Wolston Park Hospital Complex

General

Also known as

Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum; Goodna Mental Hospital; Goodna Hospital for the Insane

Classification

State Heritage

Register status

Entered

Date entered

21 October 1992

Types

Archaeological: Archaeological potential

Archaeological: Artefact scatter

Burial ground: Cemetery—private

Education, Research, Scientific Facility: School - special

Farming - Agriculture/Dairying/Grazing/Horticulture: Accommodation - barracks, huts

Farming - Agriculture/Dairying/Grazing/Horticulture: Farm - dairy

Farming—agriculture/dairying/grazing/horticulture: Farm

Farming—agriculture/dairying/grazing/horticulture: Piggery

Health and Care Services: Benevolent inst./home - inebriates'

Health and Care Services: Benevolent institution/home - physically/intellectually disabled

Health and Care Services: Office/Office Building/Administration centre

Health and care services: Benevolent institution/home

Health and care services: Hospital—psychiatric/mental institute/asylum

Health and care services: Hospital—repatriation/veteran’s

Health and care services: Mortuary/morgue

Recreation and Entertainment: Golf course

Recreation and Entertainment: Swimming pool/Baths - in-ground

Recreation and entertainment: Cricket ground

Religion/worship: Chapel

Residential: Villa

Retail, Wholesale, Services: Laundry

Utilities - Gas and Electricity supply: Electricity Power Station - coal/gas/oil

Utilities—drainage, sewerage, waste disposal: Rubbish dump

Utilities—water supply: Dam/reservoir

Utilities—water supply: Pumping station

Themes

1.4 Peopling places: Family and marking the phases of life

2.3 Exploiting, utilising and transforming the land: Pastoral activities

2.4 Exploiting, utilising and transforming the land: Agricultural activities

2.5 Exploiting, utilising and transforming the land: Managing water

2.9 Exploiting, utilising and transforming the land: Valuing and appreciating the environment and landscapes

4.4 Working: Unpaid labour

6.3 Building settlements, towns, cities and dwellings: Developing urban services and amenities

7.1 Maintaining order: Policing and maintaining law and order

8.1 Creating social and cultural institutions: Worshipping and religious institutions

8.5 Creating social and cultural institutions: Sport and recreation

9.1 Educating Queenslanders: Providing primary schooling

10.1 Providing health and welfare services: Providing health services

10.3 Providing health and welfare services: Caring for women and children

10.4 Providing health and welfare services: Caring for the aged and infirm

Architects

Queensland Department of Public Works

Tiffin, Charles

Designer

Cannan, Kersey

Construction periods

1843–1865, Early Asylum Site (1865), including former Simpson Residence Site (1843-44)

1860, Former Sandstone Quarry and Track (1860s)

1866–1951, Female Wards 1 & 2 (1866 and additions and modifications in c1868, 1870, 1875, 1905, 1906, 1923, 1937, and 1951)

1866–1978, Wolston Park Hospital Complex (1866 - 1978)

1870–1950, Early Road Network (1870s - 1950s)

1885–1924, Bostock House (1885, extended 1901, c1924)

1890–1958, Residence (1890s-1910s, relocated c1958, c2000)

1890–1972, Recreation Hall (1890, extended c1914, remodelled c1972)

1895–1910, Male Recreation Grounds (by 1895) and Cricket Pavilion (1910)

1895–1912, Former Cemetery Site (1895-1912)

1898–1917, Fleming House (1898, extended c1917)

1898, Medical Superintendent’s Residence and Garden (1898)

1902–1949, Morgue (1902, extended 1949)

1902–1955, Female Bathroom Block (1902)

1902, Male Bathroom Block (1902)

1912–1920, Visitors Garden (c1912) and Visitors Pavilion (1920)

1912, Assistant Medical Superintendent’s Residence and Garden (1912)

1913–1945, Former Cemetery Site (c1913-1945)

1914, Reservoir and Pump Houses (1914)

1915, Lewis House, McDonnell House, and Noble House (all 1915)

1916–1919, Piggery Remnants (1916-19)

1916, Early Farm Ward Kitchen and Dairy (1916)

1917, Powerhouse (1917)

1917, Anderson House (1917)

1917, Administration Building (1917)

1917, Hospital (1917)

1918, Laundry (1918)

1918, Farm Overseer’s House (1918, relocated within complex area c2009-13)

1920–1925, Gailes Golf Club Course (1925)

1934, Osler House (1928), Pearce House (1934)

1936, Gladstone House, Jenner House, and Kelsey House (all 1936)

1944, Shelter Shed for Female Patients (by 1944)

1944, Garage (by 1944)

1944, Dawson House (1944)

1948, Repatriation Kitchen Block (1948)

1948, Repatriation Wards A, B, and C (all 1948)

1950–1956, Dam (1950) and Pump House (by 1956)

1951–1955, Female Recreation Grounds (1951-5)

1951, Cafeteria (c1951)

1951, Change Room and Stores Shed (c1951)

1951, Packing Shed and Patients Shelter (c1951)

1954–1955, Repatriation Recreation Grounds (c1954-5)

1954, Farm Ward Building and Grounds (1954-6, Basil Stafford Centre)

1961, Repatriation Occupational Therapy and Recreation Hall (c1961)

1961, Chapel (1961)

1964, Later Farm Ward for Male Patients (c1964, later called Weeroona)

1967–1973, School Building for Child Patients with Intellectual Disabilities (1967) and Swimming Pool (c1973)

1978, Villas (c1978)

Historical period

1840s–1860s Mid-19th century

1870s–1890s Late 19th century

1900–1914 Early 20th century

1914–1919 World War I

1919–1930s Interwar period

1939–1945 World War II

1940s–1960s Post-WWII

1970s–1990s Late 20th century

Style

Arts & Crafts

Classicism

Location

Address

60 Grindle Road, Wacol

LGA

Brisbane City Council

Coordinates

-27.59135106, 152.90982557

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Significance

Criterion AThe place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland’s history.

Wolston Park Hospital Complex (established in 1865 as Woogaroo Asylum) is important in demonstrating the evolution of mental health care and welfare in Queensland, and is an early and distinctive example of a substantial public mental health institution.

Wolston Park Hospital Complex demonstrates the primary role of the state in the care of people with mental illness since the 1860s. Founded by the Queensland government as the first publicly funded mental health institution in the colony, by the 1950s it had become the largest institution providing care and treatment for people with mental illness in Queensland. The site is also important in demonstrating the development of specialist mental health services for returned service personnel and people with intellectual disabilities, including children.

Wolston Park Hospital Complex retains: a range of buildings dating from the 1860s, which through their design, relationships with each other and their setting, including designed landscapes, gardens and bushland, demonstrate the changing practices in the treatment of mental illness: from confinement and separation in the 19th century (Asylum); to activities and an environment conducive to mental health/recovery from 1909 to the 1930s (Moral Treatment or Therapy); to active treatment and cure through drug and medical therapies from the 1940s (Mental Hygiene 1940s-50s and Psychiatric Services 1960s-70s); to deinstitutionalization and community-based services by the 1980s.

The physical evolution of the site also demonstrates these changes in practices as the complex developed incrementally across its large reserve. Landscaping of the grounds and gardening by patients during the moral treatment era served as a form of therapy, through meaningful work to create a pleasant environment and recreation facilities. Farming was also used as a therapy during the moral treatment era and from the 1950s for those with intellectual disabilities.

The institution’s philosophy of self-sufficiency is illustrated by the riverside quarry (1860s) and associated buildings, structures and landscaping featuring its sandstone; the Farm Wards which provided food supplies; and the Female Wards 1 and 2 constructed using bricks made onsite and timber felled nearby.

Criterion BThe place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland’s cultural heritage.

As one of only three mental health institutions established in Queensland in the 19th century, and the only one that illustrates through its fabric and layout the evolution of mental health services from the 1860s onwards, Wolston Park Hospital Complex is rare and distinctive.

Criterion CThe place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland’s history.

The Wolston Park Hospital Complex has the potential to contribute knowledge that will lead to a greater understanding of early and evolved mental health treatment practices and conditions, the associated activities and infrastructure, the people who lived and worked there, and broader 19th and early-20th century social attitudes towards mental health patients in Queensland.

Detailed analysis of the hospital buildings – their planning, design and fabric, along with associated objects and documentary evidence – has the potential to contribute to a greater understanding of the historical functions, operational activities, and conditions experienced by patients subject to a controlled environment.

Archaeological investigations at and around the three former cemetery sites may clarify the presence, nature and extent of burials, which along with the identification and analysis of associated artefacts and features has the potential to yield information about the treatment of deceased patients and burial practices at the hospital; spatial distribution and arrangement of graves; and the extent and methods of reinterments.

Archaeological investigations of the early asylum area – its wards, hospital, doctors residence and cottage sites, and associated jetty and bridge sites – has the potential to reveal sub-surface artefacts and features that might inform on the layout and operational activities, the living conditions of occupants, and transportation infrastructure associated with the complex. Previously the location of the 1840s Simpson residence, this area also has the potential to yield information about the mid-19th century occupation of the site.

The medium and high-density artefact scatters in the riverbank bushland area, including glass, ceramic and metal kitchenware and tableware, have the potential to contribute to our understanding of the occupants and their material culture, and the day-to-day activities of hospital life.

Criterion DThe place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places.

Highly-intact, Wolston Park Hospital Complex is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a substantial public mental health institution in Queensland developed from the mid-19th to the mid-20th centuries. Principal characteristics include its: expansive, isolated, and highly-secured site; groups of hospital buildings laid out in areas according to function, with segregation of male and female patients; on-site services and infrastructure to allow self-contained operation; patient cemeteries; and landscape features and functions designed for patient therapy. Wolston Park Hospital Complex is the earliest and most extensive example of its type in Queensland.

The complex’s buildings, structures, and landscapes important in demonstrating this type of place include:

Early road network:

• Ellerton Drive (1870s, 1913-6); Boyce Road (by 1896); Hogg Lane (by 1896); Wolston Park Road, southern section (by 1896); Barrett Drive (by 1896-1948); Farm Roads (1899-1950s)

Central Administration, Services, and Staff Residences Area:

• Visitors Garden (c1912) and Visitors Pavilion (1920); Administration Building (1917); Hospital (1917); Chapel (1961); Medical Superintendent's Residence and Garden (1898); Assistant Medical Superintendent’s Residence and Garden (1912); Reservoir  and Pump Houses (1914); Recreation Hall (1890-c1972); Laundry (1918); Powerhouse (1917); Morgue (1902-49)

Female Patients Area:

• Female Wards 1 & 2 (1866-1951); Shelter Shed for Female Patients (by 1944); Anderson House (1917); Staff Residence (1890s-1910s); Bostock House (1885-c1924); Dawson House (1944); Female Bathroom Block (1902)

Female Patients Recreation Area and Early Asylum Site:

• Recreation Grounds (1951-5); Cafeteria (c1951); Change Room and Stores Shed (c1951); Packing Shed and Patients Shelter (c1951); Early Asylum Site (1865), including Cemetery

Male Patients Area:

• Recreation Grounds (by 1895); Fleming House (by 1896, c1917); Gladstone House, Jenner House, and Kelsey House (all 1936); Male Bathroom Block (1902); Lewis House, McDonnell House, and Noble House (all 1915); Osler House (1928); Pearce House (1934); Cemetery Site (1895-1912)

Wacol Repatriation Complex:

• Recreation Grounds (c1954-55); Kitchen Block (1948); Wards A, B, and C (all 1948); Occupational Therapy and Recreation Hall (c1961); Cemetery Site (c1913-45)

Gailes Golf Club Course (1925)

Farm Complex:

• Piggery Remnants (1916-19); Dam (1950) and Pump House (by 1956); Later Farm Ward Building For Male Patients (c1964); Farm Overseer’s House (1918); Early Farm Ward Kitchen and Dairy (1916)

Basil Stafford Centre:

• Farm Ward Building and Grounds (1954-6); School Building for Child Patients With Intellectual Disabilities (1967) and Swimming Pool (c1973); Villas (c1978);

and, Hospital Dump Sites.

Wolston Park Hospital Complex is also important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of the architectural work of the Queensland Department of Public Works (DPW), retaining an extensive range of excellent, highly-intact examples of DPW-designed buildings constructed across more than 100 years (1875 to c1978). The principal characteristics of the DPW’s architectural work demonstrated at the hospital complex include: well-designed, fit-for-purpose buildings with a dignified civic character; use of high-quality materials; and abundant natural light and ventilation of interiors.

Criterion EThe place is important because of its aesthetic significance.

Wolston Park Hospital Complex is important for its aesthetic significance due to the expressive and evocative qualities of its highly intact buildings and landscapes.

The place expresses the Queensland Government’s regulation and treatment of people with mental illnesses from the 1860s to the 1970s, particularly its use of moral treatment. Through its elevated location and ordered buildings in formal landscapes surrounded by bushland, with controlled views to and from its features, the government sought to convey the perceptions of order, control, and calm to patients and visitors.

The place is also evocative of institutional life and associated experiences of isolation, dependence, confinement, and treatment. These evocative qualities are layered across a variety of aspects including: substantial ward buildings designed for patient observation, control and management; communal patient dormitories, ablutions, dining, and recreation rooms, and individual patient cells; patient work and recreation landscapes; patient morgue and cemeteries; hospital paraphernalia and dump artefacts; and the patina of use on the fabric of the buildings. Important views unfold across the place, as exemplified by the imposing early female and male ward buildings juxtaposed with their open landscaped surrounds.

Criterion GThe place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons.

Operating for more than 155 years, Wolston Park Hospital Complex, the oldest and for many years, the largest mental health facility in Queensland, has a strong and special association with the Queensland mental health community, including past and present patients, their family members, friends, and advocates, medical and non-medical staff, social workers, clergy, and volunteers.

Criterion HThe place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland’s history.

Wolston Park Hospital Complex has a special association with Henry Byam Ellerton (c1871-1951), its Medical Superintendent and the Inspector of the Insane of Queensland between 1909 and 1936, who made a notable contribution to the development of mental health services in the state. Ellerton improved patient care through staff training, occupational therapy, and improved facilities. In accordance with the moral treatment method of patient therapy, Ellerton transformed Wolston Park Hospital Complex, through major building, farming, recreation, and landscaping programmes, laying out the complex in the form it still retains.

History

The Wolston Park Hospital Complex, opened in 1865 as Woogaroo Asylum, occupies a 311.05 hectare site on the banks of the Brisbane River at Wacol, approximately 19km southwest of the Brisbane CBD. One of only three institutions for people with mental illness established by the Queensland Government during the 19th century, it later incorporated a number of mental health facilities and ancillary services. Since the late 20th century, new uses for some areas of the site have evolved, with repurposing of buildings.

Prior to 1859, people within the later colony of Queensland, who were certified as insane, were sent to Sydney. Immediately following Separation, they were lodged at the Brisbane Gaol. In 1861 the government instructed Colonial Architect Charles Tiffin to report on a suitable site and draw up plans for a 400-bed asylum. Tiffin recommended an area of land on the banks of the Brisbane River halfway between Brisbane and Ipswich. This was rejected by the Government in favour of a nearby site, upstream at the junction of the Brisbane River and Woogaroo Creek at Woogaroo.

The site of the new asylum was originally part of the lands of the Yuggera Ugarapul People,[1] and had been occupied by the residence of Dr Stephen Simpson, the Commissioner of Crown Lands for the Moreton Bay District. Simpson was appointed in 1842 when the area first opened for free settlement following the closure of the penal colony.[2] An 1861 survey plan indicates the presence of a dwelling between the mouth of Woogaroo Creek and a small dam that still exists east of the current Wolston Park Golf Club clubhouse.[3] The dwelling, most likely Simpson's cottage, was sited just southwest of the clubhouse, with a wharf on the river to the north.[4] Late 1860s plans of the asylum's original buildings indicate that they were located at the east end of the current clubhouse.[5]

Asylum Era (1865-1908)

Tenders for the first stage of construction of the asylum were let in January 1863 and by the end of 1864 sufficient buildings were completed for the asylum to begin operation. Woogaroo Asylum opened on 10 January 1865. On 12 January, seven prison warders (two of them women) and ten police constables escorted 57 male and 12 female inmates from Brisbane Gaol to Woogaroo, travelling by river. The 69 patients were accommodated in a two-storeyed brick building initially intended to be the administration block [not extant]. Male inmates were accommodated on the first floor and part of the ground floor. Females occupied a section of the ground floor. A tall timber fence surrounded the building and timber outbuildings accommodated a kitchen, bathroom and staff areas. Dr Kersey Cannan was appointed as Superintendent and a residence was constructed for him on site, northeast of the main asylum buildings [not extant].

This first stage of the asylum was located at the southern end of the site between the Brisbane River and Woogaroo Creek, with the river providing access. Plans of the site made c1869 and in 1878 indicate that a cemetery was established at its far western end, near the confluence of Woogaroo Creek and the Brisbane River. A 1878 survey plan shows the developments on the asylum site: men’s ward, hospital, cottage, a steam saw beside Woogaroo Creek, land under cultivation, a footbridge over Woogaroo Creek, wharf into the Brisbane River, and on the ridge to the north of the main buildings, the female ward and a doctor’s house to its south.[6]

In 1866, a ward for fee-paying patients was erected on an adjacent ridge about 400 metres to the northeast of the main buildings. The building (later Female Wards 1 and 2) was constructed from local sandstone extracted from a nearby quarry owned by Joshua Jeays, which also supplied stone for the construction of Old Government House (1862, QHR600118) and Parliament House (1865; QHR600069).[7] The superintendent, Dr Cannan, claimed responsibility for the building's design, based on principles recommended in the standard treatise on asylum construction at this time.[8] However, the Woogaroo Asylum was not in a position to receive fee-paying patients and the building remained unoccupied for two years until alterations were made so female inmates could be transferred to this block. A partial second storey was added, constructed to the design of Charles Tiffin in 1875, and other substantial alterations and additions were made to the building in 1905-6, 1923, 1937 and 1951. This building accommodated female inmates for over 100 years, and was the first of several in the separate ‘female area’.

In 1867 the first of many Government inquiries into the operations of the asylum took place, with the Queensland Government appointing Dr Henry Challinor to investigate conditions there. Two further inquiries occurred in 1869. Dr Cannan was dismissed from his post as a result of the first inquiry. The second revealed a multitude of mistakes and incompetency and a number of its conclusions related to the inappropriate and insufficient accommodation on site, and the need for improved cooking facilities and provision of a decent water supply. On the recommendation of the select committee, the Queensland Government introduced the Lunacy Act 1869, based on legislation in other Australian colonies and Britain.

It was not until a royal commission was established in 1877 to investigate Woogaroo Asylum and other reception houses in the colony, that the government was forced to take the continuing problems at the asylum more seriously. Despite the construction of two cottage wards in the early 1870s [not extant], overcrowding remained a chronic problem and the commission urged the construction of additional wards, improvements to existing cells, upgrading of services, the planting of shade trees, the establishment of recreation facilities and the provision of employment for patients. A modest building program began in 1878, with the construction of a cottage ward for 60 female patients, and continued with a block of cells for troublesome female patients in 1879; two wards, each for 35 patients, in the male and female areas in 1880, as well as the construction of a kitchen and laundry building to service 500 inmates [these buildings are not extant].[9]

A boom in the Queensland economy and a major increase in expenditure on public works was the impetus for a more substantial building program at the asylum during the 1880s. At the same time, the population of the state was increasing rapidly and accompanying social changes brought more admissions. The hospital population doubled in the two decades from 1880. Two new cottage wards (Female no 6 ward, 1885, later known as Bostock House; and a refractory ward) were erected in the female area, while in the male area, a new refractory ward was constructed [not extant] and major additions to the existing Male no 1 ward were undertaken. Despite this new work, conditions for patients scarcely improved as the additional accommodation barely matched the growth in patient numbers.

New legislation was introduced with the Insanity Act 1884 replacing the Lunacy Act 1869. Modelled on New South Wales legislation, it reflected the growing medicalisation of the treatment of madness. The term lunacy was replaced by insanity and the institution where such persons were treated became known as a hospital for the insane rather than an asylum. This Act consolidated the state's role in the treatment and regulation of ‘insane’ people and remained in force for more than 50 years. The institution was renamed Goodna Hospital for the Insane in the same year.[10]

In 1890 the asylum experienced severe flooding when the Brisbane River rose to a height of 40 feet (12.19m), the highest level ever recorded. The entire male area was inundated; buildings, fences, and other structures were seriously damaged and patients had to be re-located. Consequently, the low-lying area near the river was abandoned, with the main male area moved to higher ground to the northeast, where two male wards had already been erected [not extant]. The relocation brought the complex closer to the railway line (opened in 1875), which replaced the river as the primary means of access to the hospital. A Recreation Hall was erected in 1890, which served as a sewing room for female patients during the day and was also used for dances, concerts and church services, as well as a temporary timber building to alleviate overcrowding [not extant]; while in 1892 a substantial two-story brick building for male patients was opened [not extant].[11]

Serious flooding in February 1893 further damaged the male area and inundated the main staff residences and the original cemetery. In accordance with the decision to relocate to higher ground, work began on an outdoor recreation area and two similar single storey wards to accommodate 75 patients each (by 1896) [not extant]; male no 5 ward (later Fleming House), a two-storey brick building (c1896); and a second two-storey block (male no 10 ward)[not extant] opened c1900. These buildings overlooked the cricket oval that had been laid out by patient labour. In 1898-9, a substantial brick Medical Superintendent’s Residence, plus outbuildings [later Manor House, Offices], replacing a timber house badly damaged by the 1893 flood, were erected for the new medical superintendent, James Hogg, appointed in 1898. The residence was located on high ground with its main elevation facing south-east, away from the asylum complex.[12] Ellerton Drive, Hogg Lane, and the western half of Boyce Road had been formed to link buildings and areas on the site by 1896. The southernmost part of Barrett Drive led to a new cemetery (cemetery no 2) established north of the asylum buildings and adjacent to the cricket ground, which was used until the early 1910s. From 1898, the complex was known as the Goodna Hospital for the Insane for the next 42 years.

The most significant building project of the early 1900s involved extensive alterations and additions to the original female ward. The first floor was extended across the entire building, which considerably increased accommodation. A large two-storeyed block, the Male no 4 ward [not extant] was also completed, bringing the male area to a well-defined group of eight buildings. A new morgue and two brick bathroom blocks were constructed in 1902 (the Female Bathroom Block was later known as Dawson Annexe and the Male Bathroom Block was later converted into a pathology laboratory).[13]

Moral Treatment or Therapy Era (1909-1937)

Following the death of James Hogg in 1908, Henry Byam Ellerton (c1871-1951) was appointed as Medical Superintendent of Goodna and Chief Inspector of Hospitals for the Insane. Conscious of the need to find the very best possible candidate, the Queensland Government had advertised widely for the position, including in Britain. Ellerton was chosen from a list of 26 applicants and had 14 years’ experience in English asylums. He was an ardent advocate of 'moral treatment' or ‘moral therapy’. Moral treatment marked a major turning point in an understanding of madness and insanity. Formerly regarded as the total absence or distortion of reason and incapable of cure, insanity came to be seen as a product of an immoral or defective social environment, thus people with mental illnesses could be improved in an appropriate and elevating environment. A critical aspect of moral treatment was the provision of a pleasant environment, with an emphasis on well-lit and ventilated buildings with adequate bathing facilities, reasonably sized rooms with sufficient openings and views to the landscape. Recreation and employment were also considered a vital part of the therapeutic process.

Ellerton was Superintendent of the hospital for 27 years, retiring in 1936. In this period, Wolston Park acquired its modern form with the construction of the core of its buildings and the consolidation of the institutional environment. As Ellerton's vision was to create an integrated and self-sufficient community, the grounds became gardens and wooden fences were replaced with less claustrophobic wire ones.[14] A large bush house, 100 yards long and 20 yards wide (91.44m x 18.29m) [not extant], was established in 1911 to maintain a steady supply of pot plants for the wards and the Recreation Hall and to provide seedlings and young plants for the gardens throughout the hospital. The institution was opened to visits from relatives and friends and recreational activities became integral to the institution's operations. While aesthetically pleasing gardens and views were considered parts of the therapeutic process, the grounds were also important to the public image of the institution. A pleasant landscaped environment with gardens, bushland and open space suggested the hospital was a benign institution and belied its true character as a place where overcrowding was chronic and inmates were strictly controlled and managed.

During Ellerton's administration, an extensive building programme was undertaken, with Ellerton providing specialist input at the design stage for medical buildings. An Assistant Medical Superintendent’s Residence (later Offices) was added east of the male area, and the Recreation Hall extended to its front (south) in 1912. Existing male wards were demolished and Male no 9 and 10 wards (later Lewis House), Male no 11 ward (later McDonnell House) and Male no 12 and 13 wards (later Noble House) were completed in 1915.[15] The Hospital Ward Block (later Hospital) was completed and a cedar, three-panel, World War I (WWI) Honour Board unveiled in 1916.[16] A new main entrance bridge over Woogaroo Creek,[17] a female admission ward, Female no 7 ward (later Anderson House), the Administration Block (staff offices in 2020), the Powerhouse (offices, stores and small hospital museum in 2020), water reservoirs, and pumping stations were completed in 1914. The Laundry was completed in 1918. Male no 14 ward (later a ward for difficult female patients; afterwards Osler House) was completed in 1929; and Male no 15 ward for difficult male patients (later Pearce House) was completed in 1934; while the Male no 6, 7 and 8 wards (later Gladstone House, Jenner House, and Kelsey House respectively) were completed in 1936. Upon Ellerton's retirement, the male area comprised a total of 13 blocks, all constructed of brick and designed to accommodate between 20 and 120 inmates. However, the upgrading of facilities and increase in beds from 1910 to 1936 failed to negate the increase in patients, and overcrowding remained a chronic problem.[18]

Compared with the extensive building program in the male area between 1910 and 1936, improvements in the female area were extremely modest. Ellerton felt that the expansion of the female area was limited due to the topography of the site and advocated additional female wards at other institutions such as Ipswich Mental Hospital (established 1878) and Toowoomba Mental Hospital (established 1890).[19] However, a brick and concrete shelter shed with fireplace was added near Female no 1 and 2 wards in 1929 for ‘difficult patients’.[20] In the period 1910-20, the number of female inmates decreased by 20%, falling from 491 to 389 patients and the 1910 female population level was not regained until 1929. Male patients, including war veterans, increased by 30% during this period, rising from 779 to 1010.[21]

The second cemetery (cemetery no 2), located north of the main buildings and adjacent to the cricket ground, closed in the early 1910s to allow construction of the two-storey male wards, which opened in 1915. A third cemetery (cemetery no 3), located in the northeast sector of the hospital site, appeared on survey plans prepared in the 19th century, but it is unclear whether it also operated from the late 19th century in conjunction with cemetery no 2.[22] Nevertheless, cemetery no 3 became the sole cemetery for the hospital from 1913 until 1945,[23] as Ellerton reported in 1913 that the ‘disinterment of remains from [the] old cemetery and re-internment in[to the] new cemetery – to make room for new wards’ had been completed.[24]

During Ellerton's period in charge, the institution underwent considerable material improvement and a number of essential services such as a hospital, electricity, and water had been established. For example, Pump houses, a watertower (demolished) and a rendered brick Reservoir, located adjacent to the main drive (later called Ellerton Drive) and connected to the Brisbane pipeline from Mount Crosby, were completed in 1914.[25]

Also formed was the backbone of the road network and upgraded paths that became the basis of the current layout. The main drive from Goodna (Ellerton Drive, 1870s) was realigned opposite the female wards for their extension c1913 and its level altered. Foundation stones, and kerbing and guttering stones for the drive were quarried from the sandstone ridge beside the river, while the surface gravel came from gravel pits in the institution’s grounds. After a new bridge was erected over Woogaroo Creek in 1916, a new road connecting with Ellerton Drive was formed in 1917 and planted with bunya pines and fig species.[26] Hogg Lane, accessing Male no 5-8 wards had been formed by 1896.[27] Barrett Drive, which led to cemetery no 3 (truncated 1946), was established by 1932,[28] but conceivably dates from the commencement of the cemetery by 1913. The track to the new Farm Ward (1916, realigned and upgraded into a road in 1950; later called Explorers Walk) was also formed in this era.[29]

Many of the new buildings were well designed and excellent examples of the output of the Queensland Department of Works during this time. Some of the buildings demonstrated a refinement in approaches to patient care, such as the small and domestic scale Female no 7 ward (later Anderson House), which was designed to accommodate female patients when they were first admitted for observation and to receive more individual treatment than was possible in a large ward.

Recreational facilities had vastly improved and the complex now had three tennis courts, a Cricket Pavilion and terraces and a Cricket Oval (later Recreation Ground, now known as the Eddie Gilbert Memorial Field) considered one of the best cricket grounds in the state.[30] A golf course had been constructed by patient labour in the 1920s, becoming the well-regarded Gailes Golf Course (1925), which continued to be a source of employment for patients in the upkeep and maintenance of the greens.[31] A small hexagonal, timber Visitors Pavilion was erected near the main drive within the landscaped Visitors Garden (1912) below the Administration Block in c1920.[32]

Patients were also employed in farming activities that aided the hospital's self-sufficiency and conformed with the moral therapy model of treatment. Farm activities included a piggery; a dairy; a small cattle herd; and vegetable and crop growing–including oats, maize and lucerne. These activities were extended with the addition of a Farm Ward (1916; later Community Hall, Pappora) [not extant], attached masonry Kitchen with scullery (c1916), masonry Dairy (1916), Sheds (1916) [not extant], and an Overseers Cottage (1918; later Quarter Way House, Residence) [relocated onsite], all about two kilometres northwest of the main hospital complex, set in a rural landscape with mature plantings, built landscape works, and views.[33]

However, no new techniques or methods of treatment had been introduced. Even the later Male Wards nos 6, 7 and 8 (Gladstone, Jenner and Kelsey), were still firmly based on the moral therapy model, despite their new designs with unusual plan forms. The institutionalisation of people with mental illness in Queensland had become an efficient system of control and regulation, with an emphasis on confinement rather than treatment or care. More patients than ever were admitted to Goodna and no other solution to the treatment of mental illness was even considered possible.

Mental Hygiene Era (1938-1962)

Ellerton was succeeded as Medical Superintendent by Dr Basil Stafford, the former Superintendent of Ipswich Mental Hospital in 1938.[34] Ellerton's retirement provided the opportunity to review the entire mental health system in Queensland and in particular, Ellerton's total commitment to moral therapy. By the late 1930s psychiatry was a well-established specialty internationally, though still in its infancy in Australia, and Stafford was alert to the changes psychiatry was bringing to the treatment of mental illness. In 1937 he was sent by the Queensland Government to attend the 2nd International Congress on Mental Hygiene in Paris and on a study tour of hospitals, psychiatric clinics and universities in the United States, Europe, and the United Kingdom.

On his return, Stafford recommended various changes to the mental health system, including the implementation of new legislation. These recommendations led to the Mental Hygiene Act 1938, which closely resembled the British Mental Treatment Act 1930. It required active treatment for the mentally ill, attempted to reduce the stigma attached to mental illness, and allowed for voluntary admission to mental hospitals.[35]. Until this time hospitals such as Goodna received only certified patients, most of whom were sent there under a magistrate's order. However, the transition to a less coercive approach to treatment occurred slowly and in 1947 Stafford reported that only 34 of the total 570 patients had been admitted under the voluntary provisions of the Act. The changes were mirrored by the institution’s change of name to Brisbane Mental Hospital c1940.[36]

The ideas of modern treatment introduced by Stafford emphasised the development of a comprehensive psychiatric approach, with adequate numbers of qualified medical staff. Insanity was seen as a disease of the brain and like any other disease required hospitalisation of patients and treatment with drugs. 'Modern treatment' he noted 'demands exhaustive mental and clinical case histories, as well as completely thorough physical examination. This cannot be done by a skeleton staff, however willing'.[37] This approach also brought degrees of specialisation among the staff and hospital procedures. Stafford advocated the separation of chronic wards from those dealing with admission, convalescence, and hospital cases. He believed that mental illness 'demands active therapy, and treatment must not become merely custodial' and urged the use of new types of treatment such as insulin, cardiazol, and electrotherapy.[38]

The first building at Wolston Park to reflect Stafford's modern ideas was Female ward no 4 (later Dawson House), completed in 1944. It provided accommodation for 60 patients and was located on a sloping site close to the existing female wards. It was recognised that a building with a basement could be built on such topography, with the basement accommodating treatment rooms for cardiazol therapy, insulin therapy, malaria therapy, somnifaine or continuous narcosis therapy, and other medical treatments. The most striking difference was that minimal attention was given to the outside environment – this building was inward-looking, signalling the demise of the importance placed on the environment in 'moral treatment' and the increasing medicalisation of the treatment of mental health.[39]

Another important building project for female patients at this time was the construction, between 1951 and 1955, of a special female recreation facility of approximately 2.5 hectares on the western edge of the reserve, adjacent to the Brisbane River. The principal building within the area was a brick Cafeteria with facilities to serve 500 patients (later Ballroom, Wolston Park Golf Clubhouse). Patients could spend the whole day in the recreation area without needing to return to the wards for midday meals. Other facilities in the area included a packing shed, sewing room [not extant], tennis court [not extant], bowling green [later putting green], a large playing field, nine viewing shelters [not extant] and storage sheds [one extant]. The grounds were landscaped by staff and inmate labour. By 1957 more than 200 patients were regularly using the facilities, highlighting the rigorous separation of patients according to gender that operated in all facets of the institution.[40] In 1956, a small brick and timber Visitors Shelter [not extant] was erected west of Ellerton House on Ellerton Drive.

By January 1942, 110 returned soldiers were inmates of Goodna Mental Hospital and the Commonwealth Government expressed concern about the growing numbers being admitted. War veterans had become a significant minority of the hospital population since the final years of WWI and Ellerton had decided that using existing institutions was preferable to building new facilities. During World War II (WWII), however, the Commonwealth agreed to fund the construction of three special wards, with the Queensland Government agreeing to responsibility for the maintenance of the buildings and for staffing. Plans for a complete repatriation unit were prepared by the Department of Public Works in consultation with Basil Stafford. Their design essentially resurrected the principles of 'moral treatment' – the buildings were designed to minimise the sense of confinement associated with mental hospitals, and freedom was emphasised by wide verandahs and dining areas opening onto grassed courtyards and lawns. Construction of the wards began in 1946, and the Wacol Repatriation Pavilion was opened by Governor John Lavarack on 26 January 1948. It comprised three wards: Wards A, B and C; (later called Jacaranda, Silky Oak and Lilly Pilly respectively) each with accommodation for 88 patients and a Kitchen/canteen block. An Occupational Therapy and Recreation Hall was erected c1961 and a cricket oval (later called Sports Oval) in 1954-55.[41]

In 1943, the Superintendent of the Goodna Hospital had advised the Director General of Health and Medical Services that the existing burial ground (cemetery no 3) was ‘almost completely occupied’ and a new one was needed.[42] Instead, the Department of Health and Home Affairs decided to use the local Goodna cemetery and ‘provide a motor hearse for funerals’.[43] Another possible reason for closing the cemetery was the proposed location of the new repatriation buildings between the male area and the cemetery.[44] After the cemetery closed, headstones and grave-markers were relocated to the Goodna cemetery. Bodies were re-interred, but the number is uncertain. In June 1947 the Courier Mail reported in a critical article on the hospital that the patients were ‘to disinter 4000 bodies from the hospital cemetery and re-bury then in Goodna town cemetery’.[45] However, a heritage plaque at Goodna cemetery notes that 192 bodies of the former Woogaroo Asylum were exhumed and relocated to two areas of the Goodna general cemetery, as well as about 2,300 grave markers.[46]

Between 1946 and 1951, as part of the expansion of farming on site, a large dam was constructed south of the farm and irrigation plants installed. A pumping station on the northern side of the lake supplied water from the dam to both the farm and vegetable gardens near the male wards.[47] The pre-existing track (later Explorers Walk) between the main hospital site and the farm was re-aligned around the dam.[48]

In the late 1940s, planning began for a new farm ward complex. Farm wards at the hospital had traditionally operated as semi-independent units where patients enjoyed greater levels of freedom and autonomy, unlike the main wards where people were locked in their cells or wards. A new site on the summit of a hill east of the existing farm wards was chosen and a building comprising two large wards, Farm Ward Block A (east) and B (west), with accommodation for 175 patients and a central dining/recreation block, was erected in stages between 1953 and 1957. Access was via a road completed in 1952, which partly follows a small area of a track evident by 1946 (now called Aveyron Road). Patients included both people with intellectual disabilities and people who had responded well to treatment and had the potential for recovery and discharge. In 1958, part of the farm ward complex was set aside for patients regarded as having intellectually disabilities and in 1964 a five teacher school was established to teach the 160 children who lived there. In 1967, a new school building providing educational and therapeutic facilities comprising classrooms, manual training, domestic science, and special purpose rooms grouped around a central courtyard, was completed. Gradually, all this complex became occupied by children with intellectual disabilities and was renamed the Basil Stafford Centre. Villa style patient accommodation was constructed nearby by 1978.[49]

From an early period, visiting clergy conducted religious services, but no specific facilities were provided by the government until after the appointment of three fulltime chaplains to the Brisbane Mental Hospital in 1959.[50] To assist them in the conduct of services and in the counselling of patients, three chapels, of similar design, were erected in a semi-circular pattern at the eastern end of Ellerton Drive in 1961. These were the Anglican Chapel of Christ the King [not extant], the Roman Catholic St Dymphna Chapel, in honour of the Catholic Patron Saint of people with mental illnesses [not extant], and the Council of Churches’ Chapel of Hope (later renamed the Chapel of Resurrection, adapted for use as the Forensic Administration after 1996).[51] In 1963, Brisbane Mental Hospital was renamed Brisbane Special Hospital.[52]

Psychiatric and Expanded Services (1962-late 1970s)

The hospital population peaked in the mid-1950s, with an average of approximately 2500 residents daily (not including Wacol Repatriation Pavilion patients) and 700 staff. However, by the late 1950s, the efficacy of large-scale, all-purpose institutions for the treatment of mental illness began to be questioned. It was recognised that patients became institutionalised to the extent that living in large institutions perpetuated their mental disorders and did not assist them to recover. The Division of Mental Hygiene within the Health Department embarked on a program of expanding acute psychiatric beds in general hospitals and transferring elderly senile patients from mental hospitals to nursing homes. This resulted in a decline in the number of patients at Goodna, and in 1960 Director Basil Stafford was able to report that, for the first time, the hospital had an excess of beds. The complex began to develop a different role. No longer did it cater for every type of patient from every part of the state; instead the majority of inmates were long-term chronic patients. The new Mental Health Act 1962 emphasised the integration of psychiatric with other services[53] and placed a greater emphasis on voluntary admission. The complex became known as Brisbane Special Hospital at this time, but in 1969 it was re-named Wolston Park Hospital.

With the reduction in long-term patients at the hospital, the old farm ward buildings at the northern end of the site were repurposed in 1965 as a new alcohol rehabilitation centre, known as the Wacol Rehabilitation Centre. Alcoholics had been patients at Wolston Park since the Inebriates Act 1892 allowed for their admission to designated institutions; however, there had been no specific facilities for them. New buildings were erected adjacent to the former farm ward including four wards, offices, and an occupational therapy area. These were a 1960s brick building [not extant]; a new Farm Ward (later called Weeroona), a two-storey brick building designed by Bligh, Jessop, Brentall and Partners, and completed in 1965, which initially served both male and female patients; and a separate complex for female patients (Melaleuca House and Poinciana House) [not extant], designed by Des Hanman & Associates and established in 1974.[54]

De-institutionalisation Era (late 1970s-)

In 1976 the Minister for Health released a paper on the Care of the Intellectually Handicapped, which proved to be the catalyst for major changes in the delivery of mental health services. The Intellectually Handicapped Services branch within the Health Department was established in 1977 and took responsibility for the Basil Stafford Centre. Research into the long-term effects of institutionalisation and the lack of success in the treatment and care provided in institutional settings led to critical questioning of the institutional model for people with mental illnesses, and people with intellectual or physical disabilities. In addition, the increasing criticism of conditions within mental hospitals and the abuse of patients' rights gave impetus to the development of alternative models; in particular, community-based mental health services. The community care model was adopted slowly in Queensland. Institutions were reformed; however, an emphasis on institutional care remained.

Short-term care with intensive treatment was the preferred model. Several major building projects, which reflected these changing ideas, were undertaken at Wolston Park during the 1970s, as well as extensive re-modelling of existing structures. In 1978, the Barrett Psychiatry Unit was established to provide acute care. It comprised eight separate buildings, a reception and admission block, three wards with 32 beds, two wards with 16 beds, cafeteria and medical officer's flat. In 1984 it expanded to include inpatients and specialised services for young people. A new medical centre opened in 1979 and in 1980 Nyunda Park, which included an extensive area of bushland and Joshua Jeays’ former sandstone quarry, a dam, and tracks,[55] was set up as an outdoor recreation area. The John Oxley Centre, a forensic psychiatric unit, was built at the western side of the site next to the Brisbane River in 1990 [not extant]. A number of the 19th century buildings were demolished in the 1970s and 1980s, with renovation and rehabilitation of other remaining 19th century buildings occurring in the late 1990s.

At the time the Wolston Park Hospital Complex was entered in the Queensland Heritage Register in 1992, Queensland Health owned the whole site, along with Gailes Golf Course and Wolston Park Golf Course (established c1975), both leased.[56] Afterward, the Basil Stafford Training Centre was transferred to the Department of Community Services, while the northern sector of the site was transferred to the Department of Corrective Services, with maximum-security facilities, the Wolston Correctional Centre and Brisbane Women’s Correctional Centre opening on this land in 1999.[57] The Brisbane Youth Detention Centre, opened to the south of the Basil Stafford Training Centre in 2001.[58] In 2020, a new youth detention centre (West Moreton Youth Detention Centre) is under construction beside (northeast of) the existing youth detention centre.[59]

As part of the 1996 Ten Year Mental Health Plan for Queensland, Wolston Park Hospital was formally closed in 2001. The main hospital became known as The Park - Centre for Mental Health and decentralised its extended care services with a greater emphasis on rehabilitation and recovery. The Park provided clinical treatment and rehabilitation programs to patients from central and southern Queensland, including care for people with a chronic mental disorder and for people with a mental disorder who also had an intellectual disability; forensic care services;[60] and an extended treatment service for adolescents. New buildings were added and some of its historical buildings were renovated.[61] Most of the new buildings were domestic in scale and character and included accommodation for patients and medical and administrative facilities. Some replaced buildings erected during the 1970s, such as parts of the Barrett Psychiatric Centre.

In December 2007, the Queensland Police Service (QPS) acquired a large portion of the former Wolston Park Hospital site, which included more than 30 buildings and other infrastructure, for the site of a new Police Academy and other police functions including a Centre for Forensic Investigation, specialist operational facilities, and a warehousing and archiving facility. A master plan of proposed development of the site was created by 2008. In 2009, an additional 41ha, including the early farm site, was acquired by QPS for use as the driver training facility under a memorandum of cooperation with the Department of Corrective Services. Since 2011, QPS has made site infrastructure and landscaping changes to roads and paths, services, open space, landscaping, and carparks; conserved and adapted six existing buildings for new uses; and added new buildings to the site.[62]

In 2020, a 37.75ha parcel of land on the eastern edge of the site remains undeveloped.[63] This was part of a 591-acre (239ha) Reserve for a Cemetery at Woogaroo (R591) gazetted in 1878, but never used for that purpose. The cemetery reserve was altered in 1889, cancelled in 1946,[64] and its land (483 acres/195ha) added to the then Brisbane Special Hospital Reserve (R593).[65] From c1960 until the late 1970s, there was quarrying on the site, northeast of the Basil Stafford Training Centre, accessed primarily from Grindle Road. Gravel extraction from pits on the site, for use in landscaping at the Wolston Park Hospital Complex, also occurred.[66]

A strong association between the Queensland community and Wolston Park Hospital Complex has existed for a long time. Throughout much of the institution’s history, it served as a place that provided the community, and families and friends of patients, with hope for the care and treatment of people with mental illnesses.[67] Individuals, Brisbane and Ipswich businesses, and community groups, such as the Country Women’s Association, Returned Sailors’ Soldiers’ & Airmen’s Imperial League of Australia, Red Cross, Women’s Auxiliary of the Queensland Ex-Prisoners of War Association, and the United Protestant Association provided support to patients through entertainments, gifts, donations, outings, and assistance with sports events.[68]

By the mid-1950s, Wolston Park Hospital Complex had become the largest mental hospital in Australia with about 2,500 daily average residents and a staff of almost 800.[69] One history of the institution stated it: ‘was a self-contained community with a close symbiotic relationship to the adjoining township (later, suburb) of Goodna where most of the staff lived. For many locals, the hospital was the place of employment for generations of the same family.’[70] Its workforce included health-care workers and ‘a large team of carpenters, plumbers, blacksmiths, engineers and other tradesmen [who] kept the place running, including the generation of electricity from a…powerhouse.’[71]

During its long history, more than 50,000 people from throughout Queensland were admitted to the Wolston Park Hospital Complex.[72] This led to strong associations with the place, not necessarily positive. Being sent there had lasting impacts on many patients. For those admitted between 1865 and the 1950s, their experience while incarcerated was often of overcrowding, insufficient staffing, and unpaid work. Later, when the institution’s efforts turned to pro-actively treating mental illness and returning patients to the community, patients underwent experimental drug- or electroconvulsive-therapies. Physical and mental abuse of patients by some staff members was always a possibility, as was sexual abuse.[73] With the transition to primarily community-based services, and the establishment of a patients’ advocate (Patients’ Friend from 1977, changing to Health Ombudsman from 2013) and the Association of Relatives and Friends of the Mentally Ill (ARAFMI Queensland branch formed in 1977), the experiences of patients with mental illness or intellectual disabilities changed.[74]

In 2020, mental health and disability support functions remain on the site, serving patients from the Queensland-wide community (The Park-Mental Health Centre, Basil Stafford Disability Services). Other community links to the site continue, through participation in sporting clubs such as Gailes Golf Club, Wolston Park Golf Club, and the Wolston Park Centenary Cricket Club, which utilise former hospital recreation facilities.

Description

Wolston Park Hospital Complex is a complex of public health institutions, some decommissioned, spread across a 311.05ha site in Wacol, approximately 19km southwest of the Brisbane CBD. The site is bounded on its west by the Brisbane River, on its north and northeast by residential and institutional development, and on its east and south by the Ipswich Motorway and Woogaroo Creek.

The complex comprises an extensive collection of purpose-designed buildings, natural and made landscapes, and areas of archaeological potential, spanning the 1860s to 1970s. It is organised into a series of areas that reflect its varied topography, historical functions, and key phases of development related to the evolution of mental health treatment.

At the core of the site is the Central Administration, Services, and Residences Area. To its west is the Female Patients Area, and south of this is the Female Patients Recreation Area and Early Asylum Site. Northeast of the core is the Male Patients Area, and north of this is the Wacol Repatriation Complex. On the east side of this is the Gailes Golf Club course, stretching south along the site boundary. To the northwest of the core is the Riverbank and Nyunda Park Area, stretching north along the river. East and north of this area is the Farm Complex, and east of this is the Basil Stafford Centre.

Features of Wolston Park Hospital Complex of state-level cultural heritage significance are:

• Early Road Network
• Central Administration, Services, and Staff Residences Area
• Female Patients Area
• Female Patients Recreation Area and Early Asylum Site
• Male Patients Area
• Wacol Repatriation Complex
• Gailes Golf Club course
• Riverbank Area and Nyunda Park
• Farm Complex
• Basil Stafford Centre

Early Road Network

A network of early roads connects the various core and decentralised zones of the complex.

Boyce Road (by 1896) is the main southern entrance to the site, running roughly east to west from near the Ipswich Motorway and connecting to Ellerton Drive.

Ellerton Drive (c1870s, partly realigned 1913-6) is the connecting road running roughly south to north from the Female Patients Recreation Area to the Central Administration, Services, and Staff Residences Area. It has been partially removed at its southern extent where it historically crossed Woogaroo Creek on a sequence of bridges (footbridge 1870s, road bridge by 1896) to provide the main entrance to the site, however, this route remains open space.

Hogg Lane (by 1896) and Barrett Drive (by 1896, and its extensions by 1932 and 1948)[1] are secondary roads separating the Central Administration and Services Area from the Male Patients Area and servicing the rear of the male patient wards.

Wolston Park Road runs roughly south to north, connecting the Central Administration Area to the northern parts of the site and was historically another main entrance to the site from the north. Only the southern section (by 1896) of this road is of state-level cultural heritage significance, comprising only the portion of road running from Ellerton Drive to its intersection with Explorers Walk.

Two long farm roads, Explorers Walk (south to north) and Aveyron Road (east to west), run from patient wards to the northern farm area. Only the routes of these roads are of state-level cultural heritage significance, not any of their infrastructure or materials

Features of the Early Road Network of state-level cultural heritage significance include:

• Boyce Road
  • route
  • early dam formation
• Ellerton Drive
  • route including evidence of previous alignments
  • dressed sandstone bridge abutment (1916) on Woogaroo Creek
  • stone kerbs
  • avenue of mature trees including cocos palms (Syagrus romanoffiana), hoop and bunya pines (Araucaria cunninghamii and bidwillii), camphor laurel (Cinnamomum camphora), silky oak (Grevillea robusta), and Indian siris (Albizia lebbeck) trees
  • turnaround driveway (c1917) off Ellerton Drive east of the Administration Building and its central planted island, and stone and concrete kerbs
  • continuation Ellerton Drive into the former residences driveway road (by 1896), branching off the northeastern end of Ellerton Drive and curving toward the Assistant Medical Superintendent’s Residence, including mature hoop and bunya pines lining its sides
• Hogg Lane
  • location and width
  • stone kerbs
  • brick-lined underground drains and their metal grates
  • mature poinciana (Delonix regia)
• Barrett Drive
  • original location and width, including open spaces where fabric has been removed
  • stone kerbs
• Wolston Park Road southern section (Ellerton Drive to Explorers Walk)
  • location and width
  • stone kerbs
• Farm Roads
  • Explorers Walk (‘Asylum Dray Track’ 1899, and its redirection across dam wall 1950) – running from the Male Patient Area (at the intersection with Wolston Park Road) through the Riverbank and Nyunda Park Area to the Farm Complex in the north
  • Aveyron Road, 1944, 1950s) – running east from the northern end of the Farm Complex up to the Basil Stafford Centre and connecting with the northern point of Wolston Park Road, following an early track here by 1944.

Central Administration, Services, and Staff Residences Area

The Central Administration, Services, and Staff Residences Area comprises buildings and associated landscape features relating to the core support and logistical functions of the complex, grouped around the northern end of Ellerton Drive and the southern end of Wolston Park Road, and bounded by Hogg Lane to the north.

The features of the Central Administration, Services, and Staff Residences Area of state-level cultural heritage significance include:

• Layout of buildings and landscapes, views
• Visitors’ Garden (c1912) and Visitor’s Pavilion (1920)
• Administration Building (1917)
• Hospital (1917)
• Chapel (1961)
• Medical Superintendent’s Residence and Garden (1898)
• Assistant Medical Superintendent’s Residence and Garden (1912)
• Reservoir and Pump Houses (1914)
• Recreation Hall (1890, extended c1914, remodelled c1972)
• Laundry (1918)
• Powerhouse (1917)
• Morgue (1902, extended 1949)

Layout of Buildings and Landscapes

The buildings and landscapes of the Central Administration, Services, and Staff Residences Area are generally laid out in groups according to function, with reception buildings and landscapes (Visitors’ Garden, Administration, Hospital) at the centre, private functions (Chapel, staff residences) to the east, and key services buildings (Laundry, Powerhouse) to the west. The Recreation Hall (originally a sewing room for female patients during the day) stands to the far west of the area, close to the Female Patients Area. The Morgue stands at a distance from other buildings to the northwest, near the bushland fringe of the area. The Pump Houses and Reservoir stand to the southwest of the area, downhill toward the dams of the Female Patients Recreation Area.   

A large section of the central area (between the administration and staff residences) has been redeveloped over time with many new buildings added, which are not of state-level cultural heritage significance. Some of these are within early gardens (Visitors’ Garden, staff residences gardens), which has obscured the garden extent but some early trees and landscape structures (paths, underground well, stairs) are retained amidst the new buildings. 

Visitors’ Garden (c1912) and Visitor’s Pavilion (1920)

The Visitors’ Garden (c1912) is at the front (south end) of the Central Administration Area, highly visible from the Ellerton Drive approach. Originally operating as a fenced but attractive meeting space between patients and visitors, it acts as the foreground setting for the main buildings of the area. The Visitors’ Pavilion (1920) is highly intact and stands centrally in the garden at the end of Wolston Park Road. The garden terrain gently slopes to the south and its original extent (a semicircle shape defined by curving Ellerton Drive/Cricket Lane on its northern side) has been obscured by its eastern half being progressively built over since c1955, however, some mature trees and open spaces are retained amongst the buildings.

Features of the Visitors’ Garden and Visitor’s Pavilion of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• semi-circular garden extent defined by curving Ellerton Drive/Cricket Lane at the north and by the straight avenue of palms at the south (including eastern half of garden built over with later buildings)
• open views within the garden to other areas of the garden and the surrounding buildings and south to the Gailes Golf Club course and distant mountains beyond
• short masonry landscape stair at western edge of garden
• open grassed areas dotted with mature trees including avenue of cocos palms, figs (Ficus spp.), jacarandas (Jacaranda mimosifolia), camphor laurels, silky oaks, hoop and bunya pines, and eucalyptus (Eucalyptus spp.) and mature trees in eastern half of garden amongst later buildings
• central north-south dividing path alignment, originally a pedestrian path (later converted to a vehicle road, which is not of state-level cultural heritage significance)
• Visitors’ Pavilion – a small, low-set enclosed gazebo-like structure with a hexagonal floor plan and accommodating a single room; timber-framed construction clad with weatherboards; ventilated battened eaves; six-sided pyramid roof clad with corrugated metal sheets and a large timber finial; timber front stair and small projecting entrance porch with gable roof; simple timber joinery including lattice, balustrade, mouldings, French doors, casement windows, v-jointed board (VJ) lining to interior walls and ceiling, and perimeter bench seat; original brass door and window hardware.

Administration Building (1917)

The Administration Building (1917) stands at the centre of the Central Administration Area. Purpose-built as the medical offices building of the hospital with a small residence on the first floor, in 2020 it is used as administration offices and is highly intact. It faces east onto the turnaround driveway off Ellerton Drive. A considerable collection of hospital complex-related paraphernalia is housed in cabinets in the medical superintendent’s office of the ground floor.

Features of the Administration Building of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• form, scale, and materials: low-set, symmetrical, narrow, two-storey brick building with a prominent hip roof clad with terracotta tiles, tall central ventilation fleche, and brick chimneys; face brick walls with roughcast render above sill height and concrete dressings; front porte-cochere with first floor open balcony at main entrance, adjacent to the driveway; rear (west) ground floor verandah with concrete floor, brick and timber piers, and VJ-lined ceiling; small curved porches at either end of the building forming secondary entrances; ventilated battened eaves; metal watergoods including decorative rainheads; roof mounted air siren; timber floors, plaster masonry partitions, sheet-and-batten-lined ceilings
• layout: wide central stair hall running from front to back in a series of vestibules including a ‘hall porter’s vestibule’, intersecting with a transverse central hall accessing offices either side; ground floor includes a former surgery theatre, clerks office with saferoom, and dispensary; first floor includes the former two-bedroom residence
• joinery: multi-paned doors, fanlights, and windows; moulded architraves, skirting boards, picture rails, and cornices; clear-finished hall porter’s office, wall panels, and main stair; wall-mounted WWI Honour Board (1916, originally hung in Hospital) and bench seat in entry vestibule; clear-finished display cabinets in former medical superintendent’s office and their hospital complex-related paraphernalia
• original brass door and window hardware
• saferoom and its heavy safe door and metal window shutters
• cement rendered garden stair at south end of building.

Hospital (1917)

The Hospital (1917) stands to the north of the Administration Building and faces south the vehicle driveway. Purpose-built as a hospital ward for males and females, in 2020 it is used as administration offices and is highly intact.

Features of the Hospital of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• form, scale, and materials: low-set, symmetrical, boomerang-shaped, one-storey brick building with a prominent hip roof clad with terracotta tiles, tall central ventilation fleche, and roughcast chimneys; face brick walls with concrete dressings; front (southern) verandah with concrete floor, roughcast balustrade, brick and timber posts, and VJ-lined ceiling; projecting central entrance bay with roughcast walls and gable roof; projections from the rear (north) include a central octagonal room (operating theatre) and rectangular blocks at either end (ablutions); ventilated battened eaves; metal watergoods; timber floors, plaster masonry partitions, sheet-and-batten-lined ceilings
• layout: symmetrical (females to one wing and males to the other); large entrance hall surrounded by administration rooms, intersecting with a long transverse hall down each wing providing access to rooms on either side; includes former dormitory wards, nurses’ bedrooms, and verandah dormitories (later glazed-in) at either end of the verandahs, and central operating theatre and adjacent sterilizing room and ‘electrical treatment’ room; communal bathroom blocks
• well-considered and variable ventilation of rooms including small windows above verandah roof and below eaves into wards, high- and low-level windows of operating theatre, large sliding windows of verandah dormitories
• joinery: multi-paned doors, fanlights, and windows; picture rails; clear-finished hall porter’s office, wall panels, and main stair; wall-mounted WWI Honour Board (1916, originally hung in Hospital) and bench seat in entry vestibule; clear-finished display cabinets in former medical superintendent’s office; large bench seat in entrance hall
• details for high levels of hygiene including: rounded corners (especially in operating theatre), elimination of dust-catching joinery – use of scribed skirting
• details for patient treatment including: observation windows,
• original brass door and window hardware
• early etched pattern glass in windows.

Chapel of Hope (1961)

The eastern end of Cricket Drive is the Chapel of Hope (1961). Built as a christian chapel for patients, it is the sole survivor of three similar chapels of different christian faiths erected side by side (Chapel of Hope was the westernmost chapel). In 2020 it is used as for offices and it has had its exterior cladding replaced. The building has been semi-integrated with a new building built on its western side.

The interior was not inspected.

A statue of Saint Dymphna (catholic patron saint of people with mental illness) stands approximately 35 metres to the east of the chapel, its corresponding chapel having been demolished.

Features of the Chapel of Hope of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• form, scale, materials: portal-frame structure with low-pitched gable roof and wide eaves; tall, metal, open-frame tower on eastern side of its front (north) elevation
• statue of St Dymphna.

Medical Superintendent’s Residence and Garden (1898)

The Medical Superintendent’s Residence (1898) stands near the eastern edge of the Central Administration and Services Area. Built as the substantial residence for the medical superintendent and his family, it is highly intact and in 2020 the rooms accommodate offices with little alteration to the original fabric. It has been incorporated into a fenced high-security area and its open garden setting is retained. The house faces southeastwards down the sloping terrain across Gailes Golf Course out to the surrounding landscape and distant mountains. The northern verandah has been enclosed with weatherboards and timber casement windows, an early alteration in c1912. The original terracotta roof cladding has been replaced with corrugated metal sheets which are not of state-level cultural heritage significance.

Two small freestanding brick outbuildings are retained to the house’s rear (north) – a former garage (coach house) and a smaller, square building (smokehouse).

Features of the Medical Superintendent’s Residence and Garden of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• form, scale, and materials including: single-storey substantial low-set brick residence on sandstone foundation; asymmetrical plan form with projecting octagonal bay windows and verandah wrapping front and sides; two wings extending from rear to form U-shaped building around rear courtyard; complex hipped roof form continuous over verandahs; face brick walls and chimneys, stone thresholds, rendered dressings, terracotta chimney caps; timber-framed floors, roof, and verandahs including timber verandah balustrades, board floors, ceilings, posts, and fretwork brackets; rendered masonry front stair; timber batten ventilated eaves; timber-framed window hoods with latticed cheeks; plastered masonry internal partitions; beaded board-lined ceilings
• high quality timber joinery throughout the interior including: board floors; multi-pane windows with coloured glass; moulded skirting boards, plate rails, architraves, and cornices; board-lined ceilings, coffering in hall and dining room; pressed tin wall lining in dining room fire nook
• fireplaces (marble, timber, tiles surrounds)
• enclosure of northern verandah (c1912)
• original and early brass door, fanlight, and window hardware
• spacious open garden setting with mature trees including jacaranda, fig, Indian siris, mango (Mangerifa indica), and hoop and bunya pine trees; former driveway approach from the northwest, encircling the house, turning circle in front of house, and accessing the coach house at rear (drive is grown over with grass in 2020)
• expansive vista from front of house and the garden to east and southeast to Gailes Golf Course and mountains beyond
• former coach house and smoke house and their original timber doors and windows, metal louvres of smoke house.

Assistant Medical Superintendent’s Residence and Garden (1912)

The Assistant Medical Superintendent Residence (1912) stands west of the Medical Superintendent's Residence. This former family house built for the assistant medical superintendent is highly intact and in 2020 the rooms accommodate offices with little alteration to the original fabric. It retains its original open garden setting with former tennis court terrace. The house faces south down the sloping terrain across Gailes Golf Course out to the surrounding landscape and distant mountains.

Features of the Assistant Medical Superintendent’s Residence and Garden of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• form, scale, and materials including: single-storey low-set timber-framed and -clad residence; asymmetrical plan form with projecting hexagonal bay window (dining room, added c1938) and verandah wrapping front and sides; broad rear dining verandah (excluding later enclosures); hipped roof form continuous over verandahs; face brick chimneys; verandahs including timber balustrades, board floors, ceilings, posts, and stairs; single-skin internal partitions; VJ wall and ceiling linings
• timber joinery including: moulded architraves, picture rails, panelled doors, fretwork fanlights, multi-paned windows, window seats (dining room)
• pressed tin ceilings
• original and early brass door, fanlight, and window hardware
• spacious open garden setting with mature trees including cocos palms and dense screening trees on the west side; former driveway approach from the north; terraced grounds to the south (location of former tennis court); rendered masonry garden stairs including concrete lion statues
• expansive vista from front of house and the garden to the south to Gailes Golf Course and mountains beyond. 

Well

The Well is located approximately 140m east of the Administration Building and is highly intact. Constructed of brick and sandstone, the underground dome well has a narrow circular opening at ground level and is approximately 6m in diameter at depth. The well is concealed by a concrete slab and metal access panel, which are not of state-level cultural heritage significance.

Features of the Well of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• form, scale, and materials: circular-shaped underground dome form; narrow circular dressed sandstone opening at ground level; interior brick walls with evidence of white-wash finish
• terracotta pipes feeding into / out of well interior.

Reservoir and Pump Houses (1914)

The Reservoir and Pump Houses (1914) are highly intact and stand on sloping ground to the east of Ellerton Drive. There are two timber pump houses, a water reservoir to their immediate southwest, and associated remnant pipe and pump infrastructure. Built to facilitate the distribution of mains water throughout the site, they pumped water to the elevated water tower (demolished c2000) that stood in the grounds of the former residences to the east.

Features of the Reservoir of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• form, scale, and materials: circular in-ground rendered brick reservoir, with a banked earth surround and a low curved perimeter retaining wall; octagonal-shaped single-storey enclosure, with cast iron columns supporting an open, lattice-framed perimeter truss, timber-framed and corrugated metal-clad roof with finial, and metal-framed and corrugated metal-clad walls
• metal ladder accessing interior.

Features of the Pump Houses of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• form, scale, and materials: single-storey, symmetrically-composed, timber-framed and -clad structures; Dutch-gable (larger) and gable (smaller) roofs clad with corrugated metal sheets; concrete floors
• timber joinery: (larger) vented semi-circular openings above its front door (west) and multi-pane casement windows, wide door opening to rear (east) with sliding double door, coved timber-boarded ceiling; (smaller) centred boarded doors centred on its long sides flanked by multi-pane casement windows, small end windows with decorative metal hoods
• early pumping machinery, partly recessed into concrete floor of larger pump house
• original and early metal (cast iron) water pipes, concrete supports and brick-lined connection pits
• early electrical fixtures
• low timber wall retaining wall on the north and west sides of the larger pump house.

Recreation Hall (1890, extended c1914, remodelled c1972)

The Recreation Hall stands on the western side of the Central Administration and Services Area and was built as a patients ‘workroom’ with dining room. It retains an 1890 brick core (hall), south extension (c1914, stage), and north extension (c1914, toilets). Its side verandahs have been replaced with enclosed function rooms and entrances (c1972). An acoustic ceiling has been installed in the hall, which is not of state-level cultural heritage significance. In 2020 it is used as a hall and is highly intact.

Features of the Recreation Hall of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• form, scale, materials: symmetrical, rectangular, face brick building with gable roof; partial undercroft level; contrasting brick quoins of walls; timber floor; coved ceiling lined with beaded boards, exposed roof trusses; bracketed eaves;
• layout: central hall (1890); raised stage (c1914) at south end; southern flanking vestibules and dressing rooms (separate male and female entrances and rooms, c1914, including their c1972 internal fitouts); side extensions (c1972) with entrances, function and reception rooms, and toilets at the northern end, including their internal fitouts with tiled walls and terrazzo partitions
• south elevation rose window with tracery and coloured glass (probably 1890 fabric reused);
• secondary entrances on either side of the south elevation leading into the small wings of the stage area (c1914)
• proscenium arch (pressed tin), stage gallery and ladder, and curtain/backdrop levers and mechanisms (c1914)
• projection room at northern end of hall (c1972)
• original (relative to the date of extension) doors and windows including timber-framed and aluminium-framed doors and windows
• early piano.

Laundry (1918)

The Laundry (1918) stands to the east of the Recreation Hall. It was built as a communal laundry for the hospital and is highly intact. The building’s original layout was highly-functional, with a loading dock on its western side with double doors into the laundry interior. The large open volume of the interior was originally divided by part-height partitions into large sections, with dirty laundry entering the building from the north end of the loading dock, progressively moving south though the building during the laundering process, and finishing at the southern end of the loading dock for redistribution. A lean-to awning has been added over the loading dock and the large internal volume has had new part-height partitions installed, changes that are not of state-level cultural heritage significance. In 2020 it is used as offices and a canteen. Some hospital complex-related paraphernalia is stored in one office in the building.

Features of the Laundry of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• form, scale, materials: large one-storey brick building on concrete foundations with concrete floor; four large gable roofs, each with two raised vented roof lanterns lighting the large, lofty interior spaces; ventilated battened eaves; face brick exterior walls (plinth) with roughcast render above; small lean-to toilet block on western side (addition, 1947); rendered brick internal walls and concrete pillars supporting the roof; timber roof trusses exposed to interior; large southern windows with arched heads and smaller side windows highlighted with contrasting brick surrounds and accentuated keystones
• layout: elevated loading dock on western side, large interior volume with part-height partitions (unclear if original partitions survive)
• joinery: multipaned windows (including in roof lanterns) and glazed French doors
• leadlight window depicting St Dymphna (installed in Laundry c2007) removed from the hospital’s demolished catholic chapel
• hospital complex-related paraphernalia stored in the building including: straitjacket; gurney; medical implements; gramophone and records; sewing machines; and restraint chair.

Powerhouse (1917)

The Powerhouse (1917) stands to the north of the Laundry. It was built as a coal-fired powerhouse for the hospital complex and is highly intact. The building is in two parts – a large double-height boiler room, and an adjacent single-storey engine room, the floor of which is at the level of an upper gallery of the boiler room. The building includes an open ‘coal bunker’ on the southern side of the boiler room, a later lean-to coal bunker on the western side, and a tall freestanding brick chimney to the north. In 2020 the boiler room is vacant, retains its boilers, and is used as a store for a considerable amount of hospital paraphernalia. The engine room has had partitions installed and is used as offices and contains a small hospital museum.

Features of the Powerhouse of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• form, scale, materials: large split-level brick building in two parts on concrete foundations with concrete floors; face brick exterior walls; two large gable roofs clad with corrugated metal sheets; long roof lanterns and circular louvred vents in gable walls venting the large interior spaces; concrete coal bunker on southern side with large arched openings into boiler room (including post-1957 extension southwards); brick and concrete coal bunker (c1957) on southern side with openings into boiler room; face brick internal walls; metal roof trusses exposed to interiors
• boiler room:
  • two face brick and metal-framed Babcock and Wilcox tube boilers including all components such as fire doors, metal access ladders, galleries, railings, steam and water tanks, coal hoppers, conveyors, and waste/ash pits
  • timber boarded doors between coal bunkers and boiler room
  • single toilet (for boilermen) of single-skin partitions and a boarded door
• engine room:
  • black and red encaustic floor tiles
  • glazed bricks in white and green up to shoulder height
• chimney
• joinery: large arched windows of pivoting sashes; multi-paned fanlights; boarded doors; VJ-lined ceilings
• brass door and window hardware
• hospital complex-related paraphernalia of boiler room and engine room including: doors and windows removed from other buildings; sandstone font, large crucifix, vestments cabinet, and organ removed from demolished catholic chapel; human skeleton and its glass case; sewing machines; early timber cabinets (some matching those of the Administration Building); and sport trophies and plaques.

Morgue (1902, extended 1949)

The Morgue (1902, extended 1949) stands to the northwest of the Powerhouse. Purpose-built as a morgue (1902) for the hospital, and extended and remodelled (1949) to increase capacity and incorporate refrigeration, it retains its functional mortuary layout and fixtures. In 2020 the building is vacant and is highly intact.

Features of the Morgue of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• form, scale and materials: small, one-storey brick building on brick foundations with concrete floor; main morgue building with Dutch-gable roof, roof fleche (off-centre location reflecting extended building form) and vented gablets; brick garage with skillion roof attached to southwest end; flat-sheeted lean-to with skillion roof attached to northwest side; roofs clad in corrugated metal; timber boarded eaves; metal watergoods; face brick exterior walls; exterior openings with concrete lintels and sills; painted brick interior walls
• layout: main morgue building containing waiting and viewing rooms at its southwest end, central coffin store and refrigerator room with loading area, and its autopsy, scrub and change rooms at its northeast end; three separate entrances along the front (southeast) side access the garage, waiting room and coffin store loading area, with stairs and a side entrance to the change room
• joinery: original slimline corrugated metal ceilings (1902); early sheet-and-batten-lined ceilings (1949) with moulded cornices; timber boarded exterior doors; wide interior doorways; low-waisted (original) and high-waisted (extended and remodelled areas) interior doors
• details associated with light and ventilation: ceiling vents, decorative roof fleche and vented gablets; large openings on northeast and southeast sides, with adjustable glass louvres; fly screens to vent, door and window openings
• details associated with room functions:
  • waiting room: exterior entrance (widened 1949) comprising part-glazed single door, with glass louvre fanlight and sidelights; early light fitting with glass shade
  • viewing room: wide interior doorways accessing waiting and coffin storage rooms
  • coffin store and refrigerator: exterior entrance with double door; refrigerated body store with brick walls, insulated metal doors, and interior metal trays on rollers; open-fronted coffin store above with timber-framed and -battened shelves; wide interior doorways accessing autopsy and viewing rooms
  • autopsy room: tiled wall finish; early electrical fittings; double-door opening to loading room with louvred fanlight; concrete floor with perimeter drain; free-standing metal autopsy table with sink and drainage channels
  • scrub-up room, change room and toilet: exterior entrance to change room with outer boarded door and inner screen door; timber storage cupboards, metal sink in scrub-up room
  • garage: exterior entrance with arched head and double doors; hospital gurney stored in garage
• open concrete parking area and path; brick and concrete stairs with metal balustrade at northeast end.

Female Patients Area

The Female Patients Area comprises a collection of highly-intact 19th and early 20th century patient buildings, located to the west of the Central Administration, Services, and Staff Residences Area, on high ground overlooking the Brisbane River.

The features of the Female Patients Area of state-level significance include:

• Layout of buildings and landscapes, views
• Female Wards 1 & 2 (1866 and additions and modifications in c1868, 1870, 1875, 1905, 1906, 1923, 1937, and 1951)
• Shelter Shed for Female Patients (by 1944)
• Garage (by 1944)
• Anderson House (1917)
• Residence (1890s-1910s, relocated c1958, c2000)
• Bostock House (1885, extended 1901, c1924)
• Dawson House (1944)
• Female Bathroom Block (1902)

Layout of Buildings and Landscapes, Views

The buildings are set amongst open lawn areas and semi-formal gardens, and informally arranged in a U-shape around an open rise that was the site of other former ward buildings (former layout evidenced by remnant concrete paths and platforms). They are approached from the south via tree-lined Ellerton Drive, from which the substantial Female Wards 1 & 2 is visually prominent across an area of open terraces that mark the sites of the former night nurses quarters and early doctors residences. Other surviving early ward buildings fronting Ellerton Drive are relatively domestic in scale and have front gardens with open lawns and mature trees. The area is uninterrupted by later development or infill.

The views of state-level cultural heritage significance include:

• from Ellerton Drive uphill to the prominently-sited Female Ward 1 & 2, across the open terraces
• from Ellerton Drive to the early ward buildings, Bostock House and Anderson House, across their front gardens
• panoramic views from the Female Wards 1 & 2 and its immediate surrounds, and from the open rise with perimeter path to the north, across the riverbank bushland, Brisbane River and beyond, spanning an arc from the southwest to the north
• visual connection between the female patient buildings, across the open rise that was the site of other former ward buildings.

Female Wards 1 & 2 (1866 and additions and modifications in c1868, 1870, 1875, 1905, 1906, 1923, 1937, and 1951)

Female Wards 1 & 2 is a highly-intact large building of different construction phases standing on a slope near the top of a ridge toward the southern end of the Female Patients Area. Its surrounding land falls steeply away to the west down to the Brisbane River and gently down to the south, which was its former fenced yard. This affords the building visual prominence from Ellerton Drive and extensive panoramic views out to the Brisbane River and surrounds from the southwest to north. Originally built (but never used) as a ward for fee-paying patients, the building has been extended and adapted for use as a general ward for female patients. In 2020 it is vacant and its interior has been stripped of floor boards, some floor structure, fixtures, ceilings, and fittings. The building has a complex layering of significant fabric from different periods of construction, and significant alterations of earlier fabric.

Features of the Female Wards 1 & 2 of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• setting: surrounding open lawns allowing views to and from the building and ample access to natural light and ventilation of the interiors
• scale: two-storey and partial three-storey via enclosures to understorey
• form, materials, and evidence of extensions in fabric –  sandstone and face brick building comprising:
  • core: two-storey symmetrical long narrow sandstone wing (ground floor 1866-8, first floor 1906) with central front entrance on northern side, ground floor verandahs on its southern side (1866-8) with later lantern roofs and enclosures, and hipped roofs (1906); projecting from the centre of the south elevation is a wide, two-storey sandstone and face brick bay (ground floor 1866-8, first floor 1875) with a pediment-like gable and hip roof (1875) featuring a round sandstone oculus
  • western wing extension: two-storey sandstone (ground floor 1905, first floor 1906), extending this wing’s hip roof and making it asymmetrical
  • bathhouse pavilions: symmetrically flanking the central bay on the south side are one-storey face brick pavilions (communal bathhouses, 1923) with hipped roofs with raised roof lanterns; these are elevated from the sloping terrain on concrete piers to be at ground floor level and have face brick enclosures of the understorey (1923 west pavilion, c1951 east pavilion) for boiler rooms 
  • wide two-storey timber verandahs (1937, replacing earlier verandahs in these locations): south face of the central bay; north elevation; and returning along east and west elevations; including face brick understorey piers, arched timber valance and timber posts at ground level, timber shutters at first floor level, sections at the west and east ends enclosed with weatherboards (ground and first floors, c1951); and skillion roofs
  • symmetrical three-storey face brick extensions (ablutions, 1951) at east and west end of the building with small roof lanterns
• original and early partitions and layout (pre-1952) and interior cast iron columns
• timber-framed floors and roofs, concrete floors in bathhouse pavilions, terrazzo floors in ablutions blocks
• measures for abundant natural light and ventilation of the interiors including: operable windows; ventilated eaves; metal roof ridge ventilators
• original and early joinery (pre-1952) including: narrow, multi-paned windows (vertical pivot, double-hung, awning, fixed); panelled and glazed doors; multi-paned fanlights
• measures for security and confinement of patients including: metal window grilles, metal verandah mesh panels
• rendered brick and face brick chimneys
• corrugated metal sheet roof cladding.

Shelter Shed for Female Patients (by 1944)

The Shelter Shed for Female Patients (by 1944) stands to the rear (southwest) of Female Wards 1 & 2 with an open space between the two buildings. The shed formed part of the perimeter fence of the ward building’s rear yard and although the fence has been demolished the shed retains one attached fence post and bears marks of the fence. Highly intact, the shed is open on one side facing the Female Wards 1 & 2 and has a fireplace.

Features of the Shelter Shed of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• form, scale, and materials: small, one-storey, slab-on-ground, gable roofed structure; concrete floor; face brick walls, fireplace, and chimney; timber post; timber-framed gable roof clad with corrugated metal sheets
• surrounding concrete apron and rear concreted brick spoon drain
• evidence of yard fence – bolt marks in western wall and attached timber fence post of eastern wall.

Garage (by 1944)

The Garage (by 1944) is a highly-intact, small, freestanding single-car garage building located east of, and facing toward, the Shelter Shed for Female Patients.

Features of the Garage of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• structure and materials: concrete slab floor; timber-framed walls and gable roof; corrugated metal sheets cladding walls and roof; sheet-and-batten gable infill; timber-framed and boarded garage doors; timber-framed rear window; unlined interior walls and roof
• large slate stone slabs in ground outside garage doors.

Anderson House and Garden (1917)

Anderson House (1917, former Female Patient Admission Ward) is highly intact and stands northeast of Female Wards 1 & 2, facing Ellerton Drive. Purpose-built as an admissions ward for female patients, the building is domestic in scale and set amongst semi-formal gardens, reflecting its original purpose and the principles of moral treatment. Positioned on a rise, the building is accessed from the south via stairs. In 2020 the building accommodates offices with minimal alterations to the original fabric.

Features of Anderson House of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• main entrance stairs: render capped brick walls; decorative metal balustrade; concrete steps
• form, scale, and materials: symmetrical, U-shaped, one-storey brick building with a prominent hip roof clad with terracotta tiles, tall central ventilation fleche; front and rear verandahs with skillion roofs clad in corrugated metal, timber boarded ceilings, concrete floors, timber posts, and arched valance (front only); kitchen and boiler wing attached to rear verandah, with hip roof and roughcast chimney; face brick walls with concrete dressings; two bay windows fronting central wing; small timber-frames porches fronting the end wings; ventilated battened eaves; metal watergoods; timber floors throughout, with concrete floors in bathroom areas; plaster masonry partitions
• layout: central wing comprising sitting room and dining room; end wings accommodating single patient, attendant and store rooms (northeast) and large patient dormitory (southwest), with bathrooms at the northwest ends; visitors room with toilets fronting southwest wing
• joinery: timber-framed multi-paned doors, fanlights, and windows; decorative pressed metal ceilings with moulded cornices and picture rails in visitors, sitting and dining rooms; sheet-and-batten-lined ceilings in dormitories and patients rooms
• details associated with light and ventilation: roof lantern with operable windows over northeast wing; tall, narrow sliding windows, with operable fanlights; small operable windows above verandah roof, with metal winding mechanism
• details associated with patient management (security, safety, hygiene, moral treatment): rounded corners to walls; observation panes in doors to patient rooms; multi-pane observation window between sitting room and dormitory; decorative metal window security grilles to patients rooms
• spacious open garden setting: sloping open front lawn with mature poinciana; open lawn and line of mature palms on northeast side.

Residence (1890s-1910s, relocated c1958, c2000)

The Residence (1890s-1910s) is a small timber-framed and -clad house standing south of Anderson House. Originally built as a residence, it has been relocated twice within the complex (in c1958 it was removed from west of McDonnell House to north of the Medical Superintendent’s Residence, and from there in c2000 to its current location). Fabric relating to and after its c1958 move, including its location and setting, fence and yard, verandah enclosures above handrail height and front balustrade, kitchen and bathroom fitouts, and stumps, are not of state-level cultural heritage significance. In 2020 it is vacant and highly intact.

Features of the Residence of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• form, scale, and materials: single-storey, elevated house; hip-roofed core with gable-roofed projecting front room; short rear service wing with hip roof; concave front verandah; wrapping skillion-roofed side and rear verandah (including projecting eaves and early weatherboard enclosure below handrail height); single-skin core with cross bracing where protected by verandah, weatherboard-clad where not; chamferboard cladding of front room; corrugated metal sheet roof cladding; timber floors; single-skin partitions clad with VJ boards; VJ ceilings
• layout: short central front hallway with a room either side leading to a rear living room and third bedroom, and a rear door to the verandah of the rear wing with kitchen and bathroom 
• joinery: panelled internal doors and fanlights (later closed over), glazed French doors to verandahs and glazed fanlights, boarded rear door to service wing, double-hung windows; board verandah valance and chamfered verandah posts (bearing notches of original balustrade)
• early door and windows hardware (brass  bolts, handles and catches, rim locks)
• sheet metal ogee window hoods
• metal watergoods.

Bostock House and Garden (1885, extended 1901, c1924)

Bostock House (1885, former Female Ward 6) stands to the north of Anderson House, set back from and facing Ellerton Drive. Purpose-built as a female ward building, it comprises its original symmetrical core, northeast extension (1901), southwest extension (1901, 1924, lavatory), and northwest verandah extension (c1924, later enclosed). The building retains its open, semi-formal garden setting. In 2020 the building accommodates offices and is highly intact. Fire stair added (c1969) to the rear verandah and over the front verandah (since removed) are not of state-level cultural heritage significance.

Features of Bostock House also of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• form, scale, and materials: original two-storey core with a hip roof, projecting bay to front with gable roof, one-storey projecting faceted bay to northeast (southwest bay demolished c1924), front verandahs with stop-chamfered timber posts and skillion roofs; one-storey extension to northeast (1901) with hipped roof; one-storey extensions to southwest with skillion (1901) and hip (c1924) roofs – both with lanterns; two-storey timber-framed verandah extension (c1924, later enclosed) to northwest with skillion roof; roofs clad in corrugated metal; metal watergoods; polychrome face brick walls with sandstone foundations; moulded concrete lintels and sills; timber floors throughout, with concrete floors in extensions and ground floor verandahs; plaster masonry partitions
• layout: core comprising similar ground and first floor plans, with large open rooms along the southeast side (ground floor - day room and dormitory; first floor – dormitory); and individual patients rooms along the northwest side flanking a central stairwell. The ground floor entry has wide arched opening into the day room. Cast iron columns and a metal beam on the first floor indicate the original location of the dormitory / hallway wall (removed c1924).  The northeast extension contains a kitchen, and the southwest wing contains a storeroom and toilets
• details / ornamentation: polychrome brickwork with contrasting string courses (some in stone), frieze and quoins around openings; corbelled brick eaves brackets; louvred oculus; stop-chamfered timber posts to front verandahs
• joinery: original and early timber-framed multi-paned windows; early metal-framed windows awning windows with obscured glass (replaced c1950s); original and early timber panelled and glazed doors, some with fanlights; timber-framed multi-pane glazed partition between day room and dormitory, with obscured glass on lower windows; timber board linings to verandah and bathroom ceilings; early timber toilet partitions
• details associated with patient management (security, safety, hygiene): patients room doors with observation panes and fanlights
• stairwell location and configuration (recent timber stair fabric is not of state-level cultural heritage significance)
• garden setting: spacious open lawns around building, front lawn with mature fig; two mature cypress pines (callitris spp.) to the southwest; garden beds with stone edging; early concrete paths.

Dawson House (1944)

Dawson House (1944, former Female Patient Acute Ward) is a substantial two-storey building with basement, built into the steep slope at the northern end of the Female Patients Area. Purpose-built as an acute ward for female patients, the building in its design and layout reflects the principles of Mental Hygiene. In 2020 it is used as a mental health training and research centre and is highly intact. The building has its main front (south) entrance at ground floor and rear (north) entrance at basement level, and retains its open semi-formal garden setting. Later additions and alterations including stair wells (1965) at the northern ends of the wings, air-conditioning plant and ducting, non-original interior partitions enclosing and dividing former open spaces, and fire doors, are not of state-level cultural heritage significance.

Features of Dawson House of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• form, scale, and materials: large, symmetrical, H-shaped, two-storey brick building with basement, with a hip roof clad with corrugated metal; face brick walls with concrete dressings, with rendered basement level scribed with horizontal lines; stepped brick central bay surrounding main entrance at ground floor; flat-roofed stair and lift towers at the junctions of the middle and end wings, with brick porches forming secondary entrances at ground floor; projecting central bay with decorative surrounds to rear entrance (former open shelter) at basement level; metal watergoods; concrete floors; plaster masonry partitions, sheet-and-batten-lined ceilings
• layout: central transverse passage along the middle wing of all levels, with enclosed stair wells at both ends (the east well containing a lift); ground floor accommodated a main entrance lobby, doctors and nurses offices and treatment rooms (middle wing), open dormitories, single patients rooms and ablutions (middle and west wings), and communal dining rooms (east wing); first floor accommodated open dormitories, single patients rooms and ablutions; basement accommodated rear entrance open shelter area, offices, stores and toilet areas, large open sewing room (west wing) and communal bathrooms (east wing)
• joinery: multi-paned double-hung sash windows; clear-finished interior joinery including panelled, boarded and multi-paned doors, fanlights and architraves; enclosed stair and lift (east) wells with clear-finished timber panelling and woven metal mesh, and timber handrails
• details associated with patient management (security, safety, hygiene): rounded corners to walls; observation panes in doors to patient rooms; square-grid metal security mesh to fanlights and high-level openings along passage walls; decorative metal window security grilles to patient and communal rooms
• spacious open garden setting: surrounding open lawns, including sloping grounds and terraces on its east and west sides; mature trees, including: poinciana, fig, camphor laurels, and jacarandas; formal front gardens with symmetrically arranged lawns, hedges, and concrete paths.

Female Bathroom Block (1902)

The Female Bathroom Block (1902, also known as Dawson Annexe) stands to the east of Dawson House. Built as a communal women’s bathroom, it was converted for use as a workroom / sewing room for female patients (1935) then as a ward (1955), and in 2020 is used for archive storage.

Features of the Female Bathroom Block also of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• form, scale and materials: rectangular form with ventilated Dutch-gable roof clad in corrugated metal; face brick walls with contrasting arches over windows, rendered base and sandstone sills; concrete floor; plastered interior masonry walls and partition
• evidence of original and early layout including partition nibs and archway (enclosed)
• joinery: timber-framed multi-paned windows, with fanlights
• timber-framed and clad extension to western end, with a skillion roof and ceiling lined with timber boards
• small masonry extension to northeast corner, with a skillion roof and scribed ashlar rendered finish.

Female Patients Recreation Area and Early Asylum Site

The Female Patients Recreation Area and Early Asylum Site is the area of open ground to the southwest of the Female Patient Area, stretching along the Brisbane River and bounded by Woogaroo Creek to the south.

The features of the Female Patients Recreation Area and Early Asylum Site of state-level significance include:

• Layout of Buildings and Landscapes, Views
• Recreation Grounds (1951-5)
• Cafeteria (c1951)
• Change Room and Stores Shed (c1951)
• Packing Shed and Patients Shelter (c1951)
• Early Asylum Site (1865), including former Simpson Residence Site (1843-44)

Layout of Buildings and Landscapes, Views

The Female Patients Recreation Area comprises buildings (a Cafeteria, Bowling Green, and Change Room and Stores Shed) laid out along a curved ridge that forms a natural amphitheatre around former playing fields on the lower terrace at the edge of the Brisbane River. A further building (Packing Shed and Patients Shelter) stands southwest of the others and overlooks the sloping ground to the south that was historically an area for the cultivation of vegetables.

Developed on the site of the former Simpson Residence (1843-44) and the subsequent Early Asylum Site (former Woogaroo Insane Asylum, established 1865, demolished 1890-93 floods) the area now forms part of the Wolston Park Golf Club course (1970s), which contributes to the spacious open grounds and landscape setting of the hospital complex.

The views of state-level cultural heritage significance include:

• visual connection between the Cafeteria and the Female Wards 1 & 2 on the higher ground to the northeast, across the open former playing fields and terraces
• panoramic views from the Cafeteria and from along the ridgeline, spanning northeast to northwest taking in the park-like character of the open former playing fields and the bushland fringe and river
• from the Packing Shed and immediate surrounds, south across the sloping former agricultural areas and towards Woogaroo Creek
• from the early cemetery site (1860s) at the junction of the Brisbane River and Woogaroo Creek, across the river and beyond, from the west to the east – this view illustrates the historical isolation of the early asylum.

Recreation Grounds (1951-5)

Developed as a therapeutic environment for female patients in the 1950s, the park-like character, layout, and spatial setting of the Recreation Grounds is intact and uninterrupted by later development. Mature trees (some possibly dating to the Early Asylum era) are dotted throughout the area and clustered in the vicinity of the Cafeteria and Ellerton Drive. The former tennis court on the ridge, and shelter sheds that stood in an arc around the level former playing fields are no longer extant.

Features of the Recreation Grounds of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• sloped and levelled ground forms, open space, and extent of grounds
• open grassed park-like setting on the ridge and sloping northwest down to the Brisbane River
• gently sloping open space of the former vegetable and agriculture plots, extending south down to Woogaroo Creek
• natural river and creek edges, with bushland fringes
• former bowling green: open space with level lawn area on the ridge to the west of the Change Room and Stores Shed 
• former playing fields: large, levelled grassed area of open space extending from the sloping natural amphitheatre toward the riverbank, with a line of evenly-spaced mature cocos palms along its northwest extent
• mature trees, including: eucalypts, hoop and bunya pines, figs, camphor laurels, jacarandas, poincianas, a very large kauri pine (Agathis robusta) and silky oak on the ridge, and palms
• natural bushland fringe and unfenced edges to creek and river
• open space of Wolston Park Golf Club course (the layout and fabric of the golf course is not of state-level cultural heritage significance).   

Cafeteria (c1951)

The Cafeteria (c1951) is a one-storey slab-on-ground brick building with a hipped roof standing in the centre of the area. It is long and narrow, stretching along the east/west ridgeline and has many windows on its northern side with impressive views across the recreation area’s amphitheatre to the Brisbane River and landscape beyond. Originally built as the communal dining room and kitchen for the patients of the Female Recreation Area, it is highly intact and in 2020 is used as the clubhouse for the Wolston Park Golf Club. Minimal alterations include a freestanding open-sided shelter on the northern side, replacement of its roof cladding from corrugated asbestos sheets to corrugated metal sheets, rearrangement of the ablutions, insertion of folding partitions into the long dining room, and replacement of the folding doors on the northern side of the dining room.

Features of the Cafeteria of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• form and layout: long narrow building with short projecting blocks for ablutions and kitchen; hipped roof; long dining room with views and access out to the north, servery bar and access to the kitchen at south, large fireplace at east, and access through to the ablutions at west
• curvilinear paved terrace on the northern side with brick window flower boxes
• materials: face brick walls and squat chimney; flat sheet-lined eaves; timber floor in dining room; original partitions (timber-framed, flat sheet-lined; flat sheet-lined ceilings with timber battens
• servery bar
• original windows and doors
• immediate landscape surrounds: adjacent lawn areas and row of three mature bookleaf pines (Thuja orientalis) to the southwest.

Change Room and Stores Shed (c1951)

The Change Room and Stores Shed (c1951) is a small, timber-framed and -clad rectangular freestanding one-storey building to the west of the Cafeteria. Built to accommodate a change room for patients and two store rooms to service the surrounding vegetable fields, it is highly intact and in 2020 is used as a storeroom. Its original boarded doors have been removed/replaced and its original roof cladding has been changed from corrugated asbestos sheets to corrugated metal sheets.

Only the former soil store room interior was inspected.

Features of the Change Room and Stores Shed of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• form, scale, and materials: concrete slab-on-ground; timber-framed walls clad with weatherboards; timber-framed hip roof
• unlined interior walls and ceiling of former soil room (northern end)
• timber-framed double hung windows
• original fabric of the interior including partitions, linings, joinery, and fixtures.

Packing Shed and Patients Shelter (c1951) 

The Packing Shed and Patients Shelter (c1951) stands to the southwest of the Cafeteria. It is a freestanding, brick, slab-on-ground building with a cross-shaped floor plan. Originally built to service the surrounding vegetable fields, it is highly intact and in 2020 is used as a store for golf course maintenance. Minimal changes include: removal of two walls from the vegetable storeroom, replacement of its roof cladding from corrugated asbestos sheets to corrugated metal sheets, and addition of a freestanding metal-framed shelter on the southern side.

Only the vegetable store room and packing area interiors were inspected.

Features of the Packing Shed and Patients Shelter of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• form and layout: central open-sided vegetable packing area, adjacent vegetable storeroom to west, farm equipment storeroom to north, staffroom, staff and patient toilets (including urinal in patients toilet) to south, and a servery kitchenette onto to an attached open-sided shelter for patients to east
• materials: concrete floors; face brick walls; flat sheet-lined eaves; timber-framed glass louvred windows
• original fabric of the interior including partitions, linings, joinery, and fixtures.

Early Asylum Site (1865), including former Simpson Residence Site (1843-44)

Prior to the establishment of the Early Asylum Site (former Woogaroo Insane Asylum, established 1865, demolished following the 1890-93 floods), the area was the site of the former Simpson Residence (1843-44), which comprised a house located on the ridge, with stables to its southwest, and a series of dams along a north-south watercourse to its east.

Historical documents indicate the Early Asylum Site was arranged with a cemetery near the confluence of the Brisbane River and Woogaroo Creek; a hospital to its northwest; and a men’s ward and various service buildings, along the central curved ridge where the Cafeteria currently stands and to its south. Initial access was via a wharf on the river to the north, and later a series of bridges (footbridge 1870s, timber road bridge by 1896, stone and timber road bridge 1916) crossed the creek southeast of the men’s ward. A steam saw and nearby cottage were located northeast of the footbridge. The female ward stood on higher ground to the north, with a doctors residence to its immediate south. By 1896, water management and farming infrastructure included a dam along what is now Boyce Road, and a nearby sawmill, stables, and piggery.

Features of the Early Asylum Site and former Simpson Residence Site of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• early dams: a series of three dams along the watercourse that ran roughly north-south and fed into Woogaroo Creek
  • north dam – substantial earth dam forming part of the current Boyce Road alignment, and reservoir
  • central dam / crossing – stone and earth dam / crossing remnants, located along early (1860) former road alignment
  • south dam – earth dam
• stone bridge abutment (1916) – see Ellerton Drive.

Areas where potential archaeological evidence could contribute to a greater understanding of the early layout and operation of the complex, the activities and living conditions of occupants, and associated transport infrastructure include the:

• Simpson Residence site. Potential archaeological evidence in this area includes footings from former buildings, and artefacts associated with the mid-19th century residential occupation of the site.
• asylum cemetery site. Potential archaeological evidence in this area includes interments, stone and metal grave markers, and other artefacts and features associated with asylum burial practices.
• asylum hospital site. Potential archaeological evidence in this area includes footings and postholes from former buildings, and artefacts associated with asylum medical practices.
• asylum men’s ward, female ward, cottage, doctors residence and associated building sites. Potential archaeological evidence in this area includes footings and postholes from former buildings, and artefacts associated with the occupation of the early asylum site.
• asylum sawmill, stables and piggery site. Potential archaeological evidence in this area includes footings and postholes from former buildings, and artefacts associated with asylum farming practices.
• wharf site and bridge sites. Potential archaeological evidence in this area includes stone and timber abutments and piers.

Male Patients Area

The Male Patients Area is highly intact and comprises patient buildings arranged in an L-shape along the inside of two intersecting straight roads (Hogg Lane and Barrett Road) around two sides of a large Recreation Grounds.

The features of the Male Patients Area of state-level cultural heritage significance include:

• Layout of Buildings and Landscapes, Views
• Recreation Grounds (by 1895)
• Fleming House (1898, extended c1917)
• Gladstone House, Jenner House, and Kelsey House (all 1936)
• Men’s Bathroom Block (1902)
• Lewis House, McDonnell House, and Noble House (all 1915)
• Osler House (1928), Pearce House (1934)
• Cemetery Site (1895-1912)

Layout of Buildings and Landscapes, Views

The buildings are laid out in an evenly-spaced, ordered manner along a high curving ridge with clear open spaces around and between them. They have a service access road (Hogg Lane and Barrett Road, formerly highly-secured by fences) on one side. On the other side is the Recreation Grounds, which the buildings look out over and patients were allowed controlled access. The grounds have been contrived to provide a calm outlook from the buildings and achieve security and supervision of patients.

The buildings are visually striking individually and as a group of similarly-scale structures in a formal, consistent arrangement standing in a planned landscape, which heightens their strong institutional character. The area is uninterrupted by later development or infill and is especially evocative when viewed from the Recreation Grounds.

The views of state-level cultural heritage significance include:

• from the buildings and their immediate yards out across the manicured Recreation Grounds and beyond to a fringe of bushland growing in the Gailes Golf Club
• panorama from the Recreation Grounds to the buildings, particularly from the cricket pavilion.

Recreation Grounds (by 1895)

The Recreation Grounds of the Male Patients Area is the open area of ground historically accessible to patients and used for therapeutic recreation and an area for agriculture tended by patients. It comprises a large cricket oval at the southern end, an open grassed space at the northern end (former small agriculture area), ringed by a wide open lawn dotted with mature ornamental trees. The grounds are highly intact and not compromised by later development. The extensive and elaborate security fences between the patients wards and the Recreation Grounds have been demolished and a bitumen road has been added between the buildings and the cricket oval, connecting to Barrett Road.

Features of the Recreation Grounds of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• terraced and sloped ground forms, open space, and extent of grounds
• open grassed landscape buffer, gently sloping/terraced down from buildings to the fields dotted with mature trees
• mature trees including: figs, camphor laurels, jacarandas, poincianas, palms including cocos palms, and mangoes
• cricket oval (1895, now known as the Eddie Gilbert Memorial Oval) – a large grassed oval with simple, sloped embankment edge
• cricket pavilion (1910) – a small, highly-intact timber-framed and -clad building with a peaked, corrugated metal sheet-clad roof. It comprises a single octagonal room surrounded by a verandah with turned posts, dowel balustrade, and decorative timber brackets. The walls are single-skin, exposed externally, with chamferboards and diagonal bracing. The roof has decorative finials and a small gable is located above the short entry stair. A gable-roofed rectangular wing is attached to the rear and standing in the yard to the rear of this is a small timber toilet outhouse.
• open space at the northern end of the Recreation Grounds (between cricket oval and aligned with the northern extent of Pearce House). This space is an open grassed area (previously part of the cricket oval, vegetable and agriculture plots, and later tennis courts, bowling green) and includes a line of mature mango trees (Mangerifa indica) on its western edge. 

Fleming House (by 1896, extended c1917)

Fleming House (by 1896, extended c1917) is a two-storey brick building standing at the southeast corner of the Male Patient Area, and is the oldest extant building of the area. Purpose-built as a male ward building, it is surrounded by lawn and mature trees and faces north toward the Recreation Grounds. It has wide L-shaped verandahs at each front corner of its ground floor and retains c1917 extensions (rear ablutions block; northeast pantry). In 2020 the building is vacant and highly intact.

Features of Fleming House of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• form, scale and materials: two-storey, freestanding polychrome brick structure with timber-framed verandahs, floors, and hip roof; attached one-storey ablutions block on rear (c1917) with pyramid roof with lantern, and its attached boiler room with skillion roof and brick chimney; and one-storey pantry/kitchen extension (c1917) on its northeast corner with skillion roof, and its attached timber-battened enclosure
• layout: (similar ground and first floor layouts) large front room with central projecting front entrance bay (ground floor - day room and dormitory; first floor - open dormitory); rear row of single patient rooms, and attendants rooms, with small projecting rooms (storerooms and toilets) at both ends; central rear stair hall with attached rear ablutions block
• architectural detailing for incarcerated patient management (security, safety, and hygiene):
  • orientation and views out from the day room, dormitories, and verandahs to the Recreation Grounds and its cricket oval
  • efficient and logical room layouts; wards of dormitories and single rooms; communal ablutions for males only; centralised supplies stores
  • robust and cleanable/hygienic materials and finishes: face brick exterior walls; concrete sills and lintels; plaster interior walls; ceramic wall and floor tiles, free-standing bath, and terrazzo partitions (bathroom); corrugated metal roof cladding; cast iron and metal watergoods
  • measures for safety, security, and observation of patients: rounded and coved external and internal wall and floor corners; observation panels in doors to single rooms, with high-level fanlights over
  • high levels of natural light and ventilation to the interior: spacious rooms with high ceilings; battened eaves; large glazed and vented roof lantern
• original joinery: eaves brackets; multi-paned double-hung windows (fixed and operable); internal doors (glazed and solid); moulded architraves; board-lined ceilings and timber shelving in ablutions block
• open lawn surround, with mature trees including a fig to the north, and a mango, jacaranda, camphor laurel and Indian siris to the east.

Gladstone House, Jenner House, and Kelsey House (all 1936)

Gladstone House, Jenner House, and Kelsey House (all 1936) are three highly-intact, almost identical buildings standing in a curving line west of Fleming House. Purpose-built as male ward buildings, they express their original use through architectural details and features designed for patient care and reflect the principles of moral treatment. Surrounded by lawns, they face northeast toward the Recreation Grounds and their primary access is on this side of the buildings. In 2020 they are vacant and have had most later fabric removed.

Features of Gladstone House, Jenner House, and Kelsey House of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• massing, form, construction: one-storey freestanding brick structures with timber-framed front verandahs, floors, and hip roofs
• symmetrical plan forms: main C-shaped wing around a front courtyard (accommodates central communal dining room and patient dormitories at either end); short angled rear wings (single patient rooms either side of a central hallway); and a central rear services wing (kitchen, bathroom)
• architectural detailing for incarcerated patient management (security, safety, hygiene, moral treatment):
  • orientation and views out from dining rooms and dormitories to the Recreation Ground and its cricket oval
  • efficient and logical room layouts; wards of dormitories and single rooms; communal ablutions for males only; centralised supplies stores; soiled clothes hatch in lavatory (blocked over) through to small storeroom accessed from rear
  • robust and cleanable/hygienic materials and finishes: face brick exterior walls; concrete sills and lintels; plaster interior walls; concrete floors (verandah, kitchen, bathrooms); timber floors (dormitories, single patient rooms, dining room); ceramic wall tiles (kitchen); metal sheet-and-batten ceiling linings; terracotta tile roof cladding; cast iron and metal watergoods
  • measures for safety, security, and observation of patients: rounded and coved external and internal wall and floor corners; observation doors and windows; toilet cubicles without doors
  • high levels of natural light and ventilation to the interior: spacious rooms with high ceilings; battened eaves; large glazed and vented roof lanterns
• original joinery: multi-paned windows (fixed and operable), some with hinged sills to facilitate both sashes sliding down into a wall pocket; internal doors (glazed and solid); moulded architraves; board-lined verandah ceilings and valances
• courtyards: grass; concrete spoon drains (garden beds, paths, and vegetation in courtyards are not of state-level cultural heritage significance).

Male Bathroom Block (1902)

The Male Bathroom Block (1902) is a small rectangular building standing west of Jenner House, beside Hogg Lane. Built as a communal men’s bathroom, the building was converted to a pathology lab in 1927 and is now vacant. A later extension has been made to its eastern side, which is not of state-level cultural heritage significance.

Features of the Male Bathroom Block of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• form, scale, and materials including: rectangular form with ventilated dutch gable roof; face brick walls with brick lintels, and rendered base and dressings; corrugated metal roof sheets; metal watergoods; timber floors; plaster internal walls; sheet-and-battens ceiling
• joinery: multi-paned windows and fanlights, boarded doors; hoods with battened cheeks over doors; moulded window architraves.

Lewis House, McDonnell House, and Noble House (all 1915)

Lewis House, McDonnell House, and Noble House (all 1915) are three similar buildings standing in a line northeast of Kelsey House. Purpose-built as male ward buildings, they express their original use through architectural details and features designed for incarcerated patient management and reflect the principles of moral treatment. Surrounded by open lawns, they face southeast toward the Recreation Grounds and their primary access is on this side of the buildings. In 2020 they are vacant and have had most later fabric removed as well as most internal fittings and finishes. The timber ground floor structure has been replaced by a concrete slab, and the original rear bathrooms wings have been demolished. Chimneys have been demolished down to roof level and verandahs and bay windows on Lewis House and Noble House have been demolished. McDonnell House has had its projecting rear stairwells demolished.

Features of Lewis House, McDonnell House, and Noble House of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• massing, form, construction: two-storey, lowset, freestanding brick structures with timber and steel-framed floors, and timber-framed verandahs and roofs (gable and hip) with ventilated Dutch gables
• symmetrical plan forms:
  • Lewis House and Noble House are identical H-shaped buildings with similar ground and first floor plans. The middle wing has a row of single patient rooms and a large day room with a verandah on its southeastern side. The northern wing has a communal patients’ dining room, scullery, and attendants’ bedrooms. The southern wing has two dormitories and two small projecting rooms for toilets and a stairwell
  • McDonnell House is cruciform in plan comprising a large central dining room, with wide openings into large dormitories on either side with verandahs along their southeast side. Two small projecting rooms (toilets, single patient room, and attendant’s room) are at both ends
• architectural detailing for incarcerated patient management (security, safety, hygiene, moral treatment):
  • orientation and views out from verandahs, dining rooms, and dormitories to the Recreation Ground and its cricket oval
  • efficient and logical room layouts; wards of dormitories and single rooms; communal ablutions for males only; centralised supplies stores
  • robust and cleanable/hygienic materials and finishes: face brick external walls (ground floor); roughcast rendered walls (central and end bays and first floor) with face brick quoins; concrete sills and lintels; plaster interior walls; timber board floors (first floor); ceramic bathroom tiles (floors and walls); terracotta tile roof cladding; cast iron and metal watergoods; bracketed concrete hoods over entrance doors
  • measures for safety, security, and observation of patients: rounded and coved external and internal wall and floor corners; observation doors and windows; small high-level windows above single patient room doors (some have been blocked up); toilet cubicles without doors
  • high levels of natural light and ventilation to the interior: spacious rooms with high ceilings; large windows; battened eaves; timber ventilation louvres in gable ends.

Osler House (1928) and Pearce House (1934)

Osler House (1928) and Pearce House (1934) are two almost identical, highly-intact buildings standing in a line northeast of Noble House at the northern end of the Male Patients Area. Purpose-built as ward buildings for 'violent' or 'difficult' incarcerated male patients, they express their original use through architectural details and features designed for incarcerated patient management and reflect the principles of moral treatment. Surrounded by open lawns, they face southeast toward the Recreation Grounds and their primary access is on this side of the buildings. In 2020they are vacant and have had their bathrooms stripped out and original timber floors replaced by concrete.

Features of Osler House and Pearce House of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• massing, form, construction: one-storey, lowset, freestanding brick structures with timber-framed front verandahs, floors, and partially steel-framed roofs (gable and hip)
• symmetrical plan forms: front verandah; large central dining room with rear communal lavatory and boiler room block, flanked by a block on either side accommodating single patient rooms or large patient dormitory (Pearce House only), with narrow wings extending on either side accommodating single patient rooms accessed from the front verandah only
• architectural detailing for incarcerated patient management (security, safety, hygiene, moral treatment):
  • orientation and views out from verandahs, dining rooms, and dormitories to the Recreation Ground and its cricket oval
  • efficient and logical room layouts; wards of dormitories and single rooms; communal ablutions for males only; centralised supplies stores; soiled clothes hatch in lavatory (blocked over) through to small storeroom accessed from rear
  • robust and cleanable/hygienic materials and finishes: polychrome face brick exterior walls and chimneys; concrete sills; terracotta wall vents; terracotta tile roof cladding with terracotta finials; timber batten eaves; gable apex infill of timber battens and roughcast render; plaster interior walls; concrete verandah floor and its red ochre surface staining; glazed ceramic wall tiles (kitchen, lavatory, and toilets); metal sheet-and-batten ceiling linings
  • measures for safety, security, and observation of patients: rounded and coved external and internal wall and floor corners; observation doors and windows; stable doors and their bracketed ledges; internal timber window shutters in patient rooms; wrought iron window grilles; wire mesh to lantern openings above patient rooms; openings in ceilings to provide recessed/secure lights; dining room fireplace and large windows; toilet cubicles without doors
  • high levels of natural light and ventilation to the interior: spacious rooms with high ceilings; large windows and high-level windows; battened eaves; glazed and vented roof lanterns
• original joinery: multi-paned double-hung windows, some with hinged sills allowing both sashes to slide down into wall pockets; internal doors (glazed and solid); original brass window and door hardware; moulded architraves and picture rails; board-lined verandah ceilings and valances
• courtyards, their grassed open areas and concrete spoon drains and stairs
• one jacaranda tree east of Osler House (lone remnant of avenue of jacarandas east of Osler and Pearce houses)
• one mature palm (unidentified spp.) in Pearce House courtyard.

Cemetery Site (1895-1912)

The site of the second cemetery associated with the hospital is located on the western side of the Male Patients Area and is an area of archaeological potential. Historically located north of the main hospital buildings and west of the cricket ground, the cemetery was operational between 1895 and 1912, when it was closed to allow construction of the two-storey male wards and burials were reportedly reinterred to the third cemetery to the north by 1913. The area was subsequently developed for residences (1910s-c1958), and kitchens and workshops (1970s), which were later relocated or demolished.

Potential archaeological evidence within and around this area includes burials and reinterments, stone and metal grave markers, and other artefacts and features associated with burial practices.

Wacol Repatriation Complex

The Wacol Repatriation Complex, purpose-designed for the health treatment of returned members of the Australian armed forces, is north east of the Male Patients Area, separated from it by more than 250m. It has been redeveloped (c2012) for office use.

Features of state-level cultural heritage significance include:

• Layout of Buildings and Landscapes, Views
• Recreation Grounds (c1954-5)
• Kitchen Block (1948)
• Wards A, B, and C (all 1948)
• Occupational Therapy and Recreation Hall (c1961)
• Former Cemetery Site (c1913-1945)

Layout of Buildings and Landscapes, Views

The terrain of this area slopes gently down to the southeast from a ridge, along the crest of which runs Wolston Park Road, the primary road access. The buildings are arranged to direct their patients’ primary views and allow controlled access in the other direction, to the southeast towards the lower Recreation Grounds. The area is laid out symmetrically with buildings spaced well apart by open lawns with mature ornamental trees, which are generally remnants of grander formal planting schemes.

Features of the layout and views also of state-level cultural heritage significance are:

• road network and alignments pre-1956 (Wolston Park Road, Barrett Drive) and the open spaces where these roads have been removed (later roads have been added and are not of state-level cultural heritage significance)
• symmetrical building and landscape layout with visual emphasis on Kitchen Block as complex centre (tallest building, central fleche)
• wide views from Kitchen Block, Wards A, B, and C downslope toward the Recreation Grounds and the Gailes Golf Course beyond
• formal planting scheme (dating to pre-1952) of mature ornamental trees, shrubs, and walking paths including locations of removed trees, shrubs, and paths
• terraforming around southeastern sides of Wards A, B, and C.

Recreation Grounds (c1954-5)

The Recreation Grounds (c1954-5) comprises a mix of evenly-sloped open lawn areas with mature trees around and between the buildings, and extending down to a cricket oval (1954-5) located at the southeast end of the complex. The generous open grounds provide a spacious landscape setting for the buildings, and were historically accessible to the patients for therapeutic recreation. Formed and used by the patients, the level cricket oval has a timber fence and mature trees to its perimeter, with stone retaining walls forming terraces around its northwest side.

Features of the Recreation Grounds of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• terraced and sloped ground form, open space, and extent of grounds
• cricket oval (1954-5) – a large open grassed oval with a banked-earth edge to its southeast, low timber perimeter fence painted white, and timber-boarded sight screens at the northeast and southwest ends
• stone retaining walls (c1960s) – three terraces formed by blue stone, curving around the northwest side of the cricket oval
• mature trees including: figs, jacarandas, poincianas, silky oaks, and mangoes.

Kitchen Block (1948)

The Kitchen Block, purpose-built as a central kitchen, dining room, and canteen for patients, stands near Wacol Park Road, between Ward A and Ward B. It is the most prominent building of the Repatriation complex and the centre of the area’s symmetrical layout. Its original corrugated asbestos roof sheets, steel-framed windows, and most timber doors have been replaced and it has been converted for use as offices.

Features of the Kitchen Block of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• massing, form, construction: one storey with part lower ground level; lowset, freestanding brick and timber-framed structure, concrete and timber-framed floors, timber-framed hip roof
• symmetrical plan form, layout: dumbbell-shaped building – ground floor: food preparation at northwest (near road, food/goods delivery porches on Wolston Park Road retaining original delivery shelves), kitchen at centre, and communal dining room at southeastern end; patients’ access via side porches – lower ground floor: canteen with wide entrance on southeastern side opening onto grassed area
• robust materials: face brick exterior walls; concrete sills and lintels; plaster interior walls with scribed detail at waist height; concrete floors (throughout); concrete exterior ramps with steel pipe railings; sheet-and-batten lined eaves; cast iron and metal watergoods; substantial copper fleche
• wide views from the dining room out over lower Ward C to Gailes Golf Course
• original joinery: basement doors (glazed and solid); board-lined verandah ceilings
• architectural detailing for patient management (security, safety, hygiene): rounded and coved external wall corners.

Ward A (Jacaranda), Ward B (Silky Oak), and Ward C (Lilly Pilly) (all 1948)

Wards A, B, and C (all 1948) are three similar buildings arranged symmetrically around the Kitchen Block. Purpose-built as repatriation wards for male patients, they express their original use through architectural details and features designed for patient care, and reflect some principles of moral treatment. Surrounded by open lawns, they are accessed from all sides and face southeast across a broad grassed courtyard down toward the Recreation Grounds. They have been converted for use as offices, removing the original internal fixtures and approximately half their original partitions. The buildings have had their original corrugated asbestos roof sheets, steel-framed windows, and most timber doors replaced, and plaster cornices and suspended ceilings have been installed: these are not of state-level cultural heritage significance.

Features of Wards A, B, and C of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• massing, form, construction: one-storey, lowset, freestanding brick and timber-framed structures with timber-framed verandahs and hip roof
• symmetrical plan forms: C-shaped buildings (Wards A and B, originally identical buildings) and H-shaped building (Ward C), with wings around a grassed courtyard on the southeast side; wide verandah around courtyard
• architectural detailing for patient management (security, safety, hygiene, moral treatment):
  • orientation and views out from the courtyard verandah and interior out to the Recreation Ground and its cricket oval and beyond to Gailes Golf Course
  • efficient and logical room layouts: multiple entrances via small porches (reflecting more accessible original function); visitor and medical treatment wing (separate entrance and circulation); wards of dormitories and single rooms; central corridors; communal ablutions for males only; centralised services/supplies rooms (communal kitchenette, laundry, linen store, nurse’s room); sequential disrobing, ablution, and robing rooms; soiled clothes hatch in disrobing room (blocked over); Wards A and B accommodate an occupational therapy room with separate entrance; large communal lounge and recreation rooms
  • robust and cleanable/hygienic materials and finishes: face brick exterior walls; concrete sills and lintels; plaster interior walls with scribed detail at waist height; concrete floors (verandah and subfloor level); timber floors (interior generally);  sheet-and-batten lined eaves; cast iron and metal watergoods
  • measures for safety, security, and observation of patients: rounded and coved external and internal wall and floor corners
  • high levels of natural light and ventilation to the interior: spacious rooms with high ceilings and large windows
• original joinery: doors (glazed and solid); board-lined verandah ceilings and valances
• courtyards (all garden beds, paths, and trees in courtyards are not of state-level cultural heritage significance).

Occupational Therapy and Recreation Hall (c1961)

The Occupational Therapy and Recreation Hall (c1961) stands adjacent to Ward C on its northeast side. Purpose-built for accommodating groups of Repatriation Centre (male) patients for occupational therapy ‘shop’ work and general recreation (including film screenings), it is a small brick building with a verandah on its southeastern side and a gable roof. It has been converted for use as offices and storerooms by inserting new partitions. Some windows have been replaced but the building retains most of its original doors and windows. The original corrugated asbestos roof sheets have been replaced with metal sheets of the same corrugation dimension.

Features of the Occupational Therapy and Recreation Hall of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• massing, form, construction: one-storey, lowset, freestanding brick and timber-framed structure with concrete slab on ground and timber-framed verandahs and gable roof
• symmetrical plan form, layout: rectangular building with central entrance onto front verandah aligned with wide entrance doors into the building; original partitions forming large hall space (with film ‘screen’ wall at southern end) and storeroom, staff tearoom, and staff toilet at southern end (non-original partitions are not of state-level cultural heritage significance)
• robust and cleanable/hygienic materials and finishes: face brick exterior walls; ribbed metal sheet wall panels; concrete floors (verandah and subfloor level) with coved wall edges; flat ‘hardboard’ sheet-lined walls, ceilings, and eaves; metal watergoods
• concrete spoon drain at rear.

Cemetery Site (c1913-1945)

The site of the third cemetery associated with the hospital is located immediately northeast of the Wacol Repatriation Pavilion Complex and is an area of archaeological potential. The area operated as a cemetery for the hospital from c1913 to 1945, when burials were reinterred to the Goonda Cemetery. Historically cleared of vegetation, the site comprises regrowth bushland bounded to the northwest by Wolston Park Road and a carpark and southeast by Orford Drive. The surfaces of both roads are built up above the ground level of the cemetery site.

Potential archaeological evidence within and around this area includes burials and reinterments, stone and metal grave markers, and other artefacts and features associated with burial practices.  

Gailes Golf Club Course

Gailes Golf Club Course (1925) is an 18-hole course stretching along the eastern side of the Wacol Repatriation Complex, Male Patients Area, and Staff Residences Area, forming a landscaped perimeter and contributing to their expansive outlooks.

Accessed from and bounded by Wilruna Street to its east, the course is an extensive area of contoured and landscaped ground comprising long open fairways and sculpted open greens and sand traps, surrounded by mature trees of various species (remnant eucalypts and introduced plantings).

Laid out in the 1920s, and built and maintained by patients, the course reflects the principles of moral treatment. It is highly intact and uncompromised by later development.

Features of the Gailes Golf Club Course of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• contoured ground forms, open space, extent of course, and layout with long open fairways separated by bands of mature trees
• mature trees including: eucalypts, hoop, bunya, and bookleaf pines, figs, camphor laurels, jacarandas, poincianas, palms, and crepe myrtles
• bushland fringe along western and eastern extents, and along boundary with Wolston Park Golf Club course
• open space facilitating views to and from the Medical Superintendent’s Residence and the line of mature bunya pines and cocos palms along its historical boundary.

Riverbank and Nyunda Park Area

The Riverbank and Nyunda Park Area comprises an area of bushland located between the core hospital complex and the former Farm Complex, and stretching northeast around the reservoir and uphill towards the Basil Stafford Centre. Former sandstone quarry workings and associated transport infrastructure are evident amongst the riverbank bushland to the west of Explorer’s Walk, which winds north-south through the area. The modern warehouse to the west and the youth detention centre to the east are not of state-level cultural heritage significance.

Features of the Riverbank and Nyunda Park Area of state-level cultural heritage significance include:

• Landscape and Views
• Early Road Network (Explorer’s Walk)
• Former Sandstone Quarry and Track (1860s)
• Hospital Dump Sites

Landscape and Views

The landscape comprises a mix of remnant and regrowth bushland across an area of varied topography. A sandstone ridge runs along the steep-sided riverbank and the undulating inland terrain comprises a series of contoured ridges, slopes and gullies that form a catchment area around the dam reservoir to the north. The area has remained substantially undeveloped throughout its history. It forms part of the natural landscape setting for the hospital complex and contrasts with the relatively open, designed landscapes surrounding the hospital buildings and across the golf course areas to the east and south.

Features of the Landscape and Views of state-level cultural heritage significance include:

• areas of open and enclosed bushland, providing a natural setting for the core hospital complex and a buffer between it and the Farm Complex and Basil Stafford Centre.

Former Sandstone Quarry and Track (1860s)

The area west of Explorer’s Walk contains a series of quarry workings where stone was extracted from outcrops along the sandstone ridge. There are two main workings (north and south) and other smaller workings scattered around the centre of this area. The workings are evidenced worked faces (vertical) and benched areas (horizontal), and are accessed by a track along which stone was transported to a jetty on the river, approximately 600m to the north. A second track diverts southeast to access the main hospital complex.

Features of the Quarry Workings and Track of state-level significance also include:

• northern workings, comprising a group of four faces and benches that step down towards the river; the largest face (closest to the river) is approximately 80m in length
• southern workings, comprising a single face and bench approximately 50m in length
• smaller workings, comprising a collection of worked faces scattered throughout the centre of the area
• early tracks, including route, clearing and formation
• stone jetty remnants along the riverbank (not sighted in 2020)
• timber bridge remnants, located along the track approximately 60m southeast of the jetty remnants (not sighted in 2020).

Hospital Dump Sites

The Hospital Dump Sites comprise a series of medium to high-density artefact scatters located adjacent to a modern powerline easement to the north of the former Quarry Workings. The scatters contain discarded material associated with the hospital and farm complex, with some evidence it has been deposited in a systematic manner – grouped by type.

The largest scatter contains a concentration of glass, ceramic and metal kitchenware and tableware, including large and small fragments of white-glazed earthenware and stoneware jugs, cups and other vessels, white-enamelled metal jugs and pans, and assorted metal containers and utensils. Other scatters contain collections of metal milk cans, water tanks, bed frames, wire fencing and electrical equipment.

Farm Complex

The Farm Complex is located toward the northwest portion of the site near the river and stretches south along a winding vehicle road that connects the main patient ward areas north to the farm areas. A second road, Aveyron Road, carries on from the end of Explorers Walk and leads east up to the Basil Stafford Centre. A large dam is at the centre of the area and there are former farm buildings/remnants to its north and south.

The Farm Ward Complex comprises (generally from south to north):

• Piggery Remnants (1916-19)
• Dam (1950) and Pump House (by 1956)
• Later Farm Ward for Male Patients (c1964, later called Weeroona)
• Farm Overseer’s House (1918, relocated within complex area c2009-13)
• Early Farm Ward Kitchen and Dairy (1916)

Piggery Remnants (1916-19)

Remnants of the former piggery (1916-19) are located on the eastern side of Explorer’s Walk. All structures have been removed, however, the large terraced area of land where the piggery stood retains concrete slabs and paths. Running along the downhill edge of the area is an off-form reinforced concreted wall with a cast iron pipe outlet and low walls forming a square concrete feature on its eastern side.

Features of the Piggery Remnants of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• large flat terrace
• concrete slabs remnants
• concrete walls and iron pipe.

Dam (1950) and Pump House (by 1956)

North of the Piggery Remnants within bushland is a large dam reservoir (1950) formed in a valley over a natural creek. Its dam wall is a tall earth embankment with Explorer’s Walk running across its top and on its western side is a concrete outlet partially lined with stone emptying toward the river.

A Pump House (by 1956) stands near the dam wall on the north side of the reservoir. Built to feed the nearby farm areas and the distant vegetable gardens north of the Male Patients Area, it is a small rectangular building with a gable roof.

Features of the Dam and Pump House of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• dam wall; roadway top; western outlet
• Pump House (excluding all pump equipment, pipes.

Later Farm Ward for Male Patients (c1964, Weeroona)

North of the Dam, standing on the western side of the intersection of Explorers Walk and Aveyron Road is the Later Farm Ward for Male Patients. It is a large face brick building, primarily one-storey but with a partial lower ground floor level under its southern section. It has a shallow-pitched gable roof with skylights. It has been stripped of most internal linings but retains most of its original floor plan layout. Most original windows and skylights have been removed and it is used as a training centre for police.

Features of the Later Farm Ward for Male Patients of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• original face brick structure with concrete dressings and steel-framed roof with skylight openings
• original internal partitions (smooth plastered masonry)
• original layout: upper ground floor – main entrance lobby and rear loading dock with store rooms in centre, four large dormitories and one ablutions block at northern end, and large living/dining room and servery kitchen at southern end; lower ground floor – partitions have been changed
• views from the living/dining room south to the nearby surrounding bushland.

Farm Overseer’s House (1918, relocated within complex area c2009-13)

The Farm Overseer’s House (1918), relocated from its original position nearby to the east to stand north of the Later Farm Ward for Male Patients, is a one-storey timber-framed and -clad residence with a hip roof. In its new location it has been rotated to face northeast and has been raised high on steel and timber stumps. In 2020 it is vacant and used as a training centre for police.

Features of the Farm Overseer’s House of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• location: in proximity to early farms location and near farm buildings. However, due to being relocated, its exact (or current) location within the farm area is not significant
• original external fabric including weatherboard cladding, timber framed skillion window hoods with battened cheeks, battened eaves, corrugated metal roof sheets
• external hipped roof form with L-shaped wrap around verandah
• original internal layout with single-skin VJ partitions.

Early Farm Ward Kitchen and Dairy (1916)

Standing east of the Farm Overseer’s House is the Early Farm Ward Kitchen and Dairy (1916). These two small masonry buildings stand on a raised island of land surrounded by a large lower area that has been flattened to form a driver training track for police. These buildings are the rear outbuildings for a large early farm ward that stood in front of them but has been demolished. The kitchen fireplace has been demolished.

Changes which have been made that are not of state-level cultural heritage significance include: adding a verandah awning to the south side of the kitchen building and an awning between buildings, cutting a door into the north wall of the scullery to connect it to the heating room, and enclosing the verandah on the south end of the Dairy building and adding a small extension to its north end. The buildings have been converted for use as a staff kitchenette, toilets, and for storage for the track.

Features of the Early Farm Ward Kitchen and Dairy buildings of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• one-storey, masonry, hip roof forms
• layout:
  • Kitchen building – three rooms comprising (south to north) kitchen, scullery, and heating room
  • Dairy building – southern verandah and one room comprising milk can room
  • window openings in Kitchen building (excludes recent sashes)
• doorway between kitchen and scullery
• lower level of heating room and its rear access facing the Dairy building showing the functional relationship between these two buildings
• ventilation panels at cornice line in milk can room of Dairy building (excludes later sheeting over).

Basil Stafford Centre

The Basil Stafford Centre is highly intact and comprises a complex of lowset buildings and landscaped grounds, set amongst bushland and located along an elevated ridgeline in the northern portion of the hospital site. Established as a farm ward for adults, the complex also illustrates its subsequent use and evolution as a centre for the treatment of intellectually disabled children and adolescents – spanning broad-based institutionalisation through to individual care in domestic-scaled villas.

The features of the Basil Stafford Centre of state-level significance include:

• Layout of Buildings and Landscapes, Views
• Farm Ward Building and Grounds (1954-6)
• School Building for Child Patients With Intellectual Disabilities (1967) and Swimming Pool (c1973)
• Villas (c1978)

Layout of Buildings and Landscapes, Views

Historically set apart from the main hospital and surrounded by bushland, the Basil Stafford Centre is accessed via Aveyron Road that approaches from the southeast and connects with the former Farm Complex to the southwest. Expansive views of the surrounding landscape are offered from the road along the ridge and from the hilltop position of the main complex.

The main complex is laid out with the elongated three-block Farm Ward Building fronting Aveyron Road, with open terraces between it and the School Building and Swimming Pool to the rear (north). The generous grounds comprise a mix of landscaped open terraces (former exercise yards with perimeter fence) dotted with mature trees that gently slope down to the north, and bushland. The Villas are located downhill to the east and set amongst light bushland.

The views of state-level cultural heritage significance include:

• extensive views that unfold from and along Aveyron Road and Quarry Drive, through and across the adjacent bushland and spanning the surrounding countryside
• wide northern and southern views from the Farm Ward Building, terrace and immediate surrounds to distant horizon hills
• attractive open views across the terraced lawns dotted with mature trees and framed by adjacent bushland
• between the Farm Ward Building and School Building, demonstrating their visual and functional relationship.

Farm Ward Building and Grounds (1954-6)

The Farm Ward Building (1954-6) is a highly-intact sprawling face brick building positioned on the crown of a hill, which is the highest part of the hospital complex site and from all sides of the building are extensive views out to the surrounding landscape. Purpose-built in three successive stages as male wards for incarcerated patients, it expresses its original use through architectural details and features designed for incarcerated patient management, including efficient and logical room layouts, high levels of natural light and ventilation to the interior, provision of communal ablutions, patient wards of dormitories and single rooms, and security and observation of occupants. In 2020 the building is vacant and most later fabric has been removed. The original corrugated asbestos roof sheets have been replaced with metal sheets of the same corrugation dimension. The original ceilings and eaves (sheets-and-battens or fibrous plaster) have been replaced with flat plasterboard throughout.

Features of the Farm Ward Building and Grounds of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• massing, form, construction: one-storey with partial lower ground floor, lowset, freestanding brick, steel, and timber-framed structure; steel- and timber-framed verandahs/porches and hip roof
• plan form: building in three parts – centre block (communal recreation and dining, servery kitchen, rear loading dock), and a long branching wing (dormitories, single patient rooms, communal ablutions) either side – Ward Block A (east) and Ward Block B (west) – connected to the centre block by breezeways; northern verandah on eastern wing; large open air terrace on northern side of the centre block; lower ground floor under northwestern end of north wing (treatment rooms)
• architectural detailing for incarcerated patient management (security, safety, hygiene, moral treatment):
  • orientation and wide north-south views out from the rooms on the northern side of the building and from the northern central terrace out to the grounds on this side and beyond to distant horizon hills
  • efficient and logical room layouts: wards of dormitories and single rooms (primarily on northern side of building); wide central corridors; large communal ablutions for males only and large dressing room with two separate doors into each for sequential disrobing area (and its soiled linen hatches/chutes), ablutions room, and robing area (and its clean linen dispensary); small communal dormitory ablutions for males only; visitors’ room; examination room; centralised services rooms and supplies stores (attendants’ rooms, linen mending rooms, kitchenettes); large central communal dining and recreation room; treatment and therapy rooms (separated to lower ground level)
  • robust and cleanable/hygienic materials and finishes: face brick exterior walls, sills, and lintels; concrete floors (verandah and subfloor level); timber floors (interior generally); terrazzo floors, wall panels, and cubicle partitions (main entrances, ablutions, kitchens); plaster interior walls with scribed detail at waist height; ceramic wall tiles in wet areas (pale yellow, mottled pastel blue, and black); steel pipe balustrades; steel-framed windows, ribbed and clear glass, and metal hardware; metal watergoods
  • measures for safety, security, and observation of patients: rounded and coved external and internal wall and floor corners; observation doors and windows; recessed light and power switches with protective covers; metal grille over internal stair down to lower ground level
  • high levels of natural light and ventilation to the interior: spacious rooms with high ceilings and large windows; multi-paned, timber-framed windows, doors, and fanlights and their original brass hardware; metal mesh fanlights
• original joinery: wall-mounted bench seats; clean linen dispensary benches in dressing rooms; storeroom shelves; soiled linen hatches 
• original sanitary ware: single small raised bath in communal ablutions room (excludes all other baths); ceramic urinals; metal ablution troughs; foul linen troughs;
• variations in details between wings (evidence of construction stages)
• early alterations for use in treatment of children with intellectual disability
• grounds, including:
  • ground forms, open space and extent of grounds
  • curved paths and driveways around open front lawns, accessing separate recessed entrances to Ward Block A (east) and Ward Block B (west)
  • open paved terrace around northern side of central Dining and Recreation Block, with perimeter spoon drain and free-standing water fountain
  • gently sloping open grassed terraces (former exercise yards with perimeter fence), dotted with mature trees and framed by bushland
  • mature trees, including: poincianas, leopard trees (Flindersia maculosa), jacarandas, frangipani (Plumeria spp.), mangoes, silky oak, eucalyptus, bookleaf pines , and hoop pines, including row of five along Aveyron Road
  • curving vehicle access road (Quarry Drive) from Aveyron Road with bitumen surface and concrete edges
  • concrete landscape stairs and paths. 

School Building for Child Patients with Intellectual Disabilities (1967) and Swimming Pool (c1973)

The School Building for Child Patients with Intellectual Disabilities (1967) is a highly intact face brick building comprising four connected wings surrounding a grassed courtyard. Purpose built as a school and training centre for children of the adjacent hospital ward building, the school building expresses its original use through architectural details and features designed for child patients with intellectual disabilities, including efficient and logical room layouts, high levels of natural light and ventilation to the interior, increased provision of toilets, and high levels of security and safety of occupants. In 2020 it is used as an office building.

Features of the school of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• form and construction: slab-on-ground, one-storey, brick and timber-framed structure; four connected wings surrounding a rectangular grassed play courtyard and also forming a semi-enclosed western service courtyard; broad verandahs and large undercover area facing courtyard; clerestory, pyramid, and gable roofs
• robust and ‘natural’ materials: face brick exterior and interior walls; floors – concrete and clay pavers; clear-finished timber board-lined walls and ceilings and laminated beams; flat sheet lining to partitions and soffits, and textured panel lining to classroom ceilings with cover strips; glazed ceramic tiled floors and walls (bathrooms, kitchens); terrazzo partitions (bathrooms); concrete roof tiles
• architectural detailing for incarcerated child patients with intellectual disabilities (security, access, safety, and hygiene):
  • efficient and logical rooms layout: controlled main entry at northeast corner past staff and administration spaces in eastern wing; general classrooms (north wing) each with large store cupboard and immediate access to an adjacent toilet; larger manual training, domestic science rooms, and other training rooms with store cupboards and materials store area; large hall (south wing west end) with projection booth and projection window; central undercover area with bench seats; central ablutions block (south wing); and administration offices (east wing and south wing east end)
  • measures for security and safety of patients: metal bars over external operable windows; half-glazed doors and large windows; compound floor plan with controlled entrances; sliding (rather than swing) doors and windows; wide doors and single floor level omitting steps and raised thresholds
  • high levels of natural light and ventilation to the interior: spacious rooms with raked ceilings; large operable and fixed windows; fixed and vented clerestory windows; roof ventilator
• original joinery: clear-finished doors (boarded, flush panel, louvered, some with amber tinted glass); fixed and awning windows
• metal-framed windows (louvre and sliding)
• courtyard – open lawn area; perimeter concrete spoon drain and its metal grate.

The Swimming Pool (c1973) is located adjacent to the school building on its west side. It is a concrete in-ground shell with a rectangular pool of lap lanes connected by a narrow swimming channel to a smaller rectangular wading pool. It is surrounded by a wide concrete apron and a small face brick kiosk with flat roof stands at the north corner of the apron. Later pool sheds, stands, shade structures, and a tall brick fence have been added to the pool, which are not of state-level cultural heritage significance.

Features of the Swimming Pool of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• concrete in-ground pool shell (wading pool with physical disabilities access, connecting swimming channel, and pool of lap lanes)
• concrete apron
• small kiosk with flat roof at north corner and its concrete ramp.

Villas (c1978)

The Villas (c1978) comprise two adjacent groups of buildings in bushland at the eastern part of the Basil Stafford Centre area, along Aveyron Road. Built as patient accommodation of a more suburban domestic nature, in 2020 the small buildings continue in this use but have had their interiors replaced for modern patient care standards. The building’s interiors are not of state-level cultural heritage significance, as are non-original external alterations and additions such as tall fences and courtyards.

Features of the Villas of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• site layout and landscape: two groups of four identical villas and two identical common rooms in mirror-reverse layouts amongst a light bushland setting
• form and construction: one-storey freestanding brick and timber-framed structures, with clerestory roofs (villas) and pyramid roofs (common rooms)
• robust external materials: face brick and weatherboard walls; concrete tile roofs.

References

[1] Cultural Heritage Database and Register, Queensland Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnership, <https://culturalheritage.datsip.qld.gov.au/achris/public/public-registry/home>, accessed 28 Sep 2020.
[2] 'Minutes of Evidence taken before the Select Committee on the Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum', (Thursday 10 June 1869, Appendix B) Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly, 1869; Judith Iltis, 'Simpson, Stephen (1793–1869)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/simpson-stephen-2666/text3715, published first in hardcopy 1967, accessed online 9 Dec 2020; Mary McConnel, Days Long Gone By, Mary McConnel, n.p., 1905, p. 16. Simpson also served as the acting administrator until the arrival of John Wickham, and as a Justice of the Peace. His first home in the colony, built in 1843-44, was a cottage near the mouth of Woogaroo Creek. In 1851, when the opportunity to buy land in the area arose, he purchased 640 acres (259ha) further down the Brisbane River and soon built Wolston House [QHR 600339].
[3] Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy (DNRME), Survey Plan M3144.
[4] Plans following 'Minutes of Evidence taken before the Select Committee on the Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum', Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly, 1869. The location of Dr Simpson's residence is further confirmed by an 1853 watercolour of the residence by William Leigh, painted from downstream around the bend in the river; and also by a written description of a journey up the Brisbane River in 1846: 'After passing this [Cockatoo] Island, and on the south bank, is Woogaroo, the residence of Dr Simpson... which is beautifully situated in a bend of the river...The house is placed on an eminence...there is a gentle slope to the river-side...Woogaroo Creek forms the western boundary of the property'. ('Local Intelligence', The Moreton Bay Courier, 8 August 1846, p.3)
[5] ‘Plan of Asylum Estate Woogaroo’ in Queensland Parliamentary Papers, 1869.
[6] The buildings were completed by the Department of Land and Works, using bricks made on site and timber felled nearby, Letter from Clerk of Works to Colonial Architect, 23 Aug 1864, QSA LWO/A15 64/185; Letter from Colonial Architect to Under-Secretary Land and Works, 2 Mar 1865, QSA LWO/A1965/12 cited by Heritage Building Services, Administration and Services Department, Wolston Park Hospital Conservation Plan for West Moreton Regional Health Authority, Queensland Health, draft 17 Jun 1993, pp. 16-17; ‘Plan of Woogaroo Asylum, 1869’ in Thom Blake, ‘Wolston Park – Police Academy Cultural Heritage Survey: A Report for the Queensland Police Service’, July 2008, p. 20.p; DNRME, Survey Plan C881, 1878.
[7] HC Richards, ‘Building Stones of Queensland’, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, 1918, p. 119 cited by Thom Blake, ‘Wolston Park – Police Academy Cultural Heritage Survey’, p. 6. ‘Two areas of the quarry were worked extensively: the southern workings comprising a face approximately 50m in length, 15m high, and with a bench 20m wide; and the northern workings comprising a group of four faces with the main section 80m in length and 15m high; with three adjacent smaller workings. Other small workings, scattered throughout the site, were possibly used to extract small quantities of stone for use at the hospital. Two tracks accessed the quarry. A southern track led to the main asylum, while the main track accessed a stone jetty on the river [remnants not located 2020], approximately 600m to the north, via a small timber bridge built (9m long) [remnants not located 2020] built c1860s, 60m south-east of the jetty.’ Blake, ‘Wolston Park – Police Academy Cultural Heritage Survey’, p. 6.
[8] John Conolly, The Construction and Government of Lunatic Asylums, J Churchill, London, 1847.
[9] A steam sawmill was shown as onsite in 1878, implying that local timber was being used for building purposes. DNRME, Survey Plan C881, 1878.
[10] Heritage Building Services, Administration and Services Department, ‘Wolston Park Hospital Conservation Plan for West Moreton Regional Health Authority’, , p. 27.
[11] Annual Report of the DPW 1892 cited by Blake et al, ‘Conservation Plan 1996’, p. 7.
[12] Blake et al, ‘Wolston Park Campus Conservation Plan, Appendix pp. 32-3; QSA, ITM122854, 1896 site plan; Heritage Building Services, ‘Wolston Park Hospital Conservation Plan for West Moreton Regional Health Authority, Queensland Health’, 17 Jun 1993, p. 32.
[13] Blake et al, ‘Wolston Park Campus Conservation Plan’, Appendix pp. 14-5, 41-2.
[14] Heritage Buildings Group, ‘Wolston Park Conservation Plan’, pp. 41-2.
[15] Blake et al, ‘Wolston Park Campus Conservation Plan’, Appendix pp. 42-8. Noble House was named after Henry Winston Noble (1911-64) the Minister for Health, (1957-64), a medical doctor and supporter of Basil Stafford. (Queensland Hansard, 1964. <https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/documents/hansard/1964/1964_08_19.pdf>, accessed 2 Nov 2020; ‘Winston Noble’, <https://peoplepill.com/people/winston-noble/>, accessed 2 Nov 2020.)
[16] Heritage Buildings Group, ‘Wolston Park Conservation Plan’, p. 39; Blake et al, ‘Wolston Park Campus Conservation Plan’, Appendix p. 28.
[17] The new bridge was erected over Woogaroo Creek by the Department of Works in 1916 using day labour. Sited approximately 100 yards down the creek from the earlier bridge, it created a more direct route to Ipswich Road and to the railway station. The timber bridge had abutments made from bricks recycled from a demolished old Male Ward. It comprised five spans of 35ft (10.7m) each, making a total length of 183ft (56.4m). After completion in 1917, a new connecting road (later Ellerton Drive) was formed and trees planted. As this new road to the bridge bisected the existing vegetable garden, a new plot of 9-10 acres (4ha) was established adjoining the recreation ground. (Heritage Buildings Group, ‘Wolston Park Hospital Conservation Plan, p. 41.)
[18] 48 per cent of the almost 20,000 admissions to Queensland’s mental hospitals were released ‘recovered’ or ‘relieved’ between the 1860s and 1930, (Mark Finnane, Wolston Park Hospital 1865-2001: A Retrospective, n.p, Wacol Qld, 2001, p. 26.
[19] Queensland Heritage Register(QHR): Baillie Henderson Hospital (QHR601161); Challinor Centre QHR602821.
[20] Blake et al, ‘Wolston Park Campus Conservation Plan’, Appendix pp. 6-8.
[21] Blake et al, ‘Wolston Park Campus Conservation Plan’, pp. 17, 30.
[22] DNRME, Plan SL 670, which indicates the location of a cemetery, is based on an early survey but it not clear when additions to the plan were made. (Blake, ‘Wolston Park - Police Academy Cultural Heritage Survey’, p. 20.)
[23] Blake, ‘Wolston Park - Police Academy Cultural Heritage Survey’, p. 20.
[24] Annual Report of Inspector of Hospitals for the Insane, 1913, p. 34 cited by Blake, Wolston Park - Police Academy Cultural Heritage Survey, p. 20. Between 1895 and 1912 when Cemetery no 2 was operational, more than 1500 patients died at Goodna and were presumably buried in Cemetery no 2 and possibly some in cemetery no 3. In addition, the remains of staff members and their families who were also interred in the cemetery.
[25] Blake et al, ‘Wolston Park Campus Conservation Plan, Appendix pp. 25-6, 35.
[26] Heritage Buildings Group, ‘Wolston Park Hospital Conservation Plan’, p. 41; Blake et al, ‘Wolston Park Hospital Campus Conservation Plan, p. 25;‘Report of the Inspector of Hospitals for the Insane for 1912’, Queensland Parliamentary Papers (QPP) 1913, vol. 3, p. 29.
[27] ePlan drawing no 15400693 Male no 4 ward, 1899; Queensland State Archives (QSA), ITM122854, ‘Plan of Woogaroo Asylum shewing water supply pipes’, 1896; QSA, ITM580259, Male no 5 ward plan, 1899.
[28] QSA, ITM580524 Male no 14 ward (Osler House), 1932.
[29]Blake et al, ‘Wolston Park Campus Conservation Plan’, Appendix p. 59.
[30] Blake et al, ‘Wolston Park Campus Conservation Plan’, Appendix pp. 47-50.
[31] Blake et al, ‘Wolston Park Campus Conservation Plan’, Appendix pp. 66-7. Gailes Golf Club was established in 1924. See: Gailes Golf Club, Gailes Golf Club History, Gailes Golf Club, Brisbane, 1974, <http://gailesgolf.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/History.pdf>, accessed 5 Nov 2020.
[32] Blake et al, ‘Wolston Park Campus Conservation Plan’, Appendix p. 27.
[33] Blake et al, ‘Wolston Park Campus Conservation Plan’, pp. 47-8, Appendix pp. 59-61. The Farm Ward was constructed using recycled materials from demolished buildings on site. Most of its timber came from the original Male no 8 ward erected in 1890, and the bricks from the original Male no 1 and 2 wards built in 1865 (Blake, ‘Wolston Park - Police Academy Cultural Heritage Survey’, p. 14). The Overseers Cottage was constructed from materials from the former quarantine station on Peel Island (QSA WOR A/853 107327 cited by Blake. Wolston Park - Police Academy Cultural Heritage Survey, p. 15).
[34] Stafford served in this position until 1946 when he was appointed Queensland’s Director of Mental Hygiene. (Blake et al, ‘Wolston Park Campus Conservation Plan’, p. 27.
[35] Find & Connect, History & Information about Australian orphanages, children’s homes & other institutions, ‘Mental Hygiene Act of 1938’, <https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/qld/QE00576>, accessed 8 Dec 2020.
[36] Mark Finnane, Wolston Park Hospital 1865-2001 - A Retrospect, p, 6.
[37] Finnane, Wolston Park Hospital 1865-2001- A Retrospect, p. 15.
[38] Blake et al, ‘Wolston Park Campus Conservation Plan’, p. 27.
[39] Blake et al, ‘Wolston Park Campus Conservation Plan’, pp. 27-28.
[40] Department of Mental Hygiene Annual Report (DMHAR), 1951, 1952, 1954; Annual Report of the Department of Public Works, 1952 cited by Heritage Building Services, ‘Wolston Park Hospital Conservation Plan’, p. 65; Blake et al, ‘Wolston Park Campus Conservation Plan’, p. 29-30.
[41] Blake et al, ‘Wolston Park Campus Conservation Plan’, pp. 30-31,
[42] B Stafford to Director General of Health and Medical Services, QSA A/31795 cited by Blake, ‘Wolston Park - Police Academy Cultural Heritage Survey’, p. 21.
[43] Annual Report Health and Medical Services, 1944-45, p.42 cited by Blake, ‘Wolston Park - Police Academy Cultural Heritage Survey’, p. 21.
[44] Blake, ‘Wolston Park - Police Academy Cultural Heritage Survey’, p.21.
[45] The Courier Mail, 12 June 1947 cited by Blake, ‘Wolston Park - Police Academy Cultural Heritage Survey’, p. 21.
[46] Blake, ‘Wolston Park - Police Academy Cultural Heritage Survey’, p. 21. Many burials occurred at the institution from the 1890s to 1944. Between 1895 and 1912, more than 1500 patients died there and were presumably buried in cemetery no 2 and possibly some in cemetery no 3. In addition, the remains of staff members and their families were interred in the cemetery. Between 1914 and 1940 approximately 4670 patients died – an average of 155 per year. With perhaps few exceptions, all would have been buried in the hospital cemetery. (Blake, ‘Wolston Park - Police Academy Cultural Heritage Survey’, p. 21.) A new plaque (post 2007) states ‘approximately 200 bodies’ were transferred to Goodna Cemetery. The highest number on the grave markers is 2,300. (The Bottom Drawer blog, ‘Mental asylum mass exhumations and missing remains: the tale of Wolston Park’s lost and forgotten patients’, <https://thebottomdrawerbook.blog/tag/goodna-cemetery/>, accessed Nov 2020.)
[47] Blake, ‘Wolston Park - Police Academy Cultural Heritage Survey’, p. 25.
[48] QImagery, Aerials: BCC000334404, 1946 and BCC000639484, 1951; Heritage Buildings Group, ‘Wolston Park Hospital Conservation Plan’, p. 67.
[49] Blake et al, ‘Wolston Park Campus Conservation Plan, 1996’, Appendix pp. 62-5; Department of Public Works (DPW), Annual Report of the Department of Public Works for the Year ended 30 June 1967, Queensland Government Printer, Brisbane, p. 2; DNRME, Aerial, BCC000334404, 31 May 1946; DPW, Annual Report of the Department of Public Works for the Year ended 30 June 1952, p. 6; DNRME, Aerial, QAP36053297, 21 Aug 1978.
[50] Annual Report of the Department of Mental Hygiene (DMHAR) 1959 cited by Blake et al, ‘Wolston Park Campus Conservation Plan’, p.34.
[51] Blake et al, ‘Wolston Park Campus Conservation Plan’, p.34.
[52] Finnane, ‘Wolston Park Hospital 1865-2001 - A Retrospect’, p, 6.
[53] Mark Finnane, ‘Opening Up and Closing Down: Notes on the End of an Asylum’, Health & History, 2009, p. 10.
[54] Blake, ‘Wolston Park – Police Academy Cultural Heritage Survey’, p. 16; Department of Environment and Science, Heritage Branch, site visit 4 Nov 2020; Project Services, ePlan, Drawing No 13110273, ‘Brisbane Mental Hospital-Goodna Farm Unit to replace Farm Ward 17’, 31 Oct 1963; Project Services, ePlan, Drawing No 11980650, ‘Goodna Farm Unit to Replace Farm Ward 17 Installation of Aerobic Filter (hydraulics plan)’, 6 Dec 1965.
[55] Blake et al, ‘Wolston Park Campus Conservation Plan’, Appendix pp. 68-9.
[56] Department of Environment and Science (DES), LHIS database; Queensland Police Service Proposed Development – Wolston Park, vol 1: proposed works S71 application (QHR60034), May 2011, p.3. Circa 1975, the Wolston Park Golf Course was developed on the former site of the asylum and the later female recreation area.
[57] Queensland Police Service Proposed Development – Wolston Park, vol. 1: proposed works S71 application (QHR600340), May 2011, p.3.
[58] Brisbane Youth Detention Centre land is controlled by the Department of Justice; ‘Find & Connect’, <https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/qld/biogs/QE00039b.htm#:~:text=The%20John%20Oxley%20Youth%20Detention%20Centre%20in%20Wacol%20opened%20in%201987.>, accessed 29 Oct 2020.
[59] ‘Department of Youth Justice: New Youth Detention Centre’, <https://www.youthjustice.qld.gov.au/reform/new-youth-detention-centre>, accessed 5 Nov 2020; DES Heritage Branch, site visit 4 Nov 2020.
[60] ‘Forensic mental health services provide assessment and treatment of people with a mental disorder and a history of criminal offending, or those who are at risk of offending.’ ‘Victoria State Government, Better Health Channel, Forensic Mental Services’, <https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/ConditionsAndTreatments/forensic-mental-health#:~:text='Forensic'%20means%20related%20to%2C,are%20at%20risk%20of%20offending> accessed 29 Oct 2020.
[61] Mark Finnane and Joanna Besley, ‘Asylums in the Landscape’, Queensland Historical Atlas, 2010 <https://www.qhatlas.com.au/content/asylums-landscape>, accessed 9 Sep 2020.
[62] DES, LHIS, Queensland Police Service Proposed Development – Wolston Park, vol 1: proposed works S71 application (QHR60034), May 2011, pp.1-3.
[63] Lot 410 SP257441 in 2020.
[64] QGG: 1878 vol. 2, p. 917; 1889 vol 2, p. 760; 1946 vol 2, p. 233.
[65] DNRME, Survey Plan SL1774, 1945/6; QGG, 2 Feb 194 , p. 234. The area of the hospital reserve (R593) became 1,367 acres.
[66] QImagery, QAP0650056, 13 Jul 1956; QImagery, QAP4535179, 27 May 1986; DNRME, Survey Plan SL670, 1909; SL1774, 1945; SL697, 1917.
[67] ‘Goodna Death Ends a Modern Epic of Devotion’, Brisbane Telegraph, 18 Oct 1952, p. 2; ‘Goodna Visitors’, Brisbane Telegraph, 21 Jul 1952, p. 4; ‘Letter to the Editor: Ever grateful, Bardon’, The Courier-Mail, 22 Nov 1954, p. 2.
[68] ‘Asylums for Insane’, Brisbane Courier, 22 Aug 1900, p. 3; 'Red Cross Society', Brisbane Courier, 25 Mar 1930, p. 20; 'Goodna', Queensland Times, 1 Jun 1937, p. 3; 'Letters to the Editor', Telegraph, 29 Dec 1939, p. 8; 'Happy Outing', Queensland Times, 15 Mar 1940, p. 3; 'Patients' Ball', Queensland Times, 7 Aug 1940, p. 4; 'Goodna CWA', Queensland Times, 16 Dec 1943, p. 2; 'Doing War Work in Goodna Visits', The Courier-Mail, 29 Feb 1944, p. 2; '50 Women Called up for Goodna', Maryborough Chronicle, Wide Bay & Burnett Advertiser, 14 Apr 1944, p. 3; 'Goodna visitors', The Courier-Mail, 30 Oct 1952, p.2; 'They visit ex-POWs in hospital Brisbane’, Telegraph, 16 Jul 1953, p.17; 'Goodna CWA Activities', Queensland Times, 21 Apr 1954, p. 6; ‘Display from Goodna’, Brisbane Telegraph, 6 Aug 1954, p. 16; 'Goodna Committee', Morning Bulletin, 11 Sep 1954, p. 6; 'Concert Party' Brisbane Telegraph, 18 Sep 1954, p. 10; 'Brings joy to Legion of Forgotten', Truth, 21 Nov 1954, p. 41.
[69] A Stoller Report on Mental Health Facilities and Needs of Australia, 1955 cited by Jo Besley and Mark Finnane, ‘Remembering Goodna: stories from a Queensland mental hospital’ p. 118 in Catherine Coleborne and Dolly MacKinnon (eds), Exhibiting Madness in Museums: Remembering Psychiatry through Collections and Display, Routledge, 2011, pp. 116-138.
[70] Besley and Finnane, ‘Remembering Goodna: stories from a Queensland mental hospital’, p. 3.
[71] Besley and Finnane, ‘Remembering Goodna: stories from a Queensland mental hospital’, p. 3.
[72] Finnane, Wolston Park Hospital 1865-2001-A Retrospect, p. 24.
[73]; Finnane, ‘Opening Up and Closing Down’, pp. 9-24; Besley and Finnane, ‘Remembering Goodna: stories from a Queensland mental hospital’, p. 3; Finnane, Wolston Park Hospital 1865-2001-A Retrospect, pp. 16-17; Commission of Inquiry into the General Management and working of the Lunatic Asylum at Woogaroo 1867 in Votes and Processing of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, 1867, pp. 1601-1077; Joint Select Committee on the Woogaroo Asylum 1869; Royal Commission on the Management of the Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum and the Lunatic Reception Houses of the Colony, 1877; Board of Inquiry [into] certain charges made against Doctor Patrick Smith, Surgeon-Superintendent of Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum by Mr Patrick O’Sullivan, MLA and also into the general management of that institution, 1880; Royal Commission on management of Goodna Mental Hospital, 1915; ‘Imbecile or Lunatic? Serious Allegations against Hospital Wardsman’ Truth, 8 Jul 1923, p. 5; ‘Few Lunatics with New Methods’, Truth, 21 Nov 1937, p. 24;’Demands Mental Hospital Enquiry’ The Courier-Mail, 7 Apr 1949, p. 1; ’Here’s More Evidence That Goodna Must be Cleaned up’, Truth, 25 Feb 1951, p. 12; ‘Critic of Goodna Brings Reply by Minister’, The Courier-Mail, 17 Nov 1954, p. 3; ‘Letter to the Editor: A Relative, South Brisbane’, The Courier-Mail, 22 Nov 1954, p. 2; D G Stewart, Report of an Inquiry conducted by the Honourable D G Stewart into Allegations of Official Misconduct at the Basil Stafford Centre, 1995; Leneen Forde, Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Abuse of Children in Queensland Institutions, 1999; W J Carter, The Basil Stafford Centre Inquiry Report: Review of the Implementation of the Recommendations-Key Findings, Criminal Justice Commission, Brisbane, 2000; ‘Remembering Goodna: stories from a Queensland mental hospital’ exhibition, Museum of Brisbane, Nov 2007-Mar 2008; Besley and Finnane, ‘Remembering Goodna: stories from a Queensland mental hospital’ p. 118; ‘Inside: Life in Children’s Homes and Institutions’ exhibition, National Museum of Australia, Nov 2011; ‘Come clean on chambers of horrors, sufferers plead’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 19 Aug 2012, <www.smh.com.au/national/come-clean-on-chambers-of-horrors-sufferers-plead-20120818-24fqx.html>, accessed 23 Nov 2020; ‘“It’s been such a battle”: Wolston Park survivors win shock payouts’, The Guardian, 19 Oct 2017, <www.theguardfian.com/australia-news/2017/oct/19/its-been-such-a-battle-wolston-park-survivors-win-shock-payouts>, accessed 23 Nov 2020; Adele Chynoweth, Goodna Girls: A History of Children in a Queensland Mental Asylum, ANU Press, Canberra, 2020.
[74] Finnane, ‘Opening Up and Closing Down, p. 17; ‘The road to recovery – a history of mental health services in Queensland 1959-2009’, <https://www.health.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0028/444583/qld-mh-history.pdf>, accessed 30 Nov 2020; W J Carter, The Basil Stafford Centre Inquiry Report: Review of the Implementation of the Recommendations-Key Findings, Criminal Justice Commission, Brisbane, 2000.

[75] Barrett Road has been substantially remade in c2012-3 involving regrading and lowering the land level, redirecting it for two sections (for a small length at its southwestern and for half its 1948 extension on its northeastern end), demolishing a stone- and concrete-lined raised garden bed on its eastern side (and its mature trees, which lined the road since at least 1944), narrowing the road, surfacing with concrete, reusing the stones as kerbs, and converting it to a pedestrian path. This work is not of state-level cultural heritage significance. Where redirected, the original route of Barrett Road remains as open spaces. 

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