Part of the record management and accountability at the hospital meant that good documentation needed to be kept. “Official Visitors” were able to witness a list of patient treatments and visit the site at any time. They were considered the independent advocate for the hospital patients.
One such Visitor was Vincent W Shoobridge who was appointed in 1925 after the resignation of Philip S. Seagar who had been an Official Visitor from 1891-1925. Official Visitors would witness the log books and sign under the last entry for the month.
The lists identified patients who needed to be restrained, secluded, had received injury, had a seizure or who had died at the hospital during the month of June 1935.
Looking through the female pages of the log book and you can see that there is sometimes a correlation with the use of restraints or seclusion and the death of the patient in the following weeks. This was most likely indicative of the person’s deteriorating mental health at the time.
June 1935 Female Patient log bookJune 1935 Male Patient log book
The log book had a corresponding page for male patients. Each of the medical conditions being treated would also be logged along with new admissions and any discharges for the month. The Visitors would always sign in retrospect and the pages would show a date stamp or written date of the visit. There were 307 Male and 323 Female patients in the hospital in June 1935 and there was also a record of “out-patients” recorded on one page.
Over the last few decades it has been reported that there is an asbestos dump on the land at New Norfolk that was formerly under the control of the Royal Derwent Hospital. The asbestos was removed from the Royal Derwent Hospital/Willow Court Centre buildings after completion of a major asbestos audit. Parts of the site are still contaminated with asbestos which is mainly found in old electrical equipment such as switchboards and gaskets in the old heating system.
During the latest restoration an audit was undertaken, but the cost of removal was deemed too costly. The only way to remove these gaskets was to cut away large and heavy sections of metal pipes either side of the gasket, so as not to disturb the toxic material. Proper disposal of asbestos is costed by weight, the metal would add to the cost, so it was deemed safe while in situ.
The potential sale of the site was affected by two reported dump sites; “While it was a large property, the Valuer-General established a value of just $500 000, taking into account heritage constraints as well as the poor state of many of the buildings. Furthermore, significant industrial contamination, including asbestos and hospital waste, existed at the site.”
The Valuer General’s 2013 report recognised that any developer would have to undertake remediation of the site at considerable cost so as to develop the area; “However, at least $16m expense for service upgrades, sub-division, demolition of buildings and asbestos removal appeared unavoidable.” The report goes on to mention the successful sale; “After a two-year negotiation, sale was agreed to the Lachlan River Community Holdings Pty Ltd: a consortium of Derwent Valley Council and a private company, Mototo Business Group Pty Ltd.”
Given this report it appears that all documentation about the hospital waste site and the asbestos dump site were known to the Derwent Valley Council before, during and after the sale of the former RDH land.
To date it is believed there has been no remediation of the site, however the Gateway Estate housing development on the hill near the dump sites was approved by the Derwent Valley Council. It is unclear if the Council, as the previous owner, or the current developer undertook any safety audits or environmental reports of the land before development started to protect residents and construction personal.
In a report named “Preliminary Environmental Assessment of the Royal Derwent Hospital/Willow Court Centre” by Stoklosa Engineering PTY LIMITED dated 1996, a map shows the sites of the Hospital Waste and the Asbestos Dump Site (circled in red).
Below is another image from Google Earth which has been aligned, as much as it was possible, to the above image. The red circled area is a close proximity to the matching red circle from the above report.
An earlier report on this website raised many questions about the possible location of the dump site. A number of people suggested that the dump site was closer to the Lyell Highway, opposite Millbrook Rise. Previous stories.
In 2016 a “Structure Plan (Draft)” from the Derwent Valley Council reported; previous unknown location of an “asbestos dumping site”, even though, as the part owners of the site, the Derwent Valley Council had access to all the reports and information pertaining to the toxic dump site.
On Tuesday I visited the site and spoke with a local resident who informed me that the surveyors were working on the site in the area of the above red circle. This was believed to be in preparation for the next stage of housing development.
The Derwent Valley Council have two new Development Applications from the owners of the Agrarian Kitchen, the first is an extension to their current business housed in the old Bronte House. The expansion would entail a Kiosk and a Cooking School. This would bring all the business under one roof and would extend the operation hours for this location.
The second development application is the creation of a large productive market type garden within the walled area of Carlton House. This area will have two ponds, two market or productive garden areas along with raised smaller garden beds and fruit trees.
Proposed Gardens
It is envisaged that the Gardens area will look something like this, but with the inclusion of two ponds, a poly tunnel and a tool shed.
The Agrarian Kitchen has been running a highly successful and complementary business within the Heritage site for some years. This is a natural progression as they bring their Lachlan Cooking School and gardens within the one location.
We know that Willow Court Barracks was used as the General Hospital in the Derwent Valley until 1848 and after that it was one of Tasmania’s Asylum. So what was the mix of patient like and what would be their cause for admission? Below is a record gathered by Professor of History, Hamish Maxwell-Stewart, which gives us a clear idea of the admission causes for the Patients in 1841-2. During this time the Hospital was known as the Her Majesty’s Lunatic Asylum, New Norfolk.
This was is a snapshot of the work that is being done to understand the Convict’s plight here in Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania), compared to those that were taken to other places around the world. The records have allowed for a significant study into the death and disease rate of Convicts which included Her Majesty’s Lunatic Asylum, New Norfolk. By 1848 the Hospital was only to admit “Insane Patients” according to an instruction in April by Sir William Thomas Denison KCB, Lieutenant Governor of Van Diemen’s Land who was Governor between 1847-55 in a bid to reduce the overcrowding issues that had been reported.
To do this during this time, a number of (well) Patients were ordered to leave Her Majesty’s Lunatic Asylum, New Norfolk and go to the Probation Station at Impression Bay, while most reluctantly went, 27 refused to go, further discussions reduced that number to 14 dissenters. The Police Magistrate was called upon to remove the remaining well patients by the end of April 1848. It was reported to the Chief Police Magistrate that “it was not necessary to resort to coercive measures” and this then assisted to resolve the overcrowding issues for some time to come.
Above is a podcast recorded about 2007 where the Valley Vision Project Officer, Ian Brown conducted a tour of Willow Court. Valley Vision which was set up by the Derwent Valley Council. Valley Vision had plans for the site and did a lot of the groundwork that allowed for the current activities onsite.
Allonah Female High Secure Ward, Samantha Bulmer Collection
Valley Vision were about for nearly ten years and were unsuccessful in finalising the vision for the site before being disbanded by the Derwent Valley Council in 2009-10. It was interesting to note that the Councillors who disbanded Valley Vision also failed to complete any vision for the site. Some of the plans from Valley Vision included community use areas which were similar to the proposal recently put forward by the Friends of Willow Court. Other plans were for some art works to be returned or loaned from the Cunningham Dax Centre Museum, attached to the Melbourne University in Victoria.
Living In- Living Out
Valley Vision were also responsible for the Living In – Living Out exhibition which celebrated the worker’s throughout the decades in the hospital. Podcasts from the exhibition can be found on the Multimedia\audio page. Ian refers to “Tony” in the podcast, Tony is Tony Nicholson who was the Mayor\Local Historian at the time and who was also passionate about the site’s history and how that could be respectfully told to future generations.
Most of the remaining east side of the Royal Derwent Hospital is currently for sale. Offers over $4 million are being accepted for the above section. The remaining sections are negotiated with the Agent.
We have a hard to find copy of “Troubled Asylum” by Ralph. W Gowlland for sale. This is a white covered, signed, first edition which makes this even rarer. This copy was owner by Dr Sue Fricker who worked with Gowlland in the 70’s at the Hospital.
Condition: The cover has a few minor marks, the pages are all dry and fine, the binding is in good condition. The picture below and above is the actual book for sale. The current owner will donate 100% of the proceeds to the following charity
Postage: within Tasmania is free, contact mark@willowcourttasmania.org for other details including how to deposit funds directly into the charities bank account.
The Derwent Valley Council opened up an expression of interest process to off load the remaining sections of the hospital under their management. There were a number of groups who expressed an interest in the site at the time and within the allotted time period. There was also one successful applicant who was entertained outside of the expression of interest period. Shortly after the announcements of successful applicants the General Manager of the Derwent Valley Council instigated a Probity Investigation into the tender process for the Sale or Lease of Willow Court with a very narrow brief of “examination of the decision by the Council to entertain unsolicited proposals after the closure of the EOI process”.
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The site owners have had a long history of offering the assets to business and groups who have had ideas, but in many cases, without due diligence these great ideas have failed or never got off the ground, so the property has returned back to the DVC often in a much worse state. This leaves the rate payers of the Derwent Valley to pick up the tab.
Works have not started in the Rum Distillery which is the remaining property offered for lease. While the locks have been changed there isn’t any visible work in the area previously approved for work by the Derwent Valley Council in May 2019.
Alongside Humphrey Street was the wall that segregated the hospital and the community and on the hospital side of the wall there was a small laneway called “Flinders Street” by the late June Purkiss who worked at the hospital from the 1940’s. It was so busy with foot and cart traffic that it was said to resemble that busy CBD Melbourne street.
Inside the rear yard of the Barracks
All this area has now been demolished including the rear of the Barracks building. This was to make way for new wards in the early 1960’s. The front of the Barracks on the photo below shows the hole and driveway that was created for trucks to remove the building rubble. The rubble was used for widening the local roads in the Derwent Valley, filling in an area on the Esplanade and also as fill up against the hospital wall so the new ward for the Criminally Insane could be built on top.
The front of the Barracks with the drive through to the right of the central treeOriginal Willow Court gates
The other old photo above is the original wall and gates that led up the driveway that faces the front of the Barracks. There has always been debate as to where the original gate disappeared to, some say that a politician has them on the front of his country property still. This has never been proved though.
Ward
B Ward (above) was also demolished in the early 1960’s but its foundations can still be see in the Geophysical mapping that was done by Flinders University. The red lined square shape is the current C Ward yard which contains part of B Ward or Male Refractory and part of A Ward later referred to as the Gentleman’s Cottage”.
One of the most recognisable buildings on the site was K1 and K2 wards (below) and the large central clock tower. When this was also demolished in the early 1960’s one resident from Humphrey Street stated she could now see the sun in the morning for the first time since she live there in the shadow of the tower. Many were sad to see this iconic structure demolished, but a hospital that needed to progress was the order of the day and new buildings were going to occupy the site soon.
