Ep. 41: The History of Kew Lunatic Asylum

In this episode, we discuss the history of Kew Lunatic Asylum (1871-1988), near Melbourne. Find out why the hospital stayed open for so long, even when administration called for its closure several years after opening. Learn about the story of one patient who gained international notoriety for all the wrong reasons.

All sources are listed in 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. As you’ve probably learned by now, things rarely turn out as planned on this show – mostly because it’s just me doing all this. So when I get sick, as I did for the past week and a half, things get a little delayed. So thank you for your patience. I’m glad to be back at it!

I’m still working on getting some good ghost stories from Ararat Mental Hospital, but while we wait I thought I’d take a quick little detour to one of Ararat’s sister asylums. I had a few people request that I discuss the history of this hospital and, since we have time, I thought, why not? 

Now, sort of to that point: I get many requests to cover this or that hospital, and I often respond with the same sort of answer: the wonderful and terrible thing about this show is that I could be doing these episodes for decades and not get through all the old asylums that were out there. So, I’m always willing to take suggestions, but just know that I will not be able to get to them all.

Trigger warnings for this episode include pretty horrific instances of patient abuse and sexual assault, as well as a story that includes homophobia and transphobia. I will do my best to minimize the gory details, but as with many stories from these old asylums, the truth is not particularly pretty.

All of my sources will be listed in the episode transcript, but I’m going to be relying heavily on a doctoral dissertation by Cheryl Day entitled “Magnificence, Misery, and Madness: A History of the Kew Asylum, 1872-1915.”

So come on in and get comfortable as we go behind the walls of Kew Lunatic Asylum…

If you think back to Episode 36, which was our first glimpse into the history of Ararat Lunatic Asylum, you’ll remember that the plan for building several insane asylums was hastened by the gold rush of the 1850s. But, of course, there were folks struggling with mental health issues before the chaos of the gold rush.

Before colonial Victoria saw the boom of gold, people believed to be suffering from insanity were kept in local jails and housed in despicable conditions. But in 1848, an asylum that would later be named Yarra Bend Lunatic Asylum opened as the first of its kind in Victoria for the treatment of the mentally ill. But within only six years of its opening, the Yarra Bend site and its buildings were deemed “altogether unsuitable” and a new asylum was recommended (qtd. in Day 22).

But due to the unprecedented amount of immigration to the area, coupled with the craze of the gold rush, the need for more institutions grew. So, as we discussed in Episode 36, in 1864, the Victorian government decided to construct three new lunatic asylums to accommodate the growing need: Ararat, Beechworth, and Kew.

The hope for the new asylums was that they would follow the Quaker model of Moral Treatment, as we’ve discussed in previous episodes. One of the basic tenets of moral treatment is that the site of the building is of utmost importance. It should be located somewhere beautiful with plenty of natural light.

Architect G.W. Vivian, who would go on to design both Ararat and Kew Asylums, noted that the site they chose for their new asylum was:

On a section of land, about 400 acres in extent, situated on the River Yarra, about 4 miles from Melbourne, and ½ a mile to the north of the village of Kew…the site selected is a fine slope, elevated about 100 feet above the level of the river, admitting of proper drainage and admirably adapted for ornamental grounds, the aspect chosen is south-east, and during the summer months the refreshing influence of the sea-breeze will be felt, without being exposed to south west gales (qtd. in Day 24). 

Historian Cheryl Day adds that the asylum would be built on the site which would “’conduce to the happiness and comfort of the patients and facilitate their recovery.’ The ‘fine slope’ was chosen for the asylum not only for its provision of ‘health-giving breezes,’ but for the reason that the sheer beauty of the vista was intended to enhance the spiritual well-being of the inmates and increase their chances of care” (Day 24).

The asylum would go on to have large English gardens surrounding it, providing a park-like atmosphere, with walking paths and orchards – not only for the well-being of the patients housed there, but for the peace of mind of the people living nearby. 

Construction of the asylum initially began in 1864 but almost immediately stopped due to rumors of inferior work on the foundations. An investigation followed, and the first architect of the project, Frederick Kawerau, resigned. A new contractor, Samuel Amess, vowed to continue the construction using Kawerau’s plans, which had been derived from G.W. Vivian’s plans for the Ararat and Beechworth asylums (“Kew Asylum”).

And so, after a long delay, construction recommenced in 1868. The asylum was built in the Italianate style using large clay bricks typical of that time period. Like Ararat, it was designed following the E-plan and surrounded by low ha-ha walls. Unlike the new asylum in Ararat, Kew would become larger and more grand. It would also be more expensive (“Kew Asylum”). Kew was designed to be “elegant, beautiful, yet substantial…viewed as ‘a magnificent asylum for the insane’ with the aim of portraying Melbourne as a civilized and benevolent city whilst avoiding the jail-like appearance of other asylums” (“Kew Asylum”). It’s important to remember that this time period – really, around the world – had gone through a very recent shift in the treatment of the mentally ill. The idea was they now understood insanity and understood that asylums were places that offered a cure. Having the largest and most stately asylums was a point of scientific prestige. And Kew was later estimated to be the tallest building in the southern hemisphere (Day).

Like other asylums of its day, Kew was constructed in the E-plan style, meaning that if you looked at the shape from above, it would look like a capital E with the long edge being the front façade. One side of the hospital housed women and had their respective courtyard, while the other side housed men and their courtyard. The central component housed the administration block that boasted two four-storey towers on either side (Day 34). Picture, like, two Addams Family mansions placed side-by-side, and you sorta get an idea of what this place looked like.

Kew Asylum began admitting patients transferred from Yarra Bend in 1871 but it officially opened to new patients in 1872. According to Cheryl Day, it was originally designed to house 600 inmates, including 40 paying patients. Within a year of its official opening, all remaining patients from the Carlton Asylum were transferred to Kew. By January 1874, there were 812 patients registered at Kew (Day 35), already 200 over the intended limit. Of course, this would not be the end of overcrowding at Kew or any other asylum, for that matter.

Although Kew Lunatic Asylum began with good intentions to follow the tenets of moral therapy, like many of our stories, it devolved quickly into chaos and abuse. Cheryl Day says:

For four years, the Kew Asylum maintained a self-assured silence behind its imposing façade. In 1876, however [and I’ll note that that’s only four years after it officially opened], it was forced to reveal that its internal condition was a pitiful affront to the outward ostentation. The major source of revelations about the nature of life behind the asylum walls was an official inquiry which had been initiated by a sudden and suspicious death at the asylum. The number of complaints and queries that were aired, particularly about staff neglect and ill-treatment of patients, turned it into a major investigation of the asylum and its administration. The Inquiry into Matters Concerning the Kew Asylum, as it was called, [details]…the treatment of patients and general conditions at the asylum. (Day 36)

The large, imposing asylums that only a few years earlier were the pride of the region now seemed to show that housing the mentally ill was not much better than putting them in jail. And I will add that remember that this is all happening before the 1886 Zox Report, which determined, among many things, that the criminally insane should be housed separately from others who had a mental illness and were merely there for treatment.

And so it was decided that the cottage style of asylum – with small, individual cottages – was the preferred option for treating the mentally ill. But the original building was already there, and it was only a little over a decade old – and remember how proud they were of how expensive it was? There were some advantages to the larger structure: the long corridors, outside covered walkways, and glass windows in doors gave the illusion that the superintendent or another doctor could stop by for an inspection at any moment. In this way, it sorta served as a panopticon where staff and patients alike would monitor their own actions. The hope was that this would decrease the use of seclusion and restraints. And, at least according to the 1889 annual report, the use of seclusion and restraints had been largely abandoned – or so they said (Day 38).

You may wonder who was admitted to Kew at this time. Remember that Lunacy Statute of 1867 made a number of important revisions to mental health law in Victoria. Among the changes included the criteria for sending someone to an insane asylum. At that time, a friend, relative or acquaintance could have someone be evaluated (even informally, sometimes) by two medical practitioners. If those two medical practitioners agreed that the person was insane, they would sign medical certificates and hand them over to the superintendent of the hospital, who either approved or denied the recommendation (“Kew Asylum”). Lunatics incarcerated in jails could also be transferred to an asylum by order of the Chief Secretary. Or, unhoused people who were “not under proper care and control” could be brought by law enforcement before two justices. If the justices deemed the person to be a lunatic, they would be moved to an asylum. Finally, people struggling with addiction to alcohol (known clinically and legally as “inebriates”) could be committed to an asylum for up to 12 months (“Kew Asylum”). Granted, they weren’t given any substance use treatment, but they were able to “dry out” for a year before being considered cured. We know now that that’s not how addiction works.

The most common admission diagnoses for folks coming to the asylum were delusional insanity, dementia, epilepsy, general paralysis or paresis of the insane, idiocy, inebriation, melancholia, and puerperal mania (“Kew Asylum”). I’ve mentioned these in previous episodes, but they’re worth discussing again. Remember that this is all happening before psychiatrist Emil Kraeplin coined the term “dementia praecox,” which is what we now know as schizophrenia.

Delusional insanity includes primary symptoms of paranoia, religious preoccupation, grandiose beliefs, and the like. This is sort of the stereotypical idea of insanity: that someone has false beliefs about themselves or the people around them. That could be that they believe they are the King or Queen of a foreign land or the incarnation of Jesus Christ. It could be the belief that unknown others are out to find and kill them.

Dementia in the 19th century had a broader definition than it does today. Today we use the term dementia to discuss various cognitive impairments in people who are generally over the age of 65. In the 19th century, this more broadly related to any cognitive difficulties for people of any age. We know today that schizophrenia causes cognitive deficits that can impair functioning, like memory difficulties, problems with attention and concentration, etc. So likely what they were seeing in the 1800s were those cognitive impairments without more obvious symptoms like delusions, and labeling that person as having dementia.

Epilepsy has the same definition in the 19th century as it does today. The main difference is that we no longer think of it as a mental illness. Although its genesis is in the brain, it is a physiological disorder. But, 150 years ago, people with epilepsy were believed to be insane, just as in centuries before that, some believed they were demon-possessed.

We discussed general paralysis or paresis of the insane in Episode 31 on Denbigh Asylum. This was considered a symptom of late-stage syphilis and caused significant changes in personality, loosened morality (which, based on descriptions, I assume means an increase in impulsive or risky behaviors), and extravagant behaviors. 

Inebriation and melancholia are pretty self-explanatory. Inebriation, as we briefly discussed earlier, refers to alcohol addiction. Melancholia referred to chronic depression and, unfortunately, sometimes bereavement. There were many times when someone experienced a significant loss (of a parent, of a child) and their grief was considered “unusual” and resulted in their institutionalization.

Puerperal [pew-urp-er-al] mania refers to post-partum symptoms in women, particularly what we would refer to today as post-partum psychosis. But this could also include elevated energy, increased impulsivity, rambling or pressured speech, and so on. Hormones were basically not understood during this time, so any deviance from the perceived “norms” after childbirth were considered signs of insanity.

And finally, we discussed idiocy and its counterparts in Episode 1 on Oregon State Hospital and in Episode 8 on Fairview Training Center. For an egregiously long time, the terms “idiot,” “imbecile,” and “moron” were all clinical terms indicating different levels of intelligence that all fell under the umbrella of “feeble-mindedness.” Someone given the diagnosis of an idiot had the most profound intellectual deficits, with the abilities of someone aged two or under. After the term idiot was retired from clinical language, we used the term “Mental Retardation” until 2013 when the DSM-5 was released and changed the name to “Intellectual Disability.”

And this brings us to the next part in our history of Kew Asylum. Adults weren’t the only ones admitted to Kew during its early days. Children were also admitted. Children who were considered behaviorally problematic or those who fell under the umbrella of “feeble-minded” were all sent to the asylum for warehousing, essentially. By 1879, there were 600 children at Kew, making up about a quarter of all inmates (“Kew Asylum”). Remember that when Kew was originally built, it was designed to house 600 people – now there were that many children alone.

It really stops me in my tracks to think about how chaotic asylums must have been during this time. And this was true for most of the hospitals I’ve discussed in the history of the podcast – we discussed it quite a bit during the episodes on Oregon State Hospital. I’m sure there was some sort of organization and rationale for housing different types of patients together, but at Kew, the primary separation was between binary men and women. There was one downstairs ward designated for patients with chronic medical conditions (Day 69), but other than that, there wasn’t much organization. That means that the criminally insane were potentially housed alongside a new mother with post-partum depression. A child with Autism could be potentially housed with sexual predators or someone with PTSD who wakes up with night terrors. I think of how scary it must have been for the most vulnerable patients – not only to be separated from their family and sent to a cold and creepy hospital, but to be scared at night by sounds of people screaming or followed around by some creepy dude. We know all these patients were mixed together for a long while, and we know there were stories of abuse by other patients and by staff. Any of these asylums must have been a terrifying place to be.

In an attempt to corral some of the chaos, the 1886 Zox Commission ordered a number of changes to the asylums. One, perhaps most significantly, it ordered that the criminally insane be separated from others who had not committed a crime. This was when J Ward opened in Victoria to specifically house and treat people deemed criminally insane. Second, the report indicated that children should also be housed separately. Initially, the idea was to send the children currently residing at Kew to nearby Yarra Bend Asylum, but instead some cottages at Kew were designed for what would become the Kew Idiot Ward starting in May 1887. This was initially considered a part of Kew Asylum, but later would break off and become its own institution, Kew Idiot Asylum. Only children were admitted to the asylum, but they would often remain there, even as adults (“Kew Asylum”).

Another major change around this time was the introduction of the Inebriate Asylums Act in 1888. Remember that folks struggling with alcohol addiction had been allowed to be treated in asylums for up to a year, starting in 1867. I should add here that people with money who had alcohol addiction could be treated in private institutions, like the Northcote Inebriate Asylum. People without money would be sent to lunatic asylums. But under the Inebriate Asylums Act of 1888, these private or semi-private asylums were abolished. Northcode was taken over by the Victorian Government in 1890 and converted into a public inebriate retreat. Brightside and Lara Inebriate Retreats were opened afterward, and most patients with alcohol use disorders were moved out of the lunatic asylums (“Kew Asylum”).

It was around this time period that Kew admitted a patient who would gain international notoriety for all the wrong reasons. So I’m going to pause for a moment and tell his story. And I’ll give a trigger warning here for transphobic and homophobic content. I often hear people say something to the effect of, “There never used to be men who wanted to be women” or the reverse, but I counter with, “Yes, they have always been here. It just hasn’t always been safe for them to be here” – and, arguably, for many it still isn’t safe. This is one such example. This is the story of Edward DeLacy Evans.

Not much is known about Evans’ early life. We know that he was born around 1830 either in France or Ireland and was assigned female at birth and given the name Ellen Tremayne or Tremaye. I’m going to use “he” and “him,” since that’s how Evans identified throughout his life. But this was the mid-1800s, and it wasn’t exactly acceptable for someone born a woman to be dressed as a man or living life as a man. Then Evans, who had been living in Ireland, immigrated to Victoria in 1856 during the gold rush. He wore a green dress over more traditionally masculine clothing each day he was on the ship (“Edward DeLacy Evans”).

When he arrived in Victoria, Evans took a job as a housemaid for a couple. Not long after he started, Evans was caught in bed with the wife. Since he was still presenting as a woman, the punishment by the husband was extra harsh: he got horsewhipped by the woman’s husband and sent away (“June 29: Edward DeLacy Evans”).

After this, Evans began exclusively living and dressing in line with his male identity. He worked as a carter, miner, blacksmith, and ploughman, all the while owning shares in several gold mines. He sustained some sort of severe injury in a gold mine, although I couldn’t find more details, but this will factor in later (“June 29: Edward DeLacy Evans”). 

During this time, he was married twice – first to a woman who left him for another man, and second to a woman who died from tuberculosis only five years into their marriage (“June 29: Edward DeLacy Evans”).

In 1867, Evans married a third time – this time to a woman named Julia Marquand, who lived with her sister and brother-in-law. It should be noted here that Julia’s brother-in-law had been sexually abusing her since she was a child. So when Julia ended up pregnant, it was obviously not Evans’ child. Evans was furious that the brother-in-law had abused his wife. After Julia’s daughter was born, Evans signed his name on her birth certificate, although in court, she attested that her brother-in-law was the biological father. Evans tried to support her in court, but his testimony was thrown out, citing problems with his mental state (“June 29: Edward DeLacy Evans”).

The brother-in-law contested that, because of the injury Evans had sustained in the gold mine and because of his behavior surrounding his wife’s pregnancy, he was a danger to himself and others. Now, there’s no way to know the full truth here, but something tells me that the brother-in-law was probably worried that Evans would come after him and wanted to do away with Evans before Evans could do away with him. So the brother-in-law had Evans sent to Bendigo Hospital but escaped after they attempted to bathe him. They recaptured him and he was hospitalized for six weeks, all the while refusing to bathe. Remember that Evans was living as a man during this time and using his male name, so having someone bathe him would expose him…in more ways than one (“June 29: Edward DeLacy Evans”).

He was subsequently transferred to Kew Asylum and forced to bathe. When his identity was revealed, Evans was humiliated by staff and forced to move to the women’s side of the hospital, use his dead name, and only wear dresses. This “peculiar” incident was released to the press, who wrote extensively on what they’d discovered, and soon Evans’ story was international. People came to Kew, offering to sell tickets to the public to see the freak who lived there. Fortunately, they refused. Unfortunately, the asylum performed invasive medical treatments on Evans without his consent (“June 29: Edward DeLacy Evans”).

He was released in 1879 with the caveat that he should only use his dead name and wear dresses, or they would recommit him to the asylum. But Evans now had few job prospects and was exhibited (I would argue exploited) as “The Wonderful Male Impersonator.” But Evans hadn’t been a performer, so fortunately or unfortunately, this was short-lived. Within two years of his release from Kew, he was destitute and applied for admission to the Benevolent Asylum in 1881. He was instead transferred to the Melbourne Immigrants’ Home, where he lived for the next 20 years until his death in 1901, still forced to use his dead name and still wearing women’s clothing (“June 29: Edward DeLacy Evans”).

Of course, Edward DeLacy Evans was not the only patient to be abused and mistreated at Kew. Some attendants were known for being particularly brutal to patients. They earned “clout” by pushing or dragging a patient. One cruel nurse was noted to beat patients heads against a table until they bled in order to force medicine down their throat (Day 78). Cheryl Day points out, “’passing one’s arm round a patient’s neck a la garrote’ was ‘part of the system on which Kew [was] built’” (qtd. in Day 78). I hate that. Hate all of that. And the worst part is that these are only a few of the horrific stories that happened there.

What’s more, for years, overcrowding had been a growing problem. And it had been pointed out to administration via inquiries on at least two separate occasions. At one point, according to Cheryl Day, there were so many people crowded into Kew that the Board of Inquiry declared that it was “impossible to get pure air enough for every patient to breathe” (qtd. in Day 40). Also horrific was the number of beds crammed together, people sleeping on the floor, and people sleeping in earth closets. I had to look up what an “earth closet” is…it’s an outhouse. They had two people sleeping in outhouses, even though they both desperately protested against it (Day 41). That is one of the more inhumane details I’ve read about in my research of asylums thus far.

Unsurprising to anyone, I’m sure, the lack of hygiene and chronic overcrowding led to an outbreak of typhoid fever in March 1907. What’s significant about this is that typhoid was believed to be largely eradicated in Melbourne at this time (“Kew Asylum”), so when news broke about the illness at the asylum, the public became rightly concerned. 

There was immediate backlash about the poor conditions at Kew. Newspaper articles around the time of the outbreak indicated, “The asylum has never been sewered, and the drainage has long been defective” (“Typhoid at Kew Asylum” The Age 8 March 1907). Add in the fact that patients were crammed in close quarters (and sleeping in outhouses), and they had a disaster on their hands.

The outbreak appeared to begin in the women’s laundry area. Some of the patients who became ill worked in the laundry, but others slept nearby. There was a perfect storm of old and damaged water pipes, poor drainage, a chicken coop nearby, a dumping ground for human excrement (gross), oh and drainage from defunct laundry tubs where they’d washed clothes three years before from patients who had had typhoid. Add all that up, and you get an outbreak. 

Ten patients and at least one nurse contracted typhoid right away, and newspaper articles indicated that the number was quickly growing. One article pointed out a little too matter-of-factly, “So far only one death has occurred, that of a patient” (“Typhoid at Kew Asylum” The Age 7 March 1907). Like, nothing to see here, just one patient, not a big deal. Just shows how undervalued these people were.

Inspector General W. Ernest Jones must have rolled his eyes in disgust. For years he’d been looking for any excuse to close the Kew and Yarra Bend asylums, citing their profound structural problems and rundown condition (Day 49). After the typhoid outbreak, he said, “For years nothing has been expended on the hospitals for the insane…repairs have been neglected, woodwork gone unpainted, water pipes unrenewed…a good water supply and proper drainage have been omitted” (qtd. in Day 49).  

The imposing building that had once been a source of prestige was quickly becoming a burden on the local area. It was doing more harm than good.

As a side note, remember that the Lunacy Act of 1905 officially changed the names of all the asylums to hospitals for the insane. It’s worth pointing out that even though the hospital was renamed Kew Hospital for the Insane in 1905, all the newspaper articles I read still referred to it as Kew Asylum by 1907. Some habits die hard.

By 1914, Kew was not only admitting patients certified as insane but voluntary admissions were being accepted, too. I find this a somewhat disturbing point, given the difficulties they’d had with maintaining the building and with overcrowding as it was. Now, anyone could admit themselves voluntarily. Grrrrreat. That’s totally going to help keep the numbers down.

Cheryl Day’s dissertation covers the history of Kew Asylum from 1872 to 1915. I encourage you to check it out if you’d like to learn more about Kew Asylum during its early years. It’s pretty easy to find a PDF copy of it online. She was able to go far more into depth than I am about the conditions of the asylum and what daily life was like for patients. If you’d like to look it up, it’s called “Magnificence, misery, and madness: A history of the Kew Asylum 1872 to 1915” by Cheryl Day (D-A-Y). I should also note that many documents of life at Kew after 1915 are difficult to find due to patient privacy reasons, so you may notice that I’m going to zoom out a bit as I discuss the rest of the hospital’s history. 

For the next two decades, there was a push and pull between government officials and hospital administrators about what to do with Kew Hospital for the Insane. Some pushed for its closure. Nearby Yarra Bend Asylum was closed in 1925 and its patients transferred to Mont Park Hospital (“Yarra Bend”). Many hoped to do the same with Kew but somehow it kept evading closure.

The Mental Hygiene Act of 1933 once again changed the name of hospitals around the state to mental hospitals. So Kew Hospital for the Insane became Kew Mental Hospital. And the inmates who resided at the hospital became known as “patients,” finally indicating a shift in how mental illness was seen – as something to be treated, rather than merely contained (“Kew”).

In June 1943, still looking for a way to close the hospital, a town clerk of the City of Kew proposed a solution. He argued that the hospital should be closed, with the grounds subdivided and made into a modern town of 700-800 homes. This was toward the tail end of WWII, so the solution would have been ideal in terms of providing post-war housing and employment. But the idea eventually faded, as overcrowding at all the hospitals took priority (“Kew Asylum”). For now, at least, Kew would remain open.

Over a decade later, in 1958, about 58 acres of the hospital’s original 398 acres were given to be used as the Talbot Colony for Epileptics. It would later be known as Royal Talbot (now part of Austin Health), and the hospital and training center continue to operate today. Another section of the original Kew property, adjacent to the Talbot Colony was given to Guide Dogs, Victoria, for a guide dog breeding and training center, which opened in 1962 (“Kew Asylum”).

Remember that during our episodes on Ararat Mental Hospital (as with other hospitals around the world), there was a similar downward trajectory around this time. The 1950s saw the introduction of psychotropic medications, which allowed many patients to be discharged. Deinstitutionalization began during the 1960s, and patients slowly began being transferred to community-based facilities. The same thing happened at Kew, all the while people were still looking for reasons to close the hospital. Every few years, it seemed, someone came up with a brilliant idea, only to have it immediately dismissed.

For some reason that I couldn’t find in my research (but if you know, please email me), the hospital became known during the 1970s as Willsmere Hospital. I don’t know for sure, but I wonder if it’s similar to how Ararat Mental Hospital became known as Aradale in the 60s as a way for the community to connect with the hospital (“Kew”).

In January 1982, three wards of Kew Mental Hospital became known as the Willsmere Unit, a psychiatric hospital that was able to accommodate short-term acute patients and geriatric patients (“Kew”). Many patients were transferred to the community and by 1986, the number of patients at the hospital had been reduced to 430. Of those, about three-quarters were over age 65 (“Kew Asylum”).

Around this time, someone finally came up with a plan that seemed to stick. The Labor Government of Victoria commissioned the “Willsmere Project,” which had the purpose of closing the hospital and developing new services and facilities in the community. Existing patients were transferred to other facilities in the community until the hospital was officially closed in December 1988 (“Kew Asylum”). 

But, of course, that wouldn’t exactly be the end of Kew Hospital. The buildings were sold, and conservation analysis was completed and recommended, oddly enough, that the bulk of the original buildings be conserved (“Kew Asylum”). It’s ironic to me that after almost a century of people complaining about the building – saying it was “rundown” with “profound structural problems” – that now someone would fight to preserve it.

Not only was the building preserved, but it was developed into luxury residential apartments. On October 27, 1993, the Willsmere residential development officially opened (“Kew Asylum”). The newly-converted space had 155 private residences with the addition of 101 townhouses. There are landscaped gardens, two tennis courts, three BBQ sites, a solar heated swimming pool, a toddlers pool, a bowling green, a half-sized basketball court, gym, library, and community center (“Exploring Willsmere”). Today, if you want to experience Willsmere up close and personal, you can rent a 6-storey residence in one of the two main towers on Air Bnb. It’s 5 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, and pretty reasonably priced. And the pictures are gorgeous. At the very least, go check out the pictures of the site and the funky floor plan.

Since the building has retained its heritage listing, the Historic Buildings Council required that at least part of the original building be maintained as a museum documenting the history of the site. So there is still an intact section of the original hospital (one of the women’s wards) that remains open, along with a few remaining records and artifacts (“Kew Asylum”). There’s a brochure with a self-guided tour of the premises that I’ll include on the Facebook group page.

And that is where I’ll end the history of Kew Lunatic Asylum. I still hope to do one more episode on Aradale that focuses on the spooky and paranormal stories of the site, so stay tuned for that. In the meantime, thank you for your patience, and I hope you enjoyed this little side story on Kew Asylum.

As always, thank you so much for listening! If you want to stay up-to-date with information about the show, join our Facebook group or follow me on Instagram at behindthewallspod. You can head over to the Beacons page to find other ways to support the show.

But, of course, 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…

Day, Cheryl. Magnificence, misery, and madness: A history of the Kew Asylum 1872-1915. PhD thesis, Department of History, The University of Melbourne, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/11343/39457

“Edward DeLacy Evans.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_De_Lacy_Evans

“Exploring Willsmere.” Medium, 2 Aug. 2016. https://medium.com/@kewforyou/exploring-willsmere-33c20c7858ee

“June 29: Edward DeLacy Evans.” Making Queer History. https://www.makingqueerhistory.com/articles/2019/6/29/edward-de-lacy-evans

“Kew (Asylum 1871-1905; Hospital for the Insane 1905-1934; Mental Hospital 1934-c. 1970s; Mental/Psychiatric Hospital c. 1970s-1988).” Public Record Office Victoria. https://prov.vic.gov.au/archive/VA2840

“Kew Asylum.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kew_Asylum#

“Melbourne’s Best Kept Secret.” Air Bnb. https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/872785826024976532?source_impression_id=p3_1701028790_EyrWbVFfy%2BUJSV0W

“Typhoid at Kew Asylum.” The Age, 7 March 1907.

“Typhoid at Kew Asylum.” The Age, 8 March 1907.

“Yarra Bend (Asylum 1848-1905; Hospital for the Insane 1905-1925).” Public Record Office Victoria. https://prov.vic.gov.au/archive/VA2839