Royal Derwent Hospital – Page 3 – Willow Court Tasmania

John Langford

July 18, 2016 No Comments

Last week I had the pleasure of filming an interview with John Langford OA who worked at Lachlan Park Hospital in the early 1960’s. John went to the UK to study in 1966 -70 and returned to the Royal Derwent Hospital to assist Dr Eric Cunningham Dax regionalise Mental Health services in Tasmania Cunningham Dax Report. As part of that work he started an organisation called Community Hostels Inc in Tasmania.

A trained Psychiatric Social Worker, John, at the age of 80 years took the time off his full time job to speak with us. He recently opened an accommodation centre in Mackay Queensland to assist people in crisis and has been awarded the highest honour you can get from Rotary Australia the ‘Paul Harris Award’.

This now matched his 2014 member of the Order of Australia as part of the Queen’s Birthday honours list. It was a delight to meet and talk with this gentleman who has dedicated his life’s work to people with mental health issues.

John’s 80th Birthday and Rotary award John’s Queens Birthday award

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Back in the office after 20 years

May 8, 2016 No Comments

It’s been twenty years since Tony Nicholson has returned to his old office on the second floor of the Administration building at Willow Court Training Centre. While we had a tour hosted by Ruben Cortes about the current state of the building and its restoration and repurposing, Tony was able to tell the Friends of Willow Court Committee and representatives of the Willow Court History Group about who occupied each of the rooms and their uses during his history as an employee of the hospital. It was a very insightful tour and it was interesting to see Tony as he entered this room after twenty years.

Like many staff the place was filled mostly with good memories, funny stories and struggles with consecutive Governments for the basics needed to support the many people that called Willow Court Training Centre\Royal Derwent Hospital home.

Since the closure, Tony has had a passion for the site and it’s history. He has wished only for a honest recording of history and has conducted many tours to educate people from historic societies, educational institutions and the general public. He has remained on the Friends of Willow Court special committee of the Derwent Valley Council. The Derwent Valley Council are the current owners of the Heritage Precinct area.

Tony has been a valuable historic consultant to this Willow Court History Group, our website and has helped many people who have contacted me through the facebook page and website in an attempt to find out information about the history. His knowledge of the early history of convicts and the military presence is second to none.

He has also been a part of the Derwent Valley Historic Society and has been a co-author of many historic books and articles that the group produce. Because Willow Court\Royal Derwent Hospital was a large employer for over 174 years most historic books have something about the hospital and how it fitted into the fabric of the community of New Norfolk and surrounding areas.

He also has been involved in cataloging many of the artifacts that came out of the hospital after it’s closure in 2000. He has, along with the Derwent Valley Historic Society manage many general community and hospital memories through artifacts, papers and displays.

Last year we revealed that the Friends of Willow Court Member, Mr Anthony David (Tony) Nicholson, of Lachlan, has been awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to local government and to the community of the Derwent Valley. Tony had served as Mayor on the DVC for a number of years.

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Heritage Month / Dark Mofo events

April 17, 2016 No Comments

Some great opportunities to get out and about at Willow Court and Frascati House in May and June 2016. The maximum cost is $5 for persons over 12 years old.

The Friends of Willow Court will be running events at the site for Heritage Festival 2016 which you can access. On May 14th and 15th Heather Burke, Assoc Professor of Archaeology, Flinders University, will talk about the results from the recent geophysical investigations around Willow Court and Frascati House, and her long term plans to conduct archaeological excavations at the site over the next 10 years. Cost $5, under 12 years, free.

The Friends of Frascati are also running an event the weekend before at Friscati House. Frascati dates back to 1834 when John Burnett, the first Colonial Secretary, built his country villa on the site. Recent works have questioned whether Burnett added onto an existing building and whether there was a pre-existing building on site at the time. Come and rediscover some of Frascati’s history. Tours of Frascati House and historic gardens available. Two great weekends of Willow Court activities to enjoy, entry by gold coin donation.

Another opportunity to visit the site will be during a Dark Mofo event. Seminal Australian performance artist Mike Parr pushed to his limits in and around the grounds of the former Royal Derwent Hospital (circa 1827). Please register your interest in the event; full details will be announced soon: http://darkmofo.net.au/mike-parr-registration

Asylum, the exhibition, is open:
Thursday 9 – Monday 13 June, 12 – 4pm
Saturday 18 + Sunday 19 June, 12 – 4pm
Free

Entry by Mirror Only, the 72-hour performance, is open continuously for three days:
Begins 12pm, Thursday 9 June
Ends 12pm, Sunday 12 June
Entry by mirror only: bring a shard, or full mirror, to leave behind.

Please note that both the exhibition and installation contain disturbing content and themes, and may not be suitable for children.

Presented by Detached Cultural Organisation in association with Dark Mofo

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New Norfolk Structure Plan (Draft)

February 16, 2016 No Comments

This is the section of the Structure Report from the Derwent Valley Council that relates to Willow Court and Royal Derwent Hospital. There are some interesting statements on the Willow Court side, in particular the “development in a ad-hoc manner” and “there is currently no overall documented vision or consistent set of objectives for Willow Court”.

As for the Royal Derwent side of the Lachlan River; “identify risks on site, including flood prone land and potential land contamination”, this would be referring to development in low areas along the Lachlan River and the the fact that there were landfill sites with “potential bio-hazard material” and also a previous unknown location of an “asbestos dumping site”. There has been concern over asbestos during the demolition process along with other building rubble.

The current zone , it would appear is for residential urban development on the Royal Derwent Hospital side of the Lachlan River which would raise concerns with the unknown location of the asbestos dump and ground contamination.

While this is a draft document there are concerns, hopefully now the Council know these they can be addressed. We will watch this space.

Click image above to see full document.

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Missing Chattels at Royal Derwent and Willow Court Training Centre

December 22, 2015 No Comments

The minutes of the Derwent Valley Council show an interesting item, below Mr Len Butterworth asked the Mayor if there is an answer to the discrepancy between the 2002 audit and the latest audit figure which puts the number of artifacts held and protected by the Derwent Valley Council at 500.

There is an ongoing investigation and we will keep an eye on this one.

6.5 Mr Butterworth – Royal Derwent Chattels Mr Butterworth noted that the had previously queried the location of 3,973 chattels documented in a 2002 audit, and referred to the provision of an electronic record documenting only 500 items by the former General Manager. The Mayor took the question on notice.

Minutes of the Derwent Valley Council

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Mystery Solved

October 20, 2015 2 Comments

Our facebook community are so good. On the weekend I was contacted and sent a picture of a old metal chest with the name MAJ C Boland Royal Derwent Hospital, New Norfolk, Tasmania, Australia painted clearly on the top. The person who posted me the picture was after the provenance for herself and the owner. So the mystery started. I posted the picture in our Facebook Group, our Facebook Page and another local New Norfolk Facebook Group and asked for help. I had a couple of hints at whom people thought it maybe and at one stage we thought it might have belonged to a previous patient at the Hospital. As is our policy with respecting patient\resident privacy, I almost chose to stop the hunt there.

I went back to the picture and after one of the group members suggested there was a Doctor with that name there in the 60’s I realised that the MAJ was the abbreviation for Major. With this new information and a possible military connection I investigated further and was able to find a connection to a Dr Boland in New South Wales in 2003 and also with the The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists in 2008 after his death. With more information I was able to find Dr Boland’s eulogy, which had been thoughtfully written by his daughter.

Click to read DAD’S EULOGY which included Dr Boland’s family history at New Norfolk, Sandy Bay and finally Sydney. The owner of the case is planning to print out the eulogy and keep it with the old trunk. Mystery solved!

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Administration Building

February 5, 2015 1 Comment

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Millbrook Rise

January 20, 2015 No Comments

One new book to arrive today was this 1930’s publication of Millbrook Rise. It contains all the early information and an array of pictures taken during the very early stages after the construction. The small book also clearly lays out the future intentions for the accommodation services and shows the facilities available to guests. Doctors were welcome to visit and have a tour of the facilities and the fees are also laid out at 5 pound and 5 shillings a week. There is a good scan of the last page which is a floor plan. Staff moved between Lachlan Park and Millbrook Rise and the Millbrook site came under the Royal Derwent Hospital banner. It is the only remaining part of the hospital complex still in operation. The book is considered to be rare.

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Willow Court Apology One Step Closer. Media release

November 20, 2014 No Comments

Willow Court Apology One Step Closer according to Tasmanian Greens Spokes person for Health and Human Services who release this media statement in late October, at the same time John Wilson from Magra wrote to the Derwent Valley Gazette with a different view point. While Cassy is asking for an apology for the previous policies of governments, John takes on a personal note as a long serving staff member of Willow Court RDH.

28th October 2014 5:26 pm

Time for Parliament to Apologise to Former Willow Court Royal Derwent Patients

The Tasmanian Greens today tabled a Notice of Motion that will allow Parliament to take a first formal step towards apologising to Tasmanians who suffered as a result of policies of governments past in the notorious Willow Court at New Norfolk, Greens’ Health and Human Services spokesperson, Cassy O’Connor MP, said today. “It is now almost 14 years since Willow Court and the Royal Derwent hospital were closed, marking the beginning of a more compassionate, rights-based approach to supporting Tasmanians living with a disability or suffering mental ill health,” Ms O’Connor said.

“We now have a rights-based Disability Services Act 2011 in place and the profoundly transformative National Disability Insurance Scheme, as well as a more inclusive, compassionate response to mental ill health in our community.” “We have come a long way as a community, it’s now time to provide a measure of closure to Tasmanians who were effectively incarcerated in the New Norfolk institution, as well as to their families who faced a terrible choice and the staff who must also live with the memories of working in that sad place.” “As a state, we need to acknowledge the wrongs of the past and government policies that isolated people living with disability and psychiatric or psychological illness in an institution such as Willow Court Royal Derwent.”

“The pain suffered in those times still endures. There have been repeated calls for a formal apology as a means of acknowledging the wrongs of the past and committing to ensuring such institutionalised suffering never happens again.” “It is the role of Parliament to acknowledge the wrongs of the past and to seek to put them right.”

“In 1997, the Parliament formally apologised to the Stolen Generations for their loss of identity, of family and belonging at the hands of the State.” “In the last term of government, we collectively and solemnly apologised to the Victims of Past Forced Adoptions for the emotional anguish caused by the State and charitable or religious institutions who took babies from their mothers on the basis of the morality of the day.” “In this term, Parliament should apologise on behalf of the people of Tasmania to those Tasmanians and their families who were told the best and only option for their disabled or mentally unwell loved ones was institutionalisation at the notorious Willow Court and Royal Derwent hospital.”

“We will have the debate on the Greens’ Motion and hopefully move on together, in the spirit of tripartisanship to formally acknowledge the pain caused by past practices and apologise to those Tasmanians who suffered at Willow Court Royal Derwent,” Ms O’Connor said.

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Politicians facing renewed calls for formal apology to Royal Derwent Hospital mental health patients

October 24, 2014 No Comments

Yesterday I was contacted by a reporter from the Examiner Newspaper about the renewed push for the apology to the former patients of Royal Derwent Hospital. Tonight on the 7.30 Report, Airlie Ward talked to ex-patient, Dannii Lane who is looking for some type of recognition of the wrongness of the public policy that allowed her to feel more unsafe inside the walls of the institution than outside.

“I can still remember the screams, the smell of stale urine, the smell of disinfectant trying to cover the smell of urine,” she said.

“And I remember seeing women chained to the furniture, like dogs. It wasn’t a nice experience.

“I was sexually abused by one of the male attendants.

“You were never safe, you were actually safer outside the asylum than you were in, it was one of the ironies.

7.30 Report Tasmania full story The story will be repeated on ABC News 24 Monday 27th October 2014, 3:30am

If you need to talk about any issues this story may have raised please consider calling Life Line on 13 11 14.

Video Report Here (right click)