental derangement" gave personal instructions in regards to the "keepers" stating ‘you are not to allow the keepers or other persons attending them to exercise any unnecessary severity towards the Lunatics, but see they are at all times treated with mildness, kindness, and humanity.

The status of those who cared for the mentally ill, in its early history, was not great, particularly when physical treatment and custodial care dominated. It is only with the commencement of the ‘modern era’ after the Second World War that the importance and status of professionals in the mental health sector has risen.

Factors such as deinstitutionalisation and the rapid development of community based services have helped galvanise the adaptablity and scope of mental health practitioners. The mental health services of today are typically characterised by a multi-disciplinary therapeutic team practicing such skills such as interviewing, assessment, counselling, group techniques, and specialised therapies.

The quality of education and increased practice standards have led to the professionalism and progressiveness of mental health practitioners today.

The Rozelle Hospital takes pride in their staff, and in the traditions, history, and philosophy of the hospital. The Rozelle Hospital proclaims as its main aim, the encouragement of 'professional satisfaction through a commitment to Mental Health Nursing and the pursuit of excellence through practicing the highest level of nursing care of which we are able'.

A sense of history is of paramount importance in understanding the context and development of mental health care. The history of mental health is both rich and colourful. An understanding of this history enables us to appreciate the impact of historical events, the evolution of theory and practice, and the changing attitudes of the broader community. Awareness of the inherent rights of the individual and our expectations as a society have altered the course and nature of mental health care. Governments for the most part, are acting upon the attitudes of the community and expressed feelings such as concern, outrage, indifference, apathy or neglect. Calls for reform are generated by the public and increasingly by consumers and consumer groups.

Age-old prejudices and fears about mental illness still exist within our society but a well established part of the wider community accepts the responsibility and obligation for caring for the mentally ill.

While some parts of mental health history have been harsh, cruel and neglectful, this is none-the-less a history which should be seen in the context of its time. The path of mental health care in Australia demonstrates a laudable record of achievement and progress as well as a fascinating and unique colonial genesis.

The treatment of the mentally ill as individuals holding basic and inherent rights to personal dignity, respect and treatment is a product of the effort and commitment of the professionals within the field.

Chronology of Rozelle Hospital

1870 : Callan Park Hospital founded when the 'Callan Estate' of 100 acres in a rural setting was purchased by the Parkes Government for £11,000.

1877 : The Callan Park branch of Gladesville Mental Hospital was opened with the transfer of 44 male patients from Gladesville Hospital to the 'Callan Homestead'
A boat, the "Mabel", made daily trips between the two hospitals.

1878 : Work commenced on the new stone buildings designed for approximately 700 patients.The stone was quarried on site.

1884 : The new asylum for the insane, Callan Park officially opened. Described as a magnificent collection of buildings.

1886 : 630 patients. Largest acute admission ward in the state of New South Wales.

1888 : 998 patients.

1890 : 1078 patients resulting in serious overcrowding.

1900 : Ranked as one of the finest institutions in the Commonwealth for the housing and treatment of persons suffering from mental disorders.

1914-1918 : World War 1.

1918 : The building of six repatriation wards commenced with Commonwealth/State funding.

1930’s : The Depression. Overcrowding a major problem. 1,500 excess patients.

1939-1945 : World War 2.

1948 : An inquiry by the Public Service Board into conditions at Callan Park Mental Hospital found that the buildings were obsolete and in a state of disrepair.

1955 : The 'Stoller Report' commissioned by the federal government. The report 'Mental Health Needs of Australia' found that severe overcrowding, poor maintenance and short staffing were universal. Hospitals were confined to a purely custodial role.

1957 : The Cerebral Surgery and Research Unit was opened, headed by Dr. H.R. Bailey. (Later moved to Prince Henry Hospital.

1960 : Articles in the Sydney Morning Herald describing disturbing conditions at Callan Park led to the calling of a Royal Commission after public outrage.

1961 : Report of the Honourable Mr. Justice McClemens, Royal Commissioner appointed to inquire into certain matters affecting Callan Park Mental Hospital. Justice McClemens found that 'Callan Park is too big, too overcrowded, its standards of accommodation low, its emphases mainly custodial; owing to lack of staff and amenities there is little active treatment or rehabilitation'.

1961 : 1,750 patients recorded.

1964 : The high stone walls and fences around the hospital were removed. (A recommendation of the Royal Commission).

1968 : New admission wards opened. Over 3,000 admission each year.

1976 : Callan Park amalgamated with Broughton Hall to form The Rozelle Hospital.

1983 : The inquiry into health services for the psychiatrically ill and developmentally disabled known as the 'Richmond Report'.

1986 : All developmentally disability places closed.

1988 : Current bed capacity is 579.

1989 : Report of the 'Barclay Committee'.

1990s : Number of beds slowly reduced by closing several wards.

1993 : Rehabilitation Wards/Cottages opened. Hospital receives accreditation from the Australian Council on Health Care Standards.

1995 : Administration of community and hospital services amalgamated under the ‘Central Sydney Area Mental Health Service’.

1996 : Origninal Kirkbride building taken over by Sydney College of the Arts and renovated.

2005 : Bed capacity around 240

2005 : Planning underway to move Rozelle Hospital Services to a new site adjacent to Concord Hospital

Reading and Reference Material

Alchin, S.C. & Weatherhead, R.G. (1988) Psychiatric Nursing: A Practical Approach. McGraw Hill Book Co, Sydney

Bostock, J. (1951) The Dawn of Australian Psychiatry. Unpublished manuscript at the Health Commission of N.S.W.

Dax, E.C. (1975) "Australia & New Zealand" in World History of Psychiatry. (Ed. Howells. J.G.) Bailliere Tindall, London

Haber, J., Leach, A.M., Schudy,S.M. & Sideleau, B.F. (1982) Comprehensive Psychiatric Nursing, (Second Edition). McGraw Hill, New York

Leong. K. (1985) Garry Owen and Callan Park - The Story of Rozelle Hospital, Lilyfield: 1819- 1984. Leichhardt Historical Journal. No.14. Article from The Rozelle Hospital Library

Maddison, D. Day, P. & Leabeater. B. (1970) Psychiatric Nursing. (Third Edition), E. & S. Livingstone, London

Maddison. D. & Kellehear K.J. (1983) Psychiatric Nursing. (Fifth Edition). Churchill Livingstone, London

McClemens (1961) Report of the Honourable Mr. Justice McClemens. Royal Commissioner appointed to inquire into certain matters affecting Callan Park Mental Hospital. Victor C.N. Blight. Government Printer, Sydney

Scull. A.T. (1982) Museums of Madness. The Social Organization of Insanity in Nineteenth-Century England. Penguin, London

Shiraev, N. (1979) Psychiatric Statistics: Notes Towards a History of Public Psychiatry in New South Wales. Division of Health Services Research Report No.79/1, Health Commission of New South Wales, Sydney