South Australia was a planned colony with an emigration policy that depended on populating the colony with young, fit and healthy men and women. The selection process in England for potential colonists lacked rigour, and resulted in a small but significant number of elderly, poor, chronically ill and those suffering from mental illness arriving in the colony. Also, the effects of a long, arduous sea journey combined with a challenging new life in a small colony proved too much for some. As a result the Governor and the representatives of the government found themselves required to care for the sick, destitute and the mentally ill.
Adelaide Gaol
When the colony of South Australia began in 1836, there was no provision made for people with a mental illness, or lunatics as they were then called. Consequently, they were kept in the Adelaide Gaol. A ward was set aside for the insane where, reflecting the view of the time, thet were kept restrained and out of sight. To address this problem a Board of Pauper Lunatics was set up in 1841 to suggest alternative solutions. However, no one was prepared to take any responsibility. In addition, the colony was nearly bankrupt which restricted public expenditure, so nothing was done.
It wasn’t until April 1846 that the government acted and rented a house with eight rooms and a small cottage at Parkside. On 21st May nine inmates were transferred from the gaol. However, the house was too small and many remained in the gaol until 1855. The Parkside premises were used until the Asylum on North Terrace was completed. The Parkside Lunatic Asylum was later built on this site.
Adelaide Lunatic Asylum
In 1849 the Colonial Engineer drew up plans for an asylum costing £5000-£6000 that would accommodate sixty patients, a house surgeon, three keepers and a couple of domestic staff. Tenders were called in 1850 and the new Adelaide Lunatic Asylum was opened in March 1852. It was built on the parklands at the eastern end of North Terrace, on ground overlooking the Botanic Garden. The new asylum provided far better facilities for the insane, but less than two years after its opening it proved to be too small. There were two men occupying each cell and accommodation was still required for forty more patients. Therefore, the Adelaide Gaol remained in use for at least another four years.
At the end of 1856 more accommodation became available for mental patients when the new hospital building was opened and the old Adelaide Hospital building was made available to the Asylum. However, by 1866 this had also become overcrowded and planning was begun for another asylum. By this time the Adelaide Lunatic Asylum was considered to be below standard but it remained in use until 1902, when its last patient was finally transferred to Parkside Lunatic Asylum. It was then used for several years as an infectious diseases hospital before it was razed in 1938.
Parkside Lunatic Asylum
In 1864 a Commission was appointed to inquire into the management of the Adelaide Lunatic Asylum. They found that it was crowded and its location had become inappropriate. Adelaide had expanded rapidly, with suburbs by the parklands, which meant the roads passing the asylum had become main thoroughfares. The Commission recommended the construction of a new purpose-built asylum for seven hundred patients based on the best European and American practices. They also recommended the purchase of land within four miles from the centre of Adelaide.
Land was purchased and the new Parkside Lunatic Asylum opened in March 1870. In May 1870 the main building of a new Asylum was opened and received fifty patients transferred from the Adelaide Asylum. Patients continued to be transferred from North Terrace until Parkside was completed. The Parkside Asylum remains open to this today and is now known as Glenside (Psychiatric) Hospital.
References
Bell, Maureen 2003. ‘From the 1870’s to the 1970’s: the changing face of public psychiatry in South Australia’. Australasian Psychiatry, vol. 11, Issue 1, pp.79-86.
Piddock, Susan 2004. ‘Possibilities and realities: South Australia’s asylums in the 19th century’. Australasian Psychiatry, vol. 12, Issue 2, pp.172-175.
February 2nd, 2008 at 5:10 pm
Hi I was wondering if they would still have records of the patients in parkside back in 1916 as my great great grandmother died in there and I’m trying to find out why she was there. I’m from Auckland, New Zealand.
Or who I can get in touch with to find out more.
Regards Lorraine
February 7th, 2008 at 8:48 am
Hi Lorraine
Please contact David Buob from the Glenside Hospital Historical Society on (08)8375 6000 with your details. If he cannot help, he will direct you to the person who can.
Regards Doug Lyall
February 21st, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Hi Lorraine,
There is an index of inmates at Parkside Lunatic Asylum kept at the SA Genealogy and Heraldry Society, Unley http://www.saghs.org.au/ on microfiche. I know they had records for up to at least 1910 for female inmates.
Regards,
Paula Arnold
April 28th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
I am wondering if anyone can advise when the name changed from Parkside Lunatic Asylum to Glenside?
May 1st, 2008 at 1:45 pm
There were several name changes. It began as the Parkside Lunatic Asylum (1870-1913). The name was then changed to the Parkside Mental Hospital (1913-1967) and finally in 1967 to the Glenside Hospital.
April 9th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
Winifred Ann Stokie died at the Parkside Lunatic Asylum on 24 May 1900. She had been admitted in March of the same year.
Is it possible that a record of her admission with personal, family, home address, etc is available somewhere and can be copied?
My wife and I are researching her family history and Winifred was a GGG Aunt.
We are particularly anxious to establish what became of Winifred’s parents, John and Catherine Curran.
August 9th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
My brother, William Henry West was a patient at Parkside from approximately 1949 until his death in approximately 1961.
I wish to confirm these details and to find out the details of his metal disease. How should I go about this?
Regards,
Graham West
September 23rd, 2009 at 4:31 pm
My Grandfather, Harry Edward Christophers Junior was admitted to Glenside, could you please tell me of the mental problems he had.
Regards,
Darren Lillie
September 24th, 2009 at 10:07 am
Hi Graham and Darren
If you contact David Buob from the Glenside Hospital Historical Society on (08)8375 6000 with your details he may be able to help. If he can’t, he will direct you to the person who can.
There is also an index of inmates of Parkside Lunatic Asylum kept at the SA Genealogy and Heraldry Society, Unley http://www.saghs.org.au/ on microfiche.
Regards
Doug
November 3rd, 2009 at 7:26 pm
Hi Doug,
I live near the Glenside Hospital and I am fascinated by what I think used to be ‘Z’ Ward for Criminal Mental Defectives. It is a beautiful building with, I am sure, an interesting history. Do you have any suggestions of books or other resources that will have photos and more information about this building and it’s history?
Thank you,
Amy
November 6th, 2009 at 10:01 am
Hi Amy
The State Library of South Australia is a good resource for books & photo’s. You can check their catalogue at http://www.catalog.slsa.sa.gov.au/screens/mainmenu.html.
Also, David Buob ((08)8375 6000) from the Glenside Hospital Historical Society may have some suggestions of books or other resources.
Regards
Doug
February 20th, 2010 at 5:12 pm
My great grandmother was an inmate of the Adelaide Gaol and the Adelaide Asylum from 1898 until she died there in 1914. I have a photo of her taken with her eldest son, and wondered how this could be taken, when she was incarcerated in the Asylum. Did they allow the patients out for the weekend or something like this?
February 24th, 2010 at 11:39 am
Hi Marlene
If you contact David Buob from the Glenside Hospital Historical Society on (08)8375 6000 with your questions he may be able to help. If he can’t, he will direct you to the person who can.
May 14th, 2010 at 11:49 am
Howdy. My grandfather Henry (Harry) T. Kay was lay superintendant of Glenside for many years. In actual fact he worked his way up from paperboy at aged 15 to lay superintendant and worked there for about 50 years til retirement. I am trying to get a copy of the book that he wrote for the Centenary, called 1870-1970 : commemorating the centenary of Glenside Hospital Do you know if there is a copy around at glenside or anywhere or if I am able to get one?
Regards
May 22nd, 2010 at 4:45 pm
Hi Jo, I have a copy of the book you require. I think I bought it at dept of mental health, somewhere on Marion Road, near Harvey Norman. It was about 10 years ago, so quite can’t remember. But ring Glensde or email me
June 25th, 2010 at 9:18 pm
hey i was wondering about the glenside the old glenside building thats been closed up and u cant get to can u tell me what it was and it purpose when it was up and running in south australia and what are they doing with the buliding!!
August 9th, 2010 at 12:46 pm
Hi I have a copy of the book : 1870-1970 : commemorating the centenary of Glenside Hospital if any one wants it.
August 14th, 2010 at 5:53 pm
hello everyone i am interested in any imformation that any one has on glenside there is so much that is covered up about it my family has so much history of being in glenside and i am facinated my father was in glenside and his father and i remember visiting my father in glenside and seeing the labatory a looking through the windows with scares now lingering in my memory so if anyone has any imformation can they please email me on shape_shifter9@hotmail.com
thankyou kind regards renayee
August 27th, 2010 at 12:10 am
Hi Rebecca,
I would be very keen to get hold of your book if you still have it,
Regards,
Janet
August 30th, 2010 at 11:17 am
HI everyone!
I am doing my major investigation study for year 12 on Glenside and i was wondering if there was anyone within the facility that i could contact, to get an interview with??
This would be most helpful Thanks
August 30th, 2010 at 3:30 pm
Hello Simone
You might try the phone number on this page:
http://www.health.sa.gov.au/mentalhealth/Default.aspx?tabid=66
August 31st, 2010 at 9:51 am
Thankyou, but i was wondering if you have any idea what the current state of Glenside is? the oc health and safety sort of things? i am aware of the shortage in acute beds, but is there anyone who is aware of any other shortages??