The history of Lachlan Park Hospital – Willow Court Tasmania

Last weekends display, Conflict and Consequences.

I just wanted to share with you the background to some of the display Conflict and Consequences and how we (Friends of Willow Court) were able to put it together last weekend. It was easy to get information about wars and times of conflict and it was easy to access documents that told us of the Hospital’s history but the challenge was to see where these two subjects intersected and the people who were involved. The research was done over a reasonable length of time and we had access to a Historian, the Archives Office of Tasmania, the Tasmanian Military Museum and private collector and also we had connections with families. These family connection were what was the most humbling because we were being told of family stories of pride, sorrow and pain. To be able to listen to each of these stories and come to an understanding of that place, that time, and that horror was educational and highly emotive for us, the researchers. A simple thanks doesn’t seem to suffice sometimes. We were able to show the completed stories to some of those families and that was a delight. For a short time we were able to understand the journey that they had to have and some continue to travel.

The history of mental health issues post war is well documented and now days is recognised as post traumatic stress disorder but previously throughout the history of this condition, could have been known as “shell shock”, “melancholy” or simply being “depressed”. It is a condition that some live with and for others it was too much to endure on the human spirit. The hospital’s admission rate increased during these time of world conflict as found in the graph below. Matron Morey and others returned from areas of conflict themselves and either joined or rejoined the hospital staff. It was these people who supported those that came back only to find life too hard, especially after time spent in camps as a prisoner of war.

Some other interesting things we discovered during our research was that a lot of records were used as paper pulp because of the paper shortage experience at the time. Most of the paper was imported from Britain, even the Mercury and Examiner both wrote to the Hospital regretfully informing the administration that they could not longer supply free newspapers. Times were tough when you consider that was the main means of communication with events from abroad and locally. Some files were written on coloured paper as staff were asked to use and reused what ever paper they could including the carbon copies that were often different in colour than the original documents. Some records were also lost during the second world war in particular because of the need to make more paper and this was frustrating when Dr Crabbe came to write the history of Lachlan Park Hospital after his own war service and return after being a prisoner of war. He saw the files before he departed for war and on his return lots had gone. His book was on display last weekend and we had a voice over of the introduction (below).

Here is a small selections of photos of the display.

The “Electrical Machine” found in the attic in the old Officer’s bedroom

The “Electrical Machine” found in the attic in the old Officers bedroom is contained in the history of Lachlan Park book by Dr G.M Crabbe. This book is a review of file notes from the early to mid 1800’s and beyond. It is able to shine a light on treatments and practices within mental health services in early Tasmania. The extensive use of Convicts and ex-convicts as support staff appeared as a common practice and also an ongoing problem according to the book, “In contrast to this, those in charge did seem to have the patients interests at heart and did their best to care for them. They were very handicapped by having the hospital staffed by convicts and ex-convicts, the Medical Officers, Matron and Headkeeper being the only “Free”.

There is also a lot mentioned about Electricity being used as far back as 1851, “strong galvanic current” however a clear difference was the time that the electricity was used for a patient in that time and what would be used today with modern ECT. The Galvanic battery would be able to deliver long doses of electricity to the patient and there are clear records indicating that the use of the electricity was used verbally as a threat instead of a treatment. Reasons for long electrical treatment could be, not eating, being idle, being violent, refusal to work and delusions. Dr Grabbe also questions whether the electric shock or galvanic battery were also delivered through hip or foot baths, the file notes are unclear.

Treatments involving cold bath or shower, hip bath are also mentioned in the patient notes that Dr Crabbe reveals.

The treatments given were the usual ones in those days. Emetics and purgatives, especially on admission, were used frequently; heads were shaved; setons were inserted in the neck, great satisfaction being expressed when they discharged freely; heads were blistered; disturbed patients were given cold showers, which frequently did anything but quieten them; mercury was given in full doses, till a stomatitis was produced, but this was not considered an indication to discontinue the administration. Sedatives were not much favoured, the only one in use being opium, but in spite of its being effective, it was not used very often.

There is clear history of the Barrel tunnel being put in, to stop issues and complaints from downstream residents.

Dr Crabbe clearly had an interesting in the treatments used and proposed in the early history of Willow Court and a number of terms used throughout the book are clearly that of an educated medical practitioner with a keen sense of gathering this history before his own death, most of the research was done while he coped with his own health issues.