Lunatic and Invalid Asylum

Asylum Records

Surviving records from the Parramatta Lunatic Asylum cover c.1848-1989 see:

Archives in Brief 85 Mental Health facilities patient Records.

Glengarriff House & Wisteria Gardens

The Wistaria Gardens are located within the Cumberland Hospital site across the Parramatta river from the early asylum buildings on land which had been granted to the asylum from the Governor's Domain in 1866. The gardens were established in 1906 when a new residence (Glengarriff) was built for superintendent Dr Williamson.

Glengarriff House was designed by Walter Liberty Vernon in the Arts & Craft Federation style.Today it houses a Museum of the History of Mental Health care at Cumberland Hospital and is open to the public during the Wistaria Festival in September each year.

Visit the Museum - please contact us to arrange a tour of the museum & gardens.

above: Glengariff House. Image courtesy of T Smith

Bridget McGilvray was taken from Hell and transported to Hell again..she sings of her scorn from dusk until dawn...for she has gone insane...

Botany Bay Document J Albiston

Asylum for Lunatic and Invalid Convicts

Following the cessation of convict transportation to the colony of NSW in 1840 the need for the convict Female Factory came to an end and by the mid 1840s the factory buildings were being used as a benevolent asylum for sick and destitute convict women. Many of the Female Factory staff continued their employment at the establishment among them was Matron Elizabeth Statham. In December 1849 the institution was officially gazetted as the Lunatic Asylum Parramatta with a mainly female inmate population until 1852 after which male non convict patients were admitted.

Dr Richard Greenup

Conditions remained appalling and were not addressed until 1852 when Surgeon Superintendent Dr Richard Greenup introduced a number of reforms particularly concerning patients held in isolation cells and in the use of restraints. Greenup was also concerned about the number of troublesome criminal transferred to the asylum from gaols. It has been said that his more humane methods contributed to his death in 1866 from stabbing wounds inflicted on him by an unrestrained patient.

Criminal Insane Ward

In 1861 work commenced on a new sandstone ward for the criminally insane and proceeded over a number of years with a second floor completed by March 1864 and a third floor in 1869. This building was demolished in 1960 and the only remnant is the ablutions block which was the scene of an unsolved murder in 1985.

image courtesy of T Smith

Most of the early asylum buildings were built over or incorporated existing Female Factory buildings.

Wards 2 & 3 'Spinal Range'

Constructed in 1876 this was one of the first purpose built asylum buildings and contained dormitories, cells, a dining hall and day rooms. Originally cells on the first floor had no windows and were lit by very high vents.

photo L-R (rear) Ward 4; (front) Ward 5 Day Rooms; cells; (right) Wards 2 & 3.

Ward 5 Day Rooms (building 105 Cumberland Hospital)

Constructed c1823 as sleeping quarters for Third Class women, this building formed part of the penitentiary section of the Factory until 1838 when a new penitentiary range was built. It contained two floors with the upper floors ventilated by portholes. The first floor was removed in the 1860's and a verandah was added.

Ward 1

During the 1880's the Asylum would go through an intense period of reconstruction with the main Female Factory building described as an 'unsightly and ruinous pile' and approved for demolition in August 1883. By June 1885 Ward 1 was built partly over the Female Factory main building and the clock which once graced its central arch was relocated into a purpose built tower on the northern corner of this new building. Designed by James Barnett sandstone used in its construction was recylcled from the original Female Factory main barrack. Around the same time a Dining Hall was constructed over the site of a former female factory building behind Ward 1.

Ward 4

Constructed in 1889 and designed by James Barnett, Ward 4 was a secure ward for dangerous and refractory non criminal patients. This building has a basement with several cells known colloquially as 'the dungeons'.

above: Ward 1 with tower featuring the original Female Factory clock & bell.

Acquisition and expansion

Overcrowding remained a persistent problem and in 1888 the now vacated Protestant Orphan School at Rydalmere (now UWS) was converted into a hospital for the insane and annexed to Parramatta until 1892. In 1918 the hospital acquired the adjacent Parramatta Gaol complex but by 1922 returned the gaol to its original use claiming that it was unsuitable for the care of the mentally ill.

In 1923 a Royal Commission recommended that the adjacent Girls Industrial School be used as a hospital for the criminally insane howver this did not eventuate.

By the 1970s care for the mentally ill changed from that of in-patient care to expansion of community based services and in the years following in patient numbers decreased.

Cumberland Hospital

In 1983 the institution was renamed Cumberland Hospital and remains today under the management of Sydney Western Area Mental Health Service with Ward 1 now occupied by the NSW Institute of Psychaitry.

Other names:

Parramatta Convict Lunatic and Invalid Establishment; Parramatta Lunatic Asylum; Parramatta Hospital for the Insane; Parramatta Mental Hospital; Parramatta Psychiatric Hospital, Cumberland Hospital.

Publications

Hidden Heritage, 150 years of Public Mental Health Care at Cumberland Hospital, Parramatta 1849-1999. Terry Smith.

Botany Bay Document - A poetic History of the Women of Botany Bay,2003. Jordie Albiston Black Pepper, Nth Fitzroy

Parramatta Asylum