Ep. 36: The History of Ararat Mental Hospital, Part 1 (1865-1905)

In this episode, we look at the early history (approx. 1865-1905) of Ararat Lunatic Asylum in Ararat (Victoria) Australia, and how the Victorian gold rush played a role in the creation of asylums. Learn about how increased immigration factored in to the creation of new laws and discrimination around the colony.

All sources are listed at the end of the episode transcript.

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Transcript

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to Behind the Walls of the World’s Psychiatric Hospitals! I’m your host, Dr. Sarah Gallup. If you listened to the last episode of the show, you’ll know that today we’re going down under, but I promise I will not attempt an Australian accent throughout this series. That would be…painful – for you and for me. And since about 5% of listeners of this show are from Australia, I certainly don’t want to scare you all away.

For the next several episodes, we’ll be heading to the southeastern part of Australia to the state of Victoria. About 2.5 hours west of Melbourne, near Grampians National Park, lies the mostly-deserted town of Ararat. And there remains the old Ararat Mental Hospital, also known colloquially as Aradale Mental Hospital. 

I’ll be using several different sources in this episode – as always, you can find links to the sources in the episode transcript. And just a quick note on these sources that I’ve never seen before that I really appreciated: on several sites, especially Australian government sites, there were “cultural sensitivity messages” at the top of the page for outdated and offensive language with the note that the government no longer condones this type of language. I really appreciated that, and I appreciated that there were special alerts for Aboriginal folks reading the materials, giving them a heads up that the website contains images, voices, or names of deceased persons. I also want to provide the disclaimer that I will be addressing these same topics, which may be distressing, as well as the fact that since I’m unfamiliar with cultures and customs of this area, it is entirely possible that I may omit or misrepresent important cultural information. I will do my best to be culturally sensitive, but please feel free to send me a message or email if there’s something that I need to correct or something I’m unaware of that I need to know.

Trigger warnings include racist and xenophobic practices and brief mention of torture in concentration camps. I’ll give you a heads up before the latter, but the racist themes are pretty pervasive throughout this episode, so if you’re not in a good place for discussion of these themes, you may want to come back another time.

So come on in and get comfortable as we go behind the walls of Ararat Mental Hospital…

Like many tales from the 19th century, the story of Ararat Mental Hospital begins with a quest for gold. The first person said to discover gold in Australia was surveyor James McBrien on February 15, 1823, along the Fish River in New South Wales. Interestingly, “the find was considered unimportant at the time and not pursued for policy reasons” (“Victorian Gold Rush”).

Within the next few decades, however, the Victorian gold rush was on. Starting in February 1851, people from all over the world were flocking to towns west of Melbourne in search of gold. Between 1851 and 1860, an estimated 300,000 people came to the Australian colonies [of Victoria and New South Wales] from England and Wales, with another 100,000 from Scotland, and 84,000 from Ireland” (“Immigration and Ethnicity: Overview”). Others came from Germany, Italy, North America, and New Zealand and other South Pacific nations. At least 42,000 people came from China. Of those immigrants, at least 60% went to Victoria (“Immigration and Ethnicity”).

As a result of the boom, the population of the area grew dramatically. Victoria’s population tripled in size in only three years, growing from 77,000 in 1851 to 237,000 in 1854 (“Immigration and Ethnicity”). The increase of immigrants to the area was noticeable: in 1851, there 29,000 people living in the area who had not been born there; by 1854, that number rose to 123,000 (“Victorian gold rush”). Many of these newcomers were single men and over the course of several years, the ratio of women to men increased. In 1854, the census showed a population of 155,887 men to 80,911 women (or 1 woman to every 1.92 men) (“Immigration and Ethnicity”).

Folks from nearby colonies began arriving in Victoria. In 1852 alone, 14,000 people came from New South Wales, 19,000 came from Tasmania, and 15,000 came from South Australia and Western Australia (“Immigration and Ethnicity”). Even people from Melbourne left their posts to head to the goldfields. One account noted that Melbourne and many inland towns were almost completely deserted – as much as 80% of the police force left in search for gold (Gold Fever 5).

Everyone seemed to be coming to Victoria for their chance to strike it rich. At its peak in the early 1850s, at least two tons of gold each week flowed into the treasury buildings in Melbourne (“Victorian Gold Rush”). Melbourne was quickly becoming a booming center for culture and economic growth. Some called it “Marvelous Melbourne” because of its newfound prestige (“Victorian Gold Rush”). In fact, the Victorian Gold Discovery Committee wrote in 1854 that:

The discovery of the Victorian Goldfields has converted a remote dependency into a country of worldwide fame; it has attracted a population, extraordinary in number, with unprecedented rapidity; it has enhanced the value of property to an enormous extent; it has made this the richest country in the world; and, in less than three years, it has done for this colony the work of an age, and made its impulses felt in the most distant regions of the earth. (“Victorian gold rush”)

Other than the California gold rush, the output of gold coming from Victoria was greater than any country in the world (“Victorian gold rush”). Gold meant business, and business was good.

Of course, as history shows us time and again, there really can be too much of a good thing. For one, with so many people working in the mines, especially with poor sanitation and hygiene, there was bound to be illness. Many miners died of dysentery and typhus. For those who were married or had children, they lost family members due to these illnesses. In only a few short years, the death toll was significant; miners were coping with incredible tragedy and loss (“Sickness & Madness”).

In addition to physical illness, the psychological toil of working in the mines proved to be very challenging. From the monotonous diet of mutton and damper, the latter of which was a traditional but bland type of soda bread, to excessive alcohol consumption, conditions weren’t great for miners. Loneliness was a common affliction out in the goldfields (“Sickness & Madness”). Not to mention the stories of serious injuries on the job or miners being buried alive (“The Treacherous Black Forest”). Horror stories of bushrangers injuring or killing miners and stealing their gold were common. The road between Melbourne and the infamous goldfields took travelers through the dreaded Black Forest, known for its bad roads, thick brush and low visibility, and threats of bushrangers (“The Treacherous Black Forest”). It became a highly feared site that prospective miners moved through as quickly as possible.

Folks new to the area from Great Britain and other cooler areas struggled in the sweltering Australian sun (“Victorian ‘insanity’ in the 19th century”). It wasn’t unusual for immigrants to suffer sunstroke and delirium, which can certainly lead to psychological complications. But the solution was often to drink more alcohol. To add to that, the shock of migrating to a new country can be a trauma in and of itself, especially if that person speaks a different language and looks different from locals.

Perhaps most disturbing was the mounting sense of xenophobia and racism from locals. Of course, this is nothing unique to Melbourne or this period of time. We see examples of this all over the world. But locals were quick to point out that the “camps” littering the goldfields were dirty and disgraceful and full of poor people compared to the glittering city of Melbourne. Those from the upper crust of society complained about the number of ex-convicts coming from Tasmania and other deplorable areas (“Immigration and Ethnicity”). There were stories about murders and riots on the goldfields, and these citizens demanded decorum.

This led to the Convict Prevention Bill of 1852, which “was established specifically to prevent ex-convicts from Van Diemen’s Land [modern day Tasmania] from coming to the goldfields. Under the conditions of the Convicts’ Prevention Act, people coming to Victoria needed a ticket-of-leave, stating that they had never been convicts, or at the very least that any prison sentence had been served and that they were free men” (“Convicts’ Prevention Act”). 

Racism was also directed toward the tens of thousands of immigrants from China who came to work in the goldfields. On April 14, 1855, a daily newspaper in Melbourne called The Argus described the growing Chinese population within Victoria as an “’Invading army’ whose presence will ‘subject the community to the demoralizing influence of their ideas’” (“Victorian gold rush”). Acts passed in June 1855 and November 1857 attempted to restrict the number of Chinese immigrants allowed into Victoria and limit how long they could stay. The mounting anti-Chinese sentiment on the goldfields escalated until a group of European miners attacked a group of Chinese miners along the Buckland River on July 4, 1857, hoping to expel them from the area. Several Chinese miners were drowned or beaten to death by the European rioters and their encampments were looted and destroyed (“Buckland riot”).

Really quickly before I move on: I want to point out that I recognize I’m omitting a significant amount of information about this time period for the sake of brevity, including that Aboriginal folks from the area played a significant role in the success of the gold rush. I was fascinated by this story of how the Australian gold rush created a perfect storm that led to the indefinite incarceration of many, many people. So, if any of this information is new to you, as it was for me, I encourage you to look into it more. The Victorian gold rush had many long-lasting positive and negative effects on the area.

The worsening crime rates and discrimination toward foreign miners was landing more and more people in jails and prisons who also appeared to have signs of mental illness. Those deemed “lunatics” were overcrowding the jails, leading to a crisis situation. The Victorian government wanted to relieve the prison system of these “criminally insane,” many of whom were foreigners, and provide for the first time an asylum where these undesirables could be held.

You may recall from the first episode on Denbigh Asylum that the UK was revising its laws on asylums around this time. No doubt the Victorian government was watching closely, especially as the complaints got louder from Victorian citizens. It was decided in the early 1860s that several new asylums would be “commissioned to accommodate the growing number of lunatics in the colony of Victoria” (“Aradale Lunatic Asylum”).

At the time, the only asylum in Victoria was Yarra Bend Asylum in Fairfield, near Melbourne. Plans were made to build three asylums starting in 1864: Kew, in a suburb of Melbourne; Beechworth, about 3 hours northeast of Melbourne; and Ararat, 2.5 hours west of Melbourne.

Ararat Lunatic Asylum was designed by G.W. Vivian and his assistant John James Clark. It was designed in the Italianate style with Second Empire features. Local legend says that the original asylum was built by inmates; however, the project was actually contracted to O’Grady, Glynn, and O’Callaghan. The buildings were constructed from oversized bricks rendered with cement (“Aradale Mental Hospital”).

The building was constructed in E-plan barracks, which were based on an 1850s asylum in Colney [Coney] Hatch, England. When I looked at images of the Middlesex County Lunatic Asylum that this plan is based upon, it sorta looks like a capital E tipped on its side, so that the long edge represents the front of the hospital. The central cross section housed the administration buildings, while the two wings housed patients: men on one side, women on the other. The ward wings were surrounded by courtyards lined with iron columned verandas (“Aradale Mental Hospital”). It looks fairly similar to the Kirkbride style of hospitals, except instead of the staggered bat-wing pattern the wings were in the shape of an L.

One of the defining features of the asylum at Colney Hatch was the town-like feel, which was also adopted into the construction in Ararat. The hospital would go on to have its own gardens, orchard, vineyards, piggery, and other stock (“Aradale Mental Hospital”). 

The design of Ararat Lunatic Asylum was similar to its sister asylums in Kew and Beechworth, except that Ararat had beautiful bridges that linked buildings together (“Aradale Mental Hospital”). The windows had high arches and an iron gate below to allow for traffic. I’ll include a picture on the Facebook and Instagram pages.

Perhaps most disturbing (? I’ll let you decide) was the way they maintained security around the hospital. From the outside looking in, the 4 ½ foot walls appeared to be easy to scale. Couldn’t anyone escape from there? A person standing several paces back from the wall on the outside would be able to look directly at someone on the inside of the wall who was also standing several paces back, on the same level. The illusion was a design called a “Ha-ha wall,” where the landscape appears uninterrupted except for the short wall, but when viewed from the side, a ditch with a sharp incline shows that people on the inside of the fence would not so easily be able to scale the wall. It’s apparently called a “ha-ha wall” because of a person’s reaction upon seeing it from the side: “oh, ha ha. I get it” (“Ha-ha”).

Trigger warning here for a brief discussion of torture used in German concentration camps. Skip ahead about a minute if you don’t want to listen to this part.

The ha-ha wall reminded me, actually, of the walls around the Dachau Concentration Camp in Munich. I visited there in February 2005, and I remember thinking that it looked like it would be sorta easy to escape, as long as a person could get through the raging river. But the camp was surrounded by ha-ha walls, and the ditch was filled with water. The idea was that someone attempting to escape would go down into the ditch, but the angle and height of the vertical slope made it nearly impossible to get back out. They would be wet, and on the other side of the ditch was an electric fence. If they managed to get out, they would likely be electrocuted. And since it looked easy enough to get out, many prisoners died this way. The torture element wasn’t included at the Ararat Asylum, but the same idea of the ditch being a deterrent because it was difficult to climb out of was the same.

Ararat Lunatic Asylum opened to patients in 1867. According to archived records, the asylum kept meticulous notes (thankfully) regarding patient information upon admission. As in the UK at the time, “lunatics” were expected to have a medical certificate signed by two officials – generally a doctor and a member of the local government or clergy. 

When they arrived at Ararat, the following information was collected (and I’m using the original language here): 

-       Date of last admission (if any)

-       Number in order of admission (by gender)

-       Date of admission

-       Full name

-       Gender

-       Age

-       Condition as to marriage

-       Occupation 

-       Previous place of abode

-       By whose authority sent

-       Date of medical certificates and by whom signed

-       Form of mental disorder

-       Supposed causes of insanity

-       Bodily condition

-       Details and duration of existing and previous attacks

-       Date of discharge, removal or death (and category of same)

-       Observations

Allegedly, somewhere these records are stored with admission registration information from 1867 to 1993. Allegedly. (“Ararat Asylum, 1867-1905”).

Remember that during the late 19th century, the only recognized forms of mental illness or, if you will, classifications of lunacy were mania, melancholia, dementia, and paranoia. Today we know that if someone is diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type, they may have all four at any given time. But, 150 years ago, practitioners didn’t know that, so patients were given one of those four diagnoses. Later they would add epilepsy and idiocy and so on to the list.

Other records from the early years of the asylum included warrants for patients held on legal charges. There were requests for admission, medical certifications, sometimes police reports, and sometimes death notices. 

Problematic patients at Ararat who became dangerous or unpredictable had several forms of restraint and seclusion that could be applied. The first option was the straitjacket, which prevented patients from lasting out and hitting others with their fists. Keep in mind that, unless there were also leg chains included, patients could still have range of motion to kick and move around. So straitjackets weren’t always the best option.

A second option for seclusion would be to put the patient into what was called an isolation box. This was basically a locked cage. From the image I saw, If I had to estimate, it was probably 5’ x 5’ x 5’. Any patient placed into the isolation box would undoubtedly have to crouch or sit in it. I have so many questions about how this was approached by staff. Would someone be monitoring the patient while they were in there? Were they left alone? In the dark? Were they given breaks to use the restroom? I doubt it, and that’s disturbing.

Two years after the asylum opened, someone decided that there really should be a record of everyone who goes into restraint or seclusion. Whoever that was, good job! We still do this today, and it is vital information. I just hope, ahem, they didn’t make this decision in reaction to a restraint situation gone awry. That would be bad.

So starting in 1869, restraint or seclusion could not be applied without prior authorization from the superintendent or another medical officer. This is great – always a good idea to get authorization from the person in charge, especially someone who isn’t emotionally involved in the event. The problem is that (a) the superintendent is not always going to be available; (b) as the number of patients increased throughout the hospital, it would become increasingly difficult for the superintendent to have time to give authorization; and (c) in an emergency, sometimes patients have to be restrained or put into seclusion right away for their own safety and potentially for the safety of others. Today when an incident occurs that requires restraint or seclusion, the first choice to call is the psychiatrist assigned to the unit. If that doctor isn’t there, a covering psychiatrist or on-call psychiatrist will be called. We always have someone available, 24 hours a day. That’s standard, regardless of being at a traditional medical hospital or psychiatric hospital.

In 1869 Victoria, legislation required recordkeeping regarding restraint and seclusion. Many of these same details are required in our paperwork today:

-       Name [of patient]

-       Cause [of restraint or seclusion]

-       Duration of seclusion (hrs and minutes)

-       Total period of seclusion

At the bottom of each page, there was also a weekly summary of information from around the hospital: 

-       Total number [of patients] in seclusion

-       Total instances of seclusion

-       Total duration of seclusion

-       Average duration of each instance

-       Signature of medical superintendent

The existing records include seclusion registers from 1869-1881. Just a note about these documents: we want to keep track of these numbers because most hospitals (hopefully all, but I can’t speak to that) want to make sure that restraint and seclusion is only used when other interventions have failed and the patient is deemed an imminent risk of harm to self or others. We also have to be mindful of how long a patient is in seclusion or restraints for health and safety purposes.

During this time period, the law changed regarding patient discharges. It had previously been standard that two signatures were required to admit someone to an asylum and two signatures were required to discharge a patient from an asylum. Now it required eight signatures to discharge a patient from the asylum. 

If you’ve been listening to this show prior to this episode, then you know that people often used asylums to “dispose” of their unwanted family members. Children with developmental or physical disabilities, parents with dementia, wives with post-partum depression – all could be subject to involuntary hospitalization by their family members. If someone was not actually mentally ill, the new law requiring eight signatures would make it nearly impossible for them to return home. Of all the patients to enter Ararat Lunatic Asylum, one-third would not leave alive (Toy).

Unsurprisingly, the addition of the asylum didn’t stop the societal changes brought upon by the gold rush. Folks of European descent who had been born in Victoria continued to complain about the number of foreign-born immigrants arriving in the area, even though the number had slowed by the 1880s. According to the Museums of Victoria website:

In 1889, a major medical congress was held in Melbourne for the first time and, in the section of the meeting devoted to psychology, important papers were delivered on the mental health of the colonies. One of these showed that in 1887 only 23% of the inmates of Australia’s 18 public lunatic asylums were Australian-born, the remaining 77% being immigrants. (“Migration & Mental Illness in Victoria”)

And I just want to pause and emphasize this. I wish this were a classroom, so we could discuss the many reasons for this disparity. 23% of patients (called inmates) in lunatic asylums were born in Australia; 77% were immigrants. That is really significant. So, if we were having this as a classroom discussion, what do you think you would say? What would be your guess for why less than ¼ of the asylum population was Australian and over ¾ were foreign-born?

And the truth is that there’s more than one right answer. We could make the argument that perhaps many of the folks who immigrated and worked in the goldfields had compounded traumas: stressors from making the voyage by sea, confusion of being a foreigner in a strange land, difficult and back-breaking work where danger was ever-present, the very real threat of illness and disease, the fear of bushrangers harming and stealing from them, the brutal and unforgiving Australian sun, the relentless drive for gold, and the disappointment when it didn’t materialize – all of these could negatively affect a person’s mental health.

But. This was during a period when what we now call “scientific racism” was prevalent. This was the belief that different “races” had different capabilities. The Museums of Victoria page states that “One of the most important papers delivered at the congress [of 1889] was entitled ‘Race and Insanity.’ It argued that different ‘races,’ under which heading it listed Australians, English, Irish, French, Americans, and also Aborigines and Chinese inherited different types of insanity; indeed, some ‘races’ were more prone to insanity than others” (“Migration & Mental Illness in Victoria”). See if you can note the cultural stereotypes in these scientific “facts”:

The Irish, for example, were identified as having less “willpower” and being more “demonstrative” than other “races.” The Australian-born, on the other hand, had benefitted from what was called “hybridity”: that is, as many Australians had a mixture of English, Scots, and Irish ancestry, the undesirable mental characteristics of the Irish had been diluted. (“Migration & Mental Illness in Victoria”).

Forgive me if I’m playing into stereotypes, but this seems to read as the stereotype of the drunken, fighting Irish. And Australians, even those of Irish descent, had weeded out those bad behaviors, so they were less likely to be institutionalized. I don’t know…this feels highly problematic to me and dismisses what are likely very real traumas – of migrating, of working incredibly hard, of witnessing many deaths – and just minimizes it to “Well, that’s the Irish for ya!”

Sort of similarly, the 1889 congress contended that “the Australian-born suffered much lower rates of mental illness…partly due to the fact that they had been brought up in a good climate, with plenty of opportunities for physical exercise. Australians were more ‘self-reliant and self-confident’ than other ‘races,’ and these factors also contributed to their superior mental health” (“Migration & Mental Illness in Victoria”). Stop. Any time we see someone say that a particular group has a superior ability to do X or Y, it should raise a red flag. We should immediately look at who is saying this and to whom. If a person or group in the majority or place of power is saying it about someone or a group who is not in power, that should raise another red flag because there’s an agenda there. And I just want you to notice it. In this case, the 1889 congress is made up of medical experts (physicians, psychiatrists, probably not psychologists yet), as well as local and colonial authorities. And these statements are made toward immigrants they perceive as inferior to them (remember how they said Australian-born citizens had superior mental health?). So there’s a power differential at play. Keep that in mind as we move on.

The 1889 congress notes continue by saying, “Some experts used the apparently high rates of mental illness among immigrants to argue for more rigorous government control of immigration, suggesting that families and authorities overseas deliberately sought to rid themselves of mad people by encouraging them to emigrate” (“Migration & Mental Illness in Victoria”). This is simply not fair, in my opinion. The authorities seem to be wanting to control the narrative that the immigrants are insane and dangerous and must be stopped. And, most likely, that’s what the “refined citizens” in Melbourne probably want to hear. That they’ve identified the problem (these immigrants) and the solution is sending them to the asylum. From a trauma-informed perspective, I can see how problematic this is. It’s far more likely that the immigrants who came to Australia seeking gold and fortune ended up experiencing far more disappointment than they had expected. They were probably lonelier than they had anticipated. Perhaps they regretted their decision to immigrate. Perhaps they had to live with their choice and face a bleak future, and alcohol seemed like a good escape, at least for a while. Depression, topped with trauma, topped with alcohol dependence is a recipe for going to the lunatic asylum in the 1800s.

The Museums of Victoria website continues, “Victoria had more lunatic asylums and a larger asylum population at the end of the 19th century than any other Australian colony. In 1887 it had 6 overcrowded asylums housing some 3,300 patients, while in 1889 it was estimated that 1 in 300 Victorians was resident in an asylum…The writer of an 1880 article ‘On the prevention of lunacy’ was so alarmed by the apparent increase in insanity, he predicted that, if present trends continued, by 2043 Victoria would have a population of 60 million – all of them ‘lunatics’” (“Migration & Mental Illness in Victoria”).

Again, any time you see a predictive claim like that, it should raise a red flag. This is classic fear-mongering. This is someone in the majority culture saying that, if we don’t intervene, the minorities will take over, and none of us will be left. That message is incredibly dangerous. It is a slippery slope, and politicians love to use it. 

By the way, I looked up the current population of Victoria. Remember that the original claim was that by 2043 – so 20 years from the time of this recording – the population of Victoria would be 60 million and all of them would be lunatics. According a population projection site from Australia, the current population of Victoria, as of 2023, is 6.78 million people. The projected population for 2041 is 8.86 million people (“Victoria”). And, according to the most recent information from the Department of Health in Victoria, approximately 1 in 5 or 20% of Victorians experience a mental health condition each year (“Mental Illness and mental well-being”). That’s comparable, if not slightly less than the statistics from the United States. So suffice it to say that the prediction was way off, but I bet so many people believed that and were afraid and pushed to have anyone deemed “different” moved to an asylum, whether they needed to be there or not.

Getting back on track because I deviated quite a bit there – but I do think it’s important. You may remember from my first episodes on Oregon State Hospital that we talked quite a bit about “moral therapy.” Toward the end of the 19th century, Ararat Lunatic Asylum aspired to incorporate more of these moral therapy practices. Since they had the acreage and farmland to offer work opportunities, many of the male patients worked on the farm or made shoes. Women were often employed sewing and washing clothes and linens (Toy). Like other hospitals we’ve mentioned, this work was considered part of their treatment, so they patients went unpaid for their labor.

In 1903, the Lunacy Act of 1903 was passed. This effectively repealed the Lunacy Act of 1871 and the term “lunatic” was removed from legislation. Prior to this act, residents at the asylum were called “inmates.” Now, they were designated as “insane patients” or simply “patients.” An insane person was defined as someone found “to be insane or of unsound mind and incapable of managing himself or his affairs” (“Lunacy Act, 1903-1954”). An “institution” means any hospital for the insane [or] hospital for the criminal insane. Therefore, in accordance with this new act, the Ararat Lunatic Asylum was renamed the Ararat Hospital for the Insane, starting in 1905.

And that is where I’ll pause the history of the Ararat Hospital for the Insane. Next week I hope to finish the history of the hospital, but we’ll see what gems I stumble upon during my research. I don’t want to make any promises. We’ll see what this hospital has in store for us; there are plenty of fascinating tales left in store.

So with that, thank you so much for listening! There have been several new folks who have joined the Facebook group and Instagram pages – thank you, thank you!! A huge shout out to – and I have no idea how to say this, tuuin ct? – for your very kind five-star review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading those! Please rate and review the podcast wherever you’re listening, but super extra bonus points if you rate and review on Apple Podcasts.

If you liked this episode, feel free to support the show with a one-time donation starting at $3 to Buy Me a Coffee. This helps goes toward my expenses for the show and helps it keep going! You can also support the show monthly like Heather A. does – I see your donations, Heather A! – thank you so much!

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Thank you again! I hope you enjoyed this first episode on Ararat Mental Hospital. We’ll be back next week with more history from southeastern Australia! So stay tuned!

And, as always, remember the words of Maya Angelou: “Do the best you can until you know better. Then, when you know better, do better.” Until next time…

“Ararat Asylum, 1867-1905; Hospital for the Insane 1905-34; Mental Hospital 1934-97; Training Centre 1966-93.” Victoria State Government Health and Human Services. https://www.findingrecords.dhhs.vic.gov.au/CollectionResultsPage/Ararat-Asylum

“Aradale Lunatic Asylum.” Aradale Lunatic Asylum. https://www.aradale.com.au

“Aradale Mental Hospital.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aradale_Mental_Hospital

“Buckland Riot.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckland_riot

“Convicts’ Prevention Act.” https://www.skwirk.com.au/skwirk/uploadFiles/content/database/files/chapter.3730.body.html

Gold Fever!: Life on the Diggings, 1851-1855. Canberra: National Library of Australia, 1994. https://www.nla.gov.au/sites/default/files/goldfever.pdf

“Ha-ha.” Wikipedia. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ha-ha

“Immigration and Ethnicity: Overview.” A Nation’s Heritage. University of Melbourne,  27 May 2015. https://www.egold.net.au/biogs/EG00006b.htm

“Lunacy Act, 1903-1954.” Western Australian Legislation. https://www.legislation.wa.gov.au/legislation/prod/filestore.nsf/FileURL/mrdoc_26346.pdf/$FILE/Lunacy%20Act%201903%20-%20%5B02-00-00%5D.pdf?OpenElement

“Mental Illness and Mental Well-Being.” Victoria State Government Department of Health. https://www.health.vic.gov.au/your-health-report-of-the-chief-health-officer-victoria-2018/mental-health/mental-illness-and

“Migration and Mental Illness in Victoria.” Museums Victoria Collection. https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/articles/13275

“Sickness & Madness.” A Nation’s Heritage. University of Melbourne, 27 May 2015. https://www.egold.net.au/biogs/EG00117b.htm

“The Treacherous Black Forest, Victoria.” Goldfields Guide, 9 April 2018.  https://www.goldfieldsguide.com.au/blog/16/the-treacherous-black-forest-of-victoria

Toy, Mitchell. “Victorian Psychiatric Patients’ Grim Fate in Hellish 1800s Hospitals.” Herald Sun, 9 Dec. 2014. https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/victorian-psychiatric-patients-grim-fate-in-hellish-1800s-hospitals/news-story/c7928ebe8a9f527a941cce86e0990fef

“Victoria: Australia Population Forecast.” Informed Decisions. https://forecast.id.com.au/australia/about-forecast-areas?WebID=110#:~:text=The%202023%20population%20forecast%20for,grow%20to%208%2C860%2C000%20by%202041.

“Victorian Gold Rush.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_gold_rush

“Victorian ‘Insanity’ in the 19th Century.” Traces, 9 May 2019. https://tracesmagazine.com.au/2019/05/victorian-insanity-in-the-19th-century/