We are pleased to welcome Emeritus Professor Robert Goldney AO as a guest contributor to the blog.
Professor Goldney has had a long association with mental health and psychiatry in South Australia. He was Head of the Discipline of Psychiatry at the University of Adelaide and Professor and Medical Director of the Adelaide Clinic. He is recognised internationally for his research in suicide and depression. In 2013, Professor Goldney was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished service to medicine in the field of psychiatry, and for his contributions to the study and prevention of suicide.
In this guest post, Professor Goldney looks at the history of the Adelaide Lunatic Asylum and its gardens, exploring an important part of South Australia’s early mental health history.
In 1856, when the Adelaide Botanic Gardens opened to the public, the site was dominated by a magnificent Colonial building, the Adelaide Lunatic Asylum. Its looming presence over the Gardens can be seen in this photograph of the early plantings of the first Director, George Francis, taken from near the Nelumbo pond.
The Asylum admitted its first patients in 1852, and in 1856 it took over the buildings of the first Adelaide Hospital, which had been situated near the present Wine Centre, and had served the Colony from 1842. A new Adelaide Hospital was built on the site now known as Lot 14. The original Asylum building was also extended substantially in the 1860s and other buildings were erected in the following decades. For example, Yarrabee house was built in 1866 for the Psychiatric Medical Officer, East Lodge was built in 1865 as the gatehouse for the asylum and the ‘Dead House’ was erected in 1882, replacing a previous mortuary which had been near the original stables/workshops. The extent and size of the buildings can be gauged by a circa 1900 photo taken from the old E & WS Depot.
Between 1852 and 1902 the Asylum, along with the Parkside asylum from 1870, served as a forerunner of current day psychiatric
facilities. Accounts of the asylum and its patients were frequently reported in the colonial press. Complaints of noise and occasional escapees appeared intermittently, and several Commissions of enquiry were instigated and reported on extensively. There were occasional adverse findings, usually related to inadequate bed space rather than patient care. Frequent mention was made of the extensive and productive gardens, which extended as far as Plane Tree Drive and the Conservatory gate. These were tended by the patients, and some trusted patients also assisted in the development of the Botanic Gardens, as documented in the Annual Reports of the Director. On balance the asylum appears to have been well accepted as a part of colonial life, as illustrated by an article in the Adelaide Chronicle in 1891 describing it as a:
well appointed structure standing in spacious and well kept grounds…. the rooms are clean, airy, and commodious, while the surroundings of the institution are cheerful and invigorating.
During its 50 year presence it was an attractive subject for artists. Among many examples is a photograph by Townsend Duryea. In fact, just as one can visualise the Asylum from near the Nelumbo pond, one can also stand by the top lake where Duryea must have been to create his image, with the fountain, island and pampas grass still readily visible, and with the Asylum looming in one’s imagination.
From 1902 the Asylum buildings were used for infectious diseases as part of the Adelaide hospital, until those patients were transferred to Northfield in 1932. The buildings then lay derelict for several years and most buildings had been demolished by 1937, when the Botanic Gardens expanded and took over the site.
The most obvious remnants of the asylum are Yarrabee House, on the corner of North Terrace and Hackney Road (the home of the Asylum Medical Officer); and the ‘Dead House’ or mortuary. Other structures include East lodge on North Terrace (the asylum gatehouse), the eastern part of the North Terrace wall, other walls in the Wine Centre, and the original stables/workshops adjacent to the vineyard.
At present only the Dead house is prominently identified, although there are unobtrusive plaques acknowledging the previous presence of the Lunatic Asylum and the Adelaide Hospital, with the latter being obscured in the Eremophila garden.
While the present Botanic Gardens deservedly warrant pride of place in any description of the site, just as we remember the long standing occupancy of the Kaurna peoples, so too it is important to recognise the importance of the Adelaide Lunatic asylum in our State’s history.
Written by Robert D Goldney AO, Emeritus Professor, Adelaide University
This history is based on an article published in the Gazette of the Friends of the Botanic Gardens of Adelaide, 2026 29(1), 5.