Ep. 69: History of Goodna Mental Hospital, Part 2 (1937-2001)

This week's episode examines the history of Goodna Mental Hospital, which also went by Brisbane Mental Hospital, Brisbane Special Hospital, and Wolston Park Mental Hospital during the years between 1937 and its closure in 2001. Find out what controversial treatments were used there and why the treatments took an almost 10 year hiatus. Learn what led to the deinstitutionalization movement in Queensland.

My primary source is a page on the history of Wolston Park by the Queensland Department of Health. All of my sources will be 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 today we’re going to wrap up the history of the hospital that was first known Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum. 

Trigger warnings for this episode include mention of patient abuse and death, death by suicide, elder abuse, and ableist language. For any aboriginal Australians listening to this episode, please be aware that I will be referring to and using the names of people now deceased.

My main sources for this episode will be a site from the Queensland Government on the history of the Wolston Park Hospital Complex, the book Goodna Girls by Adele Chynoweth, and various articles from newspapers.com. All 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 Goodna Mental Hospital…

We left off last week around 1936, after the Goodna superintendent, Dr. Ellerton, retired after 28 years. That’s a pretty impressive tenure! Dr. Ellerton had been successful in building up the hospital, so to speak, by adding more facilities, creating more job opportunities on the hospital grounds for patients, and improving the overall infrastructure.

The hospital needed someone who would carry on Dr. Ellerton’s vision of improving the hospital and preparing for the future. So Dr. Basil Stafford was selected as his replacement. Dr. Stafford had been the superintendent of Ipswich Mental Hospital, so he was familiar with the hospital. But he wouldn’t be taking over full-time quite yet. You see, whereas Dr. Ellerton had been focused on creating a positive environment for patients through “moral therapy,” Dr. Stafford was looking at changes happening in the field of psychiatry and in hospitals around the world and was looking toward the future.

So in 1937, Dr. Stafford was sent to an international congress on Mental Hygiene in Paris. He went on a “study tour” of hospitals, psychiatric clinics, and universities in the U.S., Europe, and the U.K. (“Wolston Park Hospital Complex”).

When he returned to Australia, Dr. Stafford offered recommendations for change, including new legislation (“Wolston Park Hospital Complex”). This led to the Mental Hygiene Act of 1938, which was modeled after the British Mental Treatment Act of 1930. As with many of the changes in mental health laws, part of the effort was focused on reducing the stigma of mental illness. As a result, patients were able to admit themselves voluntarily to a hospital, and hospitals were required to provide active treatment. Another part of the Mental Hygiene Act was once again changing the name of the facility itself – this time to Brisbane Mental Hospital (“Wolston Park”). I should also point out that other government sources say this name change didn’t happen until 1959. Newspaper articles around this time appear to use both Goodna and Brisbane Mental Hospital.

But perhaps the most substantial change to treatment was treating mental illness like any other type of physical illness (“Wolston Park”). It would require a thorough examination by qualified medical staff. Dr. Stafford also advocated for the separation of types of patients: admissions, convalescence (or long-term patients), and hospital cases. This would require additional staff, with certain specialties. Historian Mark Finnane adds that Dr. Stafford advocated for:

Special treatment’, [which] in the future would require the provision of adequate accommodation and facilities – including a pathological laboratory, an ‘X-ray installation,’ and a ‘malaria and neurosyphilitic unit.’ The last of these was fundamental to addressing the problem of a group of patients who made up at least 8 per cent of the Goodna population but Stafford thought it more likely to be up to 20 per cent. (Finnane 47-49)

He also advocated for the introduction of different, more active forms of treatment that were being used elsewhere around the world – namely, insulin shock treatment, cardiazol, and electrotherapy.

We’ve discussed each of these in previous episodes, but briefly, these early forms of treatment were intended to shock the system into rewiring the brain in order to decrease symptoms. They were all believed to be effective for schizophrenia and manic-depression.

Insulin shock therapy and cardiazol (called Metrazol in the U.S.) both involved administering a dose of medication that would induce a seizure. Insulin shock therapy would also include putting the patient into a coma for several hours while they recovered. Metrazol shock therapy was far more destructive. The medication would induce a grand mal seizure, and the patient would be tightly restrained to the bed. This sometimes led to the patient fracturing or breaking bones or getting severe bruising. In retrospect, the treatments – if you can call them that – were so grotesquely inhumane that it’s a wonder they lasted as long as they did. But both insulin shock therapy and cardiazol treatment were used for decades before they were replaced. Electroconvulsive therapy is still in use today, although the protocols for administration are far improved, and it is used as a treatment of last resort. 

These treatments and the request for additional staffing were put on hold when Great Britain – and, consequently, Australia – entered World War II on September 3, 1939 (“Australia and the Second World War”). Instead of adding more staff to the hospital’s roster, some were lost to the war effort. This would be a continual problem over the course of the war.

One of the consequences of understaffing was that patients would often go neglected or mistreated. Trigger warning here for elder abuse and death. Skip forward about a minute if you don’t want to hear this part. In October 1939, it was reported that a 90-year-old male patient at Goodna died from a combination of shock and scalding burns after being left unattended for hours in a hydrotub. The article stated that his feet and ankles were burned nearly raw. You may remember from previous episodes that we’ve talked about how patients were essentially strapped into the tubs so they could not get out and left for hours on end. Usually, there were other patients going through the treatment and attendants would check on them regularly. In this case, perhaps due to the sudden understaffing, this patient was left to slowly die in the tub. One attendant was charged with the patient’s death due to neglect.

In 1940, Dr. Stafford was appointed Acting Director of Mental Hygiene (“The Road to Recovery”), and that appointment became official in 1941.

As the war raged on, more Australian servicemen were returning with physical and psychological wounds. By January 1942, 110 soldiers had been hospitalized at Goodna (“Wolston Park”). And several problems were clear by this point: first, there wasn’t enough space for the new patients who had specialized needs; and second, there definitely wasn’t enough staff to help them. 

To address the later issue of understaffing, which wasn’t a situation unique to Goodna by any means, the government established the Manpower Directorate in January 1942, which essentially mandated work orders to civilians in order to mitigate labor shortages. They decided who would work where and conscripted them to service. Anyone caught evading their work assignments would be subject to a fine (“Manpower Directorate”). As you might imagine, not everyone wanted to be mandated to work at Goodna. Often, people assigned to work there would simply not show up and risk being fined. This led to a nurses strike in April 1944, in which nurses walked off the job for days, demanding increased staffing and pay for the dangerous conditions they were working in. Normal conditions required at least 172 nurses to care for 858 women patients; they were down to only 81 (The Central Queensland Herald, 20 April 1944, p. 20). The strike, of course, worsened patient care for those days, temporarily reducing the total staffing for women to six medical providers, one matron, and “a few” assistants, for an approximate staff to patient ratio of 1:60. I simply cannot imagine how overwhelming this must have been. Sixty patients is one and a half times the size of my current unit; it would be nearly impossible to manage everyone’s needs, address any health concerns, and manage any behavioral issues without anything going wrong. There was no choice but to continue mandating workers to the hospital, even for people who did not want to be nurses or want to work at the hospital.

In one tragic case in 1945, a woman assigned to nursing at Goodna had worked there for five months before she couldn’t handle it any longer, so she escaped to her fiancé’s parents’ house. She was caught and, before she could be taken back to Goodna, swallowed a large dose of poison and died by suicide in the arms of her fiancé (Truth, 22 July 1945, p. 14). Of course, she was villainized in the paper for her depression and “pathetic state.”

Just to back up a little bit – because there was so much happening all at once during this time – in 1944, Dr. Stafford advocated for the development of treatment rooms to house his advanced psychiatric treatments. Female Ward No 4 (later known as Dawson House) was completed in 1944. It housed 60 women patients and included a basement with space for cardiazol therapy, insulin therapy, malaria therapy, somnifane or continuous narcosis therapy, and other medical treatments (“Wolston Park”). Most of those I mentioned earlier, but somnifane or continuous narcosis therapy may sound new. I briefly mentioned this in Ep 31 on Denbigh Asylum. This was also known as Deep Sleep Therapy. The concept was developed in 1915 by a Scottish psychiatrist and popularized in the 1920s. It would go on to be used, usually unsuccessfully, until the 1970s. The treatment consisted of the patient getting a dose of sodium bromide, which would induce sleep in patients for about 1-2 weeks at a time (“Deep Sleep Therapy”). The treatment faded quickly out of fashion after 25 patients died from it at a New South Wales hospital in the 1960s and 70s (“Deep Sleep Therapy”).

Just as an aside regarding the feel of the Dawson House, where all these treatments were taking place, the building was not designed to provide a positive or therapeutic environment. Instead, minimal attention was given to details, and the building was “inward-looking” rather than the other buildings, which had been designed according to the principles of moral treatment (“Wolston Park”).

Let’s rewind a bit to the issue of finding space for veterans at the hospital. During WWI decades earlier, Dr. Ellerton had decided that restructuring the existing buildings would be enough to accommodate the veteran patients at that time (“Wolston Park”). During WWII, however, the need was even greater. The Department of Public Works, in consultation with Dr. Stafford, put forth plans for a repatriation unit to accommodate veterans. They once again returned to the foundations of “moral therapy” in their building design by creating large, wide verandahs, open spaces, and sweeping views that looked over grassy courtyards and lawns. They must have learned from Dawson House that a more sterile, medical model wasn’t conducive to positive outcomes. Construction of the new ward began in 1946 and officially opened on January 26, 1948 (“Wolston Park”).

After the war ended, there was a push to improve accommodations for women at the hospital. Between 1951 and 1955, a special recreation facility was built on 2.5 hectares of land near the Brisbane River (“Wolston Park”). The main building was a cafeteria that could serve up to 500 patients. Also included was a packing shed, sewing room, tennis court, bowling green, a large playing field, nine viewing shelters, and storage sheds. Women using the facility could spend the whole day in the recreation area without needing to return to the wards for midday meals (“Wolston Park”).

In 1953, a new Farm Ward block started to be built. This would include Farm Ward Blocks A and B for up to 175 residents and a central dining and recreation block (“Wolston Park”). Initially, the patients who resided there were folks with intellectual disabilities and other psych patients who had responded well to treatment and were nearing discharge. By 1958, the farm wards were entirely set aside for patients with intellectual disabilities (“Wolston Park”).

By the mid-1950s, there were over 2500 patients residing at Goodna (excluding the WWII veterans), and 700 staff members (“Wolston Park”). Criticism about excessive hospitalization became commonplace, and the government sought to reduce the number of patients at large institutions. A 1955 review of Australia’s mental health needs revealed that most were “hopelessly overcrowded, poorly maintained and short-staffed, and, as a result are confined to little beyond custodial care” (qtd. in Finnane 52). The plan was to add more acute psychiatric beds in local general hospitals and to relocate geriatric patients to nursing homes in order to create more space at Goodna (“Wolston Park”).

The years following WWII brought an interesting cultural shift to many places around the world, including Australia. Young people who had grown up during the war had very different views on the world and on entertainment than their parents and grandparents. There was this perceived emergence of “youth culture” in the decade following the end of the war, where older folks were concerned about juvenile delinquency (Chynoweth 5). In Australia, these ne’er-do-wells were known as “bodgies and widgies” (5). Of course, I had to look those terms up. “Bodgies” are male teenage hooligans, so to speak, and “widgies” are female teenage hooligans. I was trying to remember what we called them in the States around this period, and the only thing I could think of was “greasers,” but that’s probably just from reading The Outsiders way back in 7th grade. I tried googling “teenage hooligans in the 1950s” and came up with nothing. Someone’s probably yelling it at me right now. Anyway, let me know if you know the term I’m thinking of.

Bodgies and widgies were highly stigmatized as these juvenile delinquents in need of psychiatric services (Chynoweth 5). In 1957, Adele Chynoweth notes, Queensland Premier (Sir) Frank Nicklin created a Committee on Youth Problems, which would address issues such as criminal delinquents and neglected children (6). It wasn’t until 1963 that a site for “emotionally disturbed” girls was opened at Ipswich Mental Hospital (Chynoweth 142). Goodna, however, continued to admit teens to its general population.

By 1960, Dr. Stafford was able to report that, for the first time, there were empty beds at the hospital (“Wolston Park”). They had successfully been able to relocate some of the older patients to nursing homes. More and more, they were figuring out ways to discharge patients to the community. For the first time, the majority of patients at the hospital were long-term and chronically mentally ill – rather than having substance use problems, issues related to dementia, and such.

Two years later, the Mental Health Act of 1962 was passed (“The Road to Recovery”). The purpose was to further integrate psychiatric care with other medical disciplines with the hope of moving patients who could be treated in an outpatient setting. It also increased the ability for folks to commit themselves voluntarily to a hospital.

The following year, in 1963, Brisbane Mental Hospital was once again renamed – this time to Brisbane Special Hospital (“Wolston Park”). And if you listened to Episode 67 on Ipswich, you’ll remember that the designation of “Special Hospital” only lasted a few years.

Because of the decreased patient population, the farm wards were redesignated in 1965 to be a treatment facility for alcohol abuse (“Wolston Park”) It became known as the Wacol Rehabilitation Centre. This further separated patients based upon their treatment needs. The rehabilitation center would go on to include four residential wards, offices, and an occupational therapy area (“Wolston Park”).

Already by around 1968, the patient population had fallen to about 1500 patients (Finnane 52). There was a shift in how the hospital was viewed around this time. Historically speaking, the hospital had been a place where people were sent until they died, so in many ways, it operated like hospice care. Mark Finnane points out that in 1969, almost 62% of male patients and almost 53% of female patients admitted to Brisbane Special Hospital died within 12 months (54). There could be several reasons for this: (1) severe mental illness can certainly decrease life expectancy, (2) limited active treatment, or (3) mistreatment or lack of care at the hospital (Finnane 54). Now there was a shift toward preparing patients for return to the community.

The hospital was renamed again in 1969 – this time to Wolston Park Mental Hospital (“The Road to Recovery”). And by the time of this change, the culture of the hospital had changed tremendously. A new superintendent had been appointed in 1965. Dr. Orm Orford was only 35 years old when he took over as medical superintendent. He had been specifically trained in psychiatry, unlike his predecessors, and he had fresh, new ideas for the hospital. First, he believed that patient labor at the hospital caused patients to dependon the institution rather than working toward treatment and release. Mark Finnane discusses Dr. Orford’s vision:

Orford wanted such a system replaced by ‘Industrial Therapy,’ a central aspect of an ambitious “resocialization” programme that would wean patients from their institutional dependence and facilitate their eventual discharge. The changes started slowly, with a number of areas set up as “activity groups” supported in each case by an occupational therapist, social worker, and psychologist. (Finnane, “Opening Up,” 15)

Finnane goes on to say that this program quickly increased the number of patients who discharged into the community. The problem was, there weren’t many community resources set up for them yet.

Dr. Orford was also highly disturbed by the number of teenage girls who had been committed to the hospital for delinquency problems. You’ll remember the “bodgies” and “widgies” from the post-WWII era and the sudden increase of young people seen as having mental disorders. He worked to review the number of young women who did not appear to have signs of mental illness, just behavior problems. So he worked to introduce new techniques of behavior management (Finnane, “Opening Up,” 15). Not all of these techniques were great, as we’ll see in the next episode.

The decrease of the patient population came with surprising new growing pains. For one, the introduction of new staff members with specialized training created conflict with the nurses, many of whom had been used to the hospital functioning in a certain way for decades (Finnane, “Opening Up,” 16). Fresh ideas weren’t always welcomed or accepted. And other changes, like senior nurses being advanced based on merit rather than tenure created havoc in the overall structure. Finnane points out that this culminated in a long strike that one psychologist described in 1973 as “the end of the old era” (qtd. in Finnane, “Opening Up,” 16).

It is really astounding that the end of the “old era” happened in 1973. It was around that time that male and female patients started to be integrated for the first time and male and female staff members began to work together (Finnane, “Opening Up,” 16). Something about that feels like it could have – or should have – changed backed in the early 1900s, not the 70s.

In 1974, the Mental Health Act of 1974 was passed. This replaced the Act from 1962 and further regulated certain areas, including involuntary admission of people to institutions, the role of police and health care professionals, the treatment of people with mental illness found guilty of a crime, the property of people with mental illness, and included drug dependence and intellectual disabilities as mental illnesses (“Mental Health Act 1974, Queensland”).

Now, interesting to me, is a connection to Oregon made around this time. The film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which you may remember was filmed at Oregon State Hospital (right across the street from where I was born), was released in 1975. This film had such a whirlwind effect of exposing the conditions of psychiatric hospitals. It received international acclaim. After its release, an academic psychologist in Queensland named Jim Gardner published a 90-page pamphlet exposing Wolston Park for all of its evils and abuses (Finnane, “Opening Up,” 17). I wasn’t able to get a copy of it, but an entry from the National Library of Australia notes that it uses personal recollections from patients, ex-patients, relatives, and staff. So I’m sure it was pretty damning.

Mark Finnane also points out that newspapers around this time frequently exposed stories of patient abuse and neglect, which further soiled the public’s opinion of these facilities. I couldn’t actually find any newspaper articles like this, but I don’t doubt it. Part of the problem I faced was knowing which name of the hospital to use. Every time I searched, I just found job listings.

Many changes came during the late 1970s. A site on the history of the Wolston Park Hospital Complex notes the following:

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

In 1978, the Barrett Psychiatry Unit opened to provide acute psychiatric care (“Wolston Park”). It had eight separate buildings, a reception and admission block, three wards with 32 beds, two wards with 16 beds, a cafeteria, and a medical officer’s flat. Six years later, in 1984, it expanded to include inpatients and services for young people. It remained open as an adolescent psychiatric facility until its closure in January 2014 (McLeish).

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, as new buildings were constructed, many of the original 19th century buildings were demolished and replaced (“Wolston Park”).

1981 was declared the “United Nations International Year of Disabled Persons” (“Queensland Human Rights Timeline”). According to the Queensland Human Rights Commission website, this focused on the rights of persons with disability; shifting to a human rights-based focus on eliminating barriers, promoting social inclusion, and civic participation of persons with disability.

Perhaps as a result of this, by the early 1980s, patients at the hospital finally had an established set of rights (Finnane, “Opening Up,” 17). Amazing that it took until the 1980s for this to be written down. The Honorable Justice Michael D. Kirby wrote in November 1980 that there hadn’t even been a definition of mental illness written in law to date. How, without even a legal definition, could patients have a chance of defending themselves? Justice Kirby writes:

We are not dealing here with trifling numbers of our fellow citizens. More than 60,000 people enter Australian mental hospitals every year. Between 25% and 30% of this number are committed as involuntary patients. What we are dealing with, then, is the personal freedom and individual liberty of a large and probably growing section of the community. One can see the problem in better perspective if it is remembered that on average the number confined in Australian prisons is in the order of 10,000 people. Rightly, we devote a great deal of the law’s attention to highly details protective machinery, refined over many centuries, to ensure that individuals are not unlawfully or needlessly committed to prisons.

He goes on to say that if we pay that much attention to who goes to prison and stays in prison, we should also be paying equal attention to who goes to a mental hospital and stays there. It’s pretty amazing to me how laws regarding mental illness and commitment to facilities has really come together in only the past 30 or 40 years. Until then, people were basically making it up as they went along. Now we at least have something of a blueprint to follow, although I know there is always room for improvement – and time will certainly benefit us in that regard.

In 1987, Professor Harvey Whiteford established the Clinical Studies Unit at Wolston Park Hospital. It’s now known as the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research (“The Road to Recovery”). This was the first commitment to research at the hospital and at the state level. As you might be able to imagine, anything having to do with mental health research or administration had always been managed at the federal level prior to this, so there was some head-butting along the way (Finnane, “Opening Up,” 18).

In 1992, the Wolston Park Hospital Complex was entered in the Queensland Heritage Register (“Wolston Park”). To be considered for the heritage register, a site must meet several of the following criteria: 

            Criterion A: The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland’s history. (The hospital certainly demonstrates the evolution of mental health care in the state and still contains some of the original structures)

            Criterion B: The place demonstrates rare, uncommon, or endangered aspects of Queensland’s cultural heritage. (Wolston Park was one of only three mental health institutions established in Queensland in the 19thcentury)

            Criterion C: The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland’s history. (The treatment of patients, the lives and stories of the patients themselves all lend to an understanding of the history of this area)

            Criterion D: The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places. (The hospital not only shows the expansion of mental health care but also early road work, structures, residences divided by gender, the farm complex, and more)

            Criterion E: The place is important because of its aesthetic significance. (I mean, do I even need to explain this one?)

            Criterion G [note that F was skipped]: The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural, or spiritual reasons. (It has a strong connection with patients who lived there and staff who worked there)

            Criterion H: The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group, or organization of importance in Queensland’s history. (Dr. Ellerton was listed as the person whose influence promoted the most change)

Although the hospital was deemed to be significantly important to the history of Queensland, there weren’t many patients who remained; most had been moved to smaller facilities in the community or discharged altogether.

So, in 1996, the Ten Year Mental Health Plan outlined a plan to close the mental hospitals in the area. In 2001, Wolston Park was formally closed (“Wolston Park”). The main hospital became known as The Park Centre for Mental Health, as it still remains today.

Today, at least according to the current Wikipedia page, the hospital employs around 450 people, including 220 nurses and 20 doctors. There are also another 80 allied health staff and 50 administration personnel. In addition there are 70 support staff, including maintenance, groundskeeping, security, and laundry staff. There are 192 beds available (“The Park Centre”).

And that is where I will end the history of Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum/Goodna Hospital for the Insane/Goodna Mental Hospital/Brisbane Mental Hospital/Brisbane Special Hospital/Wolston Park Mental Hospital. I’m pretty sure this hospital wins the award for the most name changes in its history. That’s hard to keep track of!

As always, thank you so much for listening! I hope you learned a lot about the history of this hospital. Next week I’m going to share some patient stories from Goodna, so stay tuned for that.

If you haven’t done so already, please rate, review, and subscribe wherever you are listening, but especially if that’s on Apple Podcasts. Thanks to everyone who has joined the Facebook group or followed on Instagram – I really appreciate that! Thank you for listening, wherever you are! But a super special shout-out to my largest audience demographic…by a landslide (with 12% of my total listeners): Melbourne! You keep that up, Melbourne, and this podcast is going to turn into Behind the Walls of Australia’s Psychiatric Hospitals! Haha.

Thanks again for listening – I appreciate each one of you! Please come back next week for more stories.

But 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…

“Australia and the Second World War.” Anzac Portal. https://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/wars-and-missions/world-war-ii-1939-1945/australia-and-second-world-war#:~:text=Australia%20at%20War%20(3%20September,was%20at%20war%20with%20Germany

Chynoweth, Adele. Goodna Girls: A History of Children in a Queensland Mental Asylum. ANU Press, 2020. 

“Deep Sleep Therapy.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_sleep_therapy

Finnane, Mark. “Opening Up and Closing Down: Notes on the End of an Asylum.” Health & History 11.1 (2009): 9-24.

Finnane, Mark. “Wolston Park Hospital, 1865-2001: A Retrospect.” Queensland Review 15.2 (2008): 39-58.

Kirby, Michael D. “Mental Health Law Reform and the ‘Second Wave.’” The Medical Journal of Australia, Nov. 1980. https://www.michaelkirby.com.au/images/stories/speeches/1980s/vol6/1980/203-The_Medical_Journal_of_Aus_Mental_Health_Law_Reform_The_Second_Wave.pdf

“Manpower Directorate (Australia).” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manpower_Directorate_(Australia)

McLeish, Kathy. “Barrett Centre mental health facility was ‘failing’ before closure, inquiry hears.” ABC News, 23 Feb. 2016. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-24/barrett-centre-inquiry-closed-under-intense-time-pressure/7197308

“Mental Health Act 1974, Queensland.” Find & Connect. https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/entity/mental-health-act-1973/#:~:text=2/1974).,persons%20with%20a%20mental%20illness.

“Queensland Human Rights Timeline.” Queensland Human Rights Commission. https://www.qhrc.qld.gov.au/resources/Qld-human-rights-timeline#20th%20century

“The Park Centre for Mental Health.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Park_Centre_for_Mental_Health

“The Road to Recovery – A History of Mental Health Services in Queensland 1859-2009.” Queensland Department of Health. https://www.health.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0028/444583/qld-mh-history.pdf

“Wolston Park Hospital Complex.” Queensland Government. https://apps.des.qld.gov.au/heritage-register/detail/?id=600340