Ep. 67: History of Ipswich Mental Hospital

This week we head down under to Queensland to learn about Ipswich Mental Hospital, which went by many other names during its 120 year history. Find out which name is the reason this hospital was selected (I promise you'll be able to tell!). Discover how the area went from a formal penal colony to discovering coal to housing a small branch of the Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum.

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, and we are heading back to the country where I surprisingly have the most listeners in one city – by a landslide! Yes, we are heading back down under (I’m so sorry – please forgive me)! But this time, we won’t be staying in Victoria, like we did last time. We’ll be venturing north to Queensland. And I have to admit, I have a very silly reason for choosing this hospital – you’ll see why very soon. Be prepared to roll your eyes!

Trigger warnings for this episode include use of outdated terms and ableist language that was indicative of the era. For any indigenous Australians who may be listening, please be aware that I will be referencing and using the names of people who are now deceased.

My sources for this episode come primarily from Wikipedia and the University of Queensland website, as well as newspaper articles found on Newspapers.com. Just a big shout out in general to Newspapers.com – I love that site! Highly recommend, if you haven’t already checked it out. All of my sources will be listed at the end of the episode transcript.

For now, come on in and get comfortable as we go behind the walls of Ipswich Mental Hospital…

Before there was an asylum, there was a racetrack. And before the racetrack, there was a penal colony. This is where the story of Ipswich Mental Hospital begins.

Unlike the story of Ararat Mental Hospital in Victoria, there was no gold rush that brought people to the area around Brisbane. And, just for reference for those of us who need a refresher on our Australian geography, Brisbane is located on the far eastern side of Australia, almost halfway up the coast. If you’ve heard of the Sunshine Coast or the Gold Coast, it’s in between those two locations. It looks stunningly beautiful.

The area around Brisbane was long occupied by the Yugara and Turrbal aboriginal tribes (“History of Brisbane”) before it was turned into a penal colony for British convicts sent from Sydney. The Moreton Bay Penal Settlement operated from 1824 until 1842. It served as a place to punish repeat offenders who had committed serious offenses (“Moreton Bay Penal Settlement”). The place was known as a “prison within a prison” because it was located so far away from Sydney (“History of Brisbane”) and surrounded by bushland, so it was isolated. And it came to be known for its harsh treatment of prisoners by using leg irons, receiving up to 150 lashes, or enduring up to 14 hours on what was called “the treadmill” (“Founding of Brisbane”). At its height, the penal colony housed over 1,000 prisoners (“History of Brisbane”). Because of the inmates, no one was allowed to develop the land within 80 km of the site, but pressure from landowners and merchants eventually wore down the government, and the penal colony was closed in 1839 (“Founding of Brisbane”). By 1842, Brisbane became a free settlement.

Not far from Brisbane was the town of Limestone, where coal had recently been discovered (“Convicts at Ipswich”). In 1843, Limestone was renamed Ipswich. Not too far from Ipswich was Goodna, which became known as a village in 1856 (“Convicts at Ipswich”).

Now, to this point, this whole area, including Brisbane, Ipswich, and Goodna were all part of the colony of New South Wales. It wasn’t until December 1859 that Queensland was proclaimed a colony (“Convicts at Ipswich”). One of the first decisions by the new parliament was to increase the population of Queensland by attracting newcomers with the promise of landownership (“Creation of a state”). But life wasn’t easy in the new colony. The 1860s saw a period of turbulent economics, which ultimately led to high rates of unemployment (“History of Brisbane”). And, as we’ve mentioned in previous episodes, the combination and trauma of mass immigration, unemployment, and poverty can have devastating socioeconomic consequences.

The jail in Brisbane began to get overcrowded – not only with inmates but those deemed “mad” or simply poor. It became clear that more facilities were needed to house all the folks currently incarcerated in Brisbane. So in 1865, the first publicly-funded asylum in Queensland was established in Goodna (“Ipswich Branch”). It was originally called the Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum, which was said to be a mispronunciation of a word used by the Yuggera Ugarapul first nations people (Carrington). The first patients were transferred from the Brisbane jail to Woogaroo on January 10, 1865.

Over the next ten years, Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum continued to grow and get crowded. Soon, it too had reached its maximum capacity, and the plan was to create a branch asylum in Ipswich to house elderly patients (“University of Queensland Ipswich Campus”). The Ipswich Branch Asylum was planned to be built on an old horse racing track that had belonged to the now-defunct North Australia Jockey Club. The name of the property? Well, that’s the silly reason I chose this hospital. It was called…the Sandy Gallop. Not to be confused, of course, with the Sarah Gallup. But yeah, I couldn’t pass up talking about a place called the Sandy Gallop Asylum. I simply could not. Anyway, moving on…

The Sandy Gallop Asylum, sometimes called “the Gallop,” opened in Ipswich on July 9, 1878 (“University of Queensland Ipswich Campus”). Fifty men were admitted and lodged in what the University of Queensland website calls the “one-storey Arthur Pavilion built by Macgregor and Brown.” It sat on 140 acres of land with prime views of the river and countryside (“Ipswich Mental Hospital”). Mr. Patrick Broderick was named as superintendent of the new asylum, which was now planned to be an insane asylum rather than a “benevolent asylum” for elderly folks.

Now, interestingly enough, the asylum must have been intended to be temporary because in a newspaper article from the Queensland Times dated October 8, 1881, it said that a year prior, all the patients from Sandy Gallop were expected to be transferred back to the Woogaroo Asylum. But, and understandably so, there was an outcry by the community about this. They had just built and filled up the new asylum in Ipswich, and now it was going to be abandoned?

Instead what happened was the Colonial Secretary came to visit “the Gallop,” and was pleased with what he saw at the site. He argued that it should be kept open but, that if it were kept as a branch site, the number of patients would have to increase. So he proposed that two wings be added to the building that would easily increase the asylum’s capacity by 50-100 people. During construction, the patients at Sandy Gallop were temporarily transferred back to Woogaroo. I hate to think of how miserable and crowded it had to be there.

The new wings measured 56 ft by 30 ft with 12 ft ceilings. There were two storeys and small corner verandas on the upper storey that had a good view of the countryside. I’ll read the full description from the article itself because it is quite detailed:

A short description of the additions is, of course, necessary. The original plans, we believe, provided for the ultimate addition of two wings such as just been finished, and the asylum certainly looked defective without them. Now, a more handsome public building than the Sandy Gallop Asylum could scarcely be wished for. The two wings are exactly similar, and the outside measurement of each is 56 ft by 30 ft, including small but comfortable corner verandahs. Each has an upper storey, and the upper and lower floors are much alike, there being two large dormitories, with walls 12ft high on each. On the upper floor the little balconies correspond with the verandahs below, and from them a beautiful view of the surrounding country is obtained. A substantial foundation has been provided, consisting of a concrete footing, two courses of ashlar, and a 2ft brick course up to the floor level, which is from 3ft to 8 ft from the ground. Above that, the walls are carried up in the usual 14in. brick-work, the window and door jambs and arches being built with white bricks, which add considerably to the appearance of the edifice. The verandah floors being well above the level of the ground, the space below has been boarded in, and will be used as a lumber and store room for tools, etc. The wards are very neatly finished inside. The walls are cemented to a height of 5ft, finishing with a torris mould, which is continued round the doors and windows. Above this the walls are colour-washed in a light yellowish tint, which is very agreeable. The ceiling of the lower rooms is of lath and plaster of snowy whiteness, and that of the upper ones is of tongued and grooved pine. 

It goes on to say more, but I think you get the idea. Also, the text gets decidedly more difficult to read after this point. I could make out that the windows were improved in thickness, and bars were added, which made it more difficult for patients to escape. There was also a cozy little fireplace in each room. And that’s about it.

To celebrate the new additions, someone decided it would be a good idea to host a party – sans patients, of course. So while all the patients were cramped over at Woogaroo, somewhere between 150 and 200 members of the Ipswich community gathered for a soiree at the asylum. Here’s how the gala was described in the newspaper:

A very pleasant and agreeable evening was spent. Several of the members of the Woogaroo band came up, Dr. Smith having kindly given them permission to do so, and they provided some excellent dance music. The large dining-room had been cleared and tastily decorated, and it made a first-rate ballroom. Most of the younger portion of the visitors entered heartily into the dancing, and the room was always crowded. The older folk either looked on, enjoyed themselves with a rubber of whist, chatted with each other, or otherwise passed the time. Of course, everybody made a tour of inspection of the new buildings, and many were the favourable comments passed upon them. The contractors had not forgotten in any way the comfort and pleasure of their guests, and had provided refreshments on a very liberal scale, having converted one of the new wards into a refreshment room.

Once the asylum’s grand reopening soiree was over, the patients were moved back from Woogaroo.

The new wings were added in 1881. Three years later, the Insanity Act of 1884 was passed. This Act allowed for an Inspector of Asylums for the Insane to be appointed. Their job would be to inspect the asylums and see every patient once every six months. That’s a big, but important, job. I should note, too, that this source, which is from the Queensland Government Health website (“The Road to Recovery”), notes that this was when the nomenclature changed and the asylums became hospitals for the insane. This was the only source I saw that said this – all others, including other government websites, said the name changed in 1910. But let the record show that I’m doing my due diligence here. J

Over the next few years, not much information was given about the progress of the asylum. A newspaper article from The Brisbane Courier dated Thursday, September 29, 1887, states that Mr. Samuel Lewis had been the superintendent of Sandy Gallop for the past three and a half years, after he took over for Patrick Broderick, and that Dr. Scholes (not be confused with the Dr. Scholl’s of comfortable shoe fame) was the medical superintendent. 

An article from The Queensland Times dated Tuesday, August 27, 1891, pointed out that the Reverend of the Salvation Army and his wife paid weekly visits to the asylum, and that periodicals and books were donated by members of the community. Town medical doctors, as well as the government medical officer, came by once in a while to offer appointments for patients. At the time of the writer’s visit to the asylum, there were no patients in the acute medical ward or on the epileptic ward. He did notice, however, that there was fresh patient, a new morgue, and, in one courtyard, a kangaroo and wallaby that hopped around and served as a source of entertainment for patients and staff alike. I can’t think of anything more stereotypically Australian than that! (Side note just to say that at hospitals where I’ve worked that have feral animals, whether cats or peacocks or whatever, they are well loved and taken care of by patients because they really are a source of entertainment)

The weather during the mid-1890s caused problems for the asylum. In 1893, a record-breaking flood devastated the area, flooding Brisbane and Ipswich, including the land around the asylum. Fortunately, since most asylums during this time were built on hills, it was safe from the floods. In fact, neighbors around the asylum actually came to the hospital as a place of refuge after their homes had flooded (Morning Bulletin, 20 Feb. 1893). Can you imagine having to literally seek asylum…in an asylum?

A couple years later, The Brisbane Courier noted in November 1896 that a large hailstorm came through Ipswich and broke 60 window panes at the asylum. Even worse, the hospital orchard and gardens were decimated.

Now, interestingly, the patient population at Sandy Gallop was capped at 120 patients. When a patient discharged or died, a new patient would be transferred over from Woogaroo in order to maintain a census of 120. That was the first time I’d come across that in all the hospitals I’ve discussed to date, so I thought that was an interesting fact. The asylum only recorded an average of about three patient deaths per year, which was pretty remarkable. And 59 patients were said to be employed in gardening at the asylum – probably restoring the gardens to their former glory after the hailstorm. There were nine attendants and one cook, and, in 1897, they were hoping to add telephonic service from the Gallop to Goodna (The Queensland Times, 9 Sept. 1897).

The asylum continued to add more patients, and by 1901, there were 135 male patients recorded at Sandy Gallop (“A History of Psychiatric Institutionalization…”). A newspaper article from The Queensland Times dated Thursday, May 9, 1901, indicated that there were 1,183 patients in both Woogaroo and Sandy Gallop, meaning that Woogaroo had a massive 1,048 patients residing there. Holy moly, that’s a lot for the time.

It’s probably because of that overcrowding that in May 1906, a government letter indicated the intent to grow the population of Sandy Gallop from its current 140 male patients to 600 patients (“University of Queensland Ipswich Campus”).

The Inspector of Hospitals for the Insane from 1898 to 1908 was James Hogg. He had proposed a large-scale building program among asylums in Queensland but particularly at Sandy Gallop. Fortunately or unfortunately for him, depending on how you look at it, the brunt of the work was carried out after he left the position and was replaced by Henry Byam Ellerton in 1909 (“Ipswich Mental Hospital”). 

From 1908 to 1917, there were many building projects undertaken. The first was the Blair Pavilion, completed on June 27, 1908, which served as a male dormitory. A similar dormitory for women was completed on December 22, 1909. These buildings were considered progressive for their time because they didn’t have high walls surrounding them but instead had what were called “ha-ha walls” (“University of Queensland Ipswich Campus”). We discussed these back in our episodes on Aradale Mental Hospital. “Ha-ha walls” gave the illusion that people on one side of the wall were on the same elevation as people on the other side of the wall and could just walk right on over, but there was a large dip before the wall that could not be climbed. The idea was that someone would look at it from the side and say, “oh, haha – that’s how it works!” Hence, ha-ha walls. I’ll post a picture on Facebook and Instagram so you can see what it looks like.

In 1910, the asylum officially became known as the Ipswich Hospital for the Insane. As we’ve discussed in previous series, the term “asylum” fell out of favor among mental health professionals, and psychiatry was starting to be seen as a more legitimate branch of medicine. So asylums around the world at this time were becoming known as hospitals for the insane.

In 1911, the hospital acquired more land (“University of Queensland Ipswich Campus”). Inspector Ellerton was a firm believer in a couple things: the power of the environment for patients and in improved training for staff (“The Road to Recovery”). So not only did he want to expand the area around the hospital, but that same year he also started construction for an administration building, which would include Matron’s and Nurses’ Quarters, kitchen block, bakery, and bathrooms  (“University of Queensland Ipswich Campus”) – an improved environment for everyone.

In 1915, more residential areas were approved – an admission ward for men called the Charles Pavilion, and an admission ward for women called the Byron House. They also added another ward for women called the Claire House and a hospital ward called the Grace House. The buildings were similarly designed and provided single rooms for patients (“University of Queensland Ipswich Campus”).

By the time all the new buildings were completed in 1917, there were 279 men and 53 women patients at the hospital (“University of Queensland Ipswich Campus”). And by 1920, there were almost 450 patients (“Ipswich Mental Hospital”). 

The history of the hospital over the subsequent 20 years is pretty quiet, so I went back to newspapers.com to see if there were any headlines I should know about. And, of course, there were a couple of escape stories. So here we go…

The Courier-Mail reported on Monday, July 7, 1924, that an inmate had escaped the Sandy Gallop Asylum (the old name had apparently stuck in the community). The article reads:

It appears that the escapee, being of a very quiet disposition, was allowed considerable freedom, and on Sunday was out on parole. It is believed that he purchased a railway ticket at Redbank, and was seen on a train bound for Brisbane on Sunday afternoon as it passed through Sherwood. The escapee, who was admitted to the asylum from Rockhampton about 12 years ago, is described by the police as being 45 years of age, 5 ft 8 in. in height, of medium build, and a sandy complexion, with a clipped sandy moustache. He was wearing a dark tweed coat, a dark zephyr shirt, blucher boots, and a brown felt hat at the time of his escape.

Say what you will, but the man sounds dapper!

Now the next story is a bit of a doozy that spans a few years’ time. On Tuesday, August 31, 1926, The Daily Mail noted that jewel thief Alfred Moress had picked the lock of his cell around 3 AM and escaped. The description of him is a tad different from the others I’ll read. And I’m using the original wording here:

A description of the escapee is age 34 (though considered to be older), height 5 ft 7 in., medium build, brown hair and eyes, fresh complexion, [something] over right eyebrow and right nostril. His eyebrows meet, and he has a flat nose. He has an Indian and snake tattooed on the outside of his right forearm, and a Japanese lady on the side of the arm. The words “Faith, Hope, and Charity” and the initials “A.M.” are tattooed on the inside of his left forearm, and a dancing girl on the outside. At the time of his escape, Moress was wearing grey tweed trousers, grey cardigan jacket, and a felt hat.

Moress comes back in the news three years later when he once again steals a rich lady’s jewels. He wasn’t able to feign insanity and go to the hospital that time.

This headline from the Queensland Times dated Monday, August 15, 1928, simply reads: “Harmless lunatic at large.” 

Arthur William Norman, 54, laborer, a harmless inmate of Sandy Gallop Asylum, has been missing from the institution since Monday. He is described as a dark-complexioned man, 5 ft 5 in. in height, of medium build, having prominent teeth…Norman has a wife residing at River Estate, Mackay, and was admitted to the Goodna Asylum on October 6, 1910, being transferred to Sandy Gallop Asylum on November 12, 1917. He was last seen at the storeroom of the institution about 9:30 AM on Monday. The police are searching for the man, and will be pleased to receive any information concerning his whereabouts.

It is sad but interesting that as late as the mid-1930s – at least, that’s as far as I searched – patients were still being referred to as “lunatics” in the newspaper, even though that term had been deemed unacceptable almost 50 years earlier. I know I’ve said it before, and I’ll certainly say it again, but the words we use matter. The words we use to characterize groups of people can perpetuate negative stereotypes or they can heal. It’s likely that we all will mess up at some point or another and use the wrong term. And it’s in those moments that we should simply correct ourselves and do better moving forward. Something like, “I’m sorry, I should have said ‘patient.’ I’ll remember in the future” could go a long way.

By the 1930s, there was an increase in children admitted to Ipswich Hospital for the Insane. To accommodate them all, the Dagmar House was built in 1933 (“University of Queensland Ipswich Campus”). Around the same time, more staff were required in order to run the hospital, so a brick Nurses’ Quarters was built next to the Administration Building in 1938. 

In 1937, Inspector Ellerton retired after 28 years of service as Inspector of Hospitals for the Insane (“The Road to Recovery”). He had made so many positive changes in terms of training for staff and carrying out the previous inspector’s development plans.

Also in 1937, Dr. Basil Stafford, who had been superintendent at Ipswich Hospital for the Insane for almost 10 years, represented Australia at an international conference on mental hygiene held in Paris. He took a large tour of nearly 60 hospitals, psychiatric clinics, and universities in the U.S., U.K, and other parts of Europe. When he returned to Australia, he had been clearly impacted by his tours of various facilities, and petitioned to effect legal change in the mental health laws (“The Road to Recovery”).

As a result of his efforts, the Mental Hygiene Act of 1938 was introduced. He wanted to help remove the stigma surrounding mental illness by changing the verbiage. Terms like “insane,” “insanity,” and “asylum” were removed from legislation and replaced with “mentally sick,” “mental illness,” and “mental hospital” (“The Road to Recovery”). It was in 1938, therefore, that Ipswich Hospital for the Insane became known as Ipswich Mental Hospital.

The Act also allowed for voluntary admission to mental hospitals and required active treatment for mental illness (“Mental Hygiene Act of 1938, Queensland”).

Around the same time came the proclamation of the Backward Persons Act of 1938 (“Backward Persons Act of 1938, Queensland”). You may remember in our discussion on Seacliff Mental Hospital that “backward persons” were children who were delayed in school for whatever reason, whether that was due to long absences, family emergencies, or intellectual delays. In this case, “backward persons” is used to denote someone with a developmental disability – what we would now call Intellectual Disability, Autism Spectrum Disorder, or specific learning disability. It would also include certain physical disorders, like epilepsy or cerebral palsy. The Backward Persons Act of 1938 legally separated the mentally ill from the “mentally defective.” 

To this point, Ipswich Mental Hospital had mostly housed mentally ill folks – in fact, some of the most difficult and chronic patients from Woogaroo (which was then called Wolston Park) resided there (“University of Queensland Ipswich Branch”). After the Backward Persons Act of 1938, there was a push for Ipswich to accommodate more “mentally defective” patients. The rationale was that these patients could be “trained” and returned to the community, whereas mentally ill patients ended up being permanent residents.

Interestingly to me, none of the sources I found discussed how the hospital was impacted by either WWI or WWII. I found this a little odd, but at the same time, most hospitals were just trying to survive during those years, so documentation was generally poor.

As with most mental hospitals during this time, the patient population boomed after voluntary admissions were allowed. The problem was, of course, that there wasn’t enough space for all of the patients. In an article of the Queensland Times dated Thursday, March 18, 1954, allegations of severe overcrowding were reported to the public. In one ward that had originally been designed to house 17 adult men, there were 44 boys and seven adults, three times the amount that should be in there. A nurse at the hospital reported that a single room measuring 9 ft x 9 ft was being used to house three boys at once. Worst of all, he said, he had known the ward to house up to 70 patients in that same living space designed for 17.

Even as I’m writing this, I’m imagining my own unit, which has a max capacity of 40 patients. If we tripled the number of patients in each room, but had the same number of staff, it would be mass chaos. It would be incredibly loud and dangerous. And yeah, even staff with the best of intentions wouldn’t be able to do their job as well as they’d like.

Staffing shortages led to demands for increased pay, and when those demands were not met, there were strikes at the hospital. Nurses and other essential staff walked off the job for 24 hours, which compelled police to enforce order for the 3,000 patients at Ipswich and Goodna. Doctors and their family members had to come in to feed and care for the patients. I wasn’t able to find whether the nursing staff got their pay raise, but I certainly hope so. I know from my experience working at state hospitals that nurses and psych techs earn every dollar they get and then some, and they aren’t working with three times the number of patients they should be!

By the early 1960s, there were over 600 patients at Ipswich and well over 2,500 at Goodna (“Ipswich Mental Hospital”). Overcrowding ultimately necessitated changes in legislation.

In 1962, a new Mental Health Act passed. This new law focused on providing psychiatric care in general medical hospitals to eliminate the need for hospitalization in many cases (“Mental Health Act 1962, Queensland”). This allowed many people to be treated on an outpatient basis rather than inpatient.

It was around 1963 that many mental hospitals in Queensland changed their names from Mental Hospital to Special Hospital. For a very short period of time, from 1963 to 1968, Ipswich was known as the Ipswich Special Hospital. I’m not sure about the rationale for the name change, but clearly it didn’t last too long.

In 1968, mental health services in Queensland were reorganized in order to provide more training and care for folks with developmental disabilities. It was decided that Ipswich would now exclusively serve as a training center for people with intellectual disabilities (“Ipswich Mental Hospital”). It was once again renamed – this time, to Challinor Centre, named for Dr. Henry Challinor, who held various medical public offices, including Surgeon Superintendent of the Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum from 1869 until 1872 (“University of Queensland Ipswich Campus”).

The Challinor Centre was remodeled and redesigned to house 425 residents. With time, the old buildings were demolished, making way for new changes. In 1973, the original building from 1878 was torn down and replaced by a much larger complex. Soon, other buildings were added, including a canteen and recreational facilities in 1978, workshops in 1979, and a staff development center in 1981 (“Ipswich Mental Hospital”).

As the 1980s began, the numbers of patients in institutions around Queensland were decreasing. Clients at the Challinor Centre were increasingly assisted into community-based residences, and talk began of closing the center entirely (“Ipswich Mental Hospital”).

If you listened wayyyyy back in Episode 39, which was Part 4 of our series on Aradale Mental Hospital, I talked about Brian Burdekin and the 1993 Burdekin Report. You may remember that Burdekin traveled around Australia, looking at the conditions of patients in all sorts of mental hospitals, psychiatric centers, training centers, and so on. He released his report in 1993, which basically showed that patients in institutions were among the most vulnerable members of society, and the stigma surrounding mental illness was still so strong that their care was often more neglected than it should be. Perhaps most importantly, Burdekin pointed out that the financial savings from moving patients from large institutions to smaller community facilities weren’t really savings at all because money wasn’t being redirected to the smaller community facilities. So smaller group homes continued to be understaffed and underfunded, and the same problems at larger institutions were being seen at smaller facilities. All that said, he called for increased government funding directed toward community treatment centers. Around Australia, this became the primary trajectory, as funding moved from larger institutions to smaller ones. Eventually, those larger institutions began closing during the early to mid-1990s.

Because of its niche treating folks with developmental disabilities, the Challinor Centre held on a little while longer, but its fate was sealed when it finally closed in 1998, after 120 years. It was later purchased by the University of Queensland and remains part of its Ipswich Branch (“University of Queensland Ipswich Branch”).

And that’s where I’ll end the story of the Sandy Gallop Asylum/Ipswich Mental Hospital/Challinor Centre. Like I said at the beginning, I initially took on this hospital because the name was so close to my own, but I ended up learning a lot! I think for the next series I’ll pick up with the Woogaroo Asylum – that was the larger asylum in Goodna. That has its own rich and varied history. So stay tuned for that!

As always, thank you so much for listening! I really, really appreciate it! Thank you for joining the Facebook page – we’re now over 600 members, so that’s great! Our Instagram page is lagging a little behind at around 350 people, but we’re getting there, slowly but surely. So give us a follow at @behindthewallspod at Instagram. Special thank you to Matthew B for their review of the show – that means so much to me!

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But most of all, 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…

“Backward Persons Act of 1938, Queensland.” Find and Connect. https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/entity/backward-persons-act-of-1938/

Carrington, Kerry. “Wolston Park Mental Hospital: a Site of Mass Atrocities.” Remembering Randall, 14 June 2022. https://rememberingrandall.com/2022/06/14/wolston-park-mental-hospital-a-brief-history-of-mis-treatment-and-dead-bodies/

“Challinor Centre.” Find and Connect. https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/entity/challinor-centre-2/

“Convicts at Ipswich.” Picture Ipswich. https://www.pictureipswich.com.au/nodes/view/25317

“Creation of a State.” Queensland Government, 20 July 2018. https://www.qld.gov.au/about/about-queensland/history/creation-of-state#:~:text=In%201851%2C%20a%20public%20meeting,gave%20Queensland%20its%20own%20constitution.

“Founding of Brisbane.” National Museum Australia, 4 May 2023. https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/founding-of-brisbane

“History of Brisbane.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Brisbane

“Ipswich Branch of the Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum.” Find and Connect. https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/entity/ipswich-branch-of-the-woogaroo-lunatic-asylum/

“Ipswich Mental Hospital.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipswich_Mental_Hospital

“Mental Health Act of 1962, Queensland.” Find and Connect. https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/entity/mental-health-act-1962-2/

“Mental Hygiene Act of 1938, Queensland.” Find and Connect. https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/entity/mental-hygiene-act-of-1938/

“Moreton Bay Penal Settlement.” Museums of History of New South Wales. https://mhnsw.au/guides/moreton-bay-penal-settlement/

“Moreton Bay Penal Settlement.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moreton_Bay_Penal_Settlement

“The Road to Recovery – a history of mental health services in Queensland 1859-2009.” Queensland Health.https://www.health.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0028/444583/qld-mh-history.pdf

“University of Queensland Ipswich Campus.” University of Queensland. https://www.ipswich.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/7366/the_university_of_queensland_ipswich_campus.pdf

Newspaper articles drawn from Newspapers.com: 

Courier-Mail, 7 July 1924

Morning Bulletin, 20 Feb. 1893

The Brisbane Courier, 29 Sept. 1887

The Daily Mail, 31 Aug. 1926

The Queensland Times, 8 Oct. 1881

The Queensland Times, 27 Aug. 1891

The Queensland Times, 9 May 1901

The Queensland Times, 15 Aug. 1928

The Queensland Times, 18 Mar 1954