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Sunbury Lunatic Asylum was a 19th-century mental health facility known as a lunatic asylum, located in Sunbury, Victoria, Australia, first opened in October 1879.
Prior to being opened as an asylum, Sunbury was controlled by the Department of Industrial and Reformatory Schools (VA 1466). When Sunbury was acquired by the Hospitals for the Insane Branch (VA 2863) patients were transferred from the Ballarat Asylum (VA 2844) and the Ballarat Asylum was handed over to the Department of Industrial and Reformatory Schools. Patients were also transferred from Yarra Bend Asylum (VA 2839). Its proclamation as an asylum was published in the Government Gazette on 31 October 1879.
Since its establishment, the title of the institution at Sunbury has been altered several times to reflect both the community's changing attitude towards mental illness and the Victorian Government's approach to the treatment of mentally disturbed persons. Despite the changes in designation the function and structure of the agency has not altered significantly, therefore the institution has been registered as one continuous agency. From its establishment until 1905 the institution at Sunbury was known as an Asylum. This title emphasised its function as a place of detention rather than a hospital which provided treatment for mentally ill people who could be cured. The Lunacy Act 1903 (No.1873) of changed the title of all "asylums" to "hospitals for the insane". This Act came into operation in March 1905. The Mental Hygiene Act 1933 (No.4157) altered the title to "mental hospitals".
An asylum or hospital for the insane was any public building proclaimed by the Governor-in-Council and published in the Government Gazette as a place for the reception of mentally ill persons. An asylum could also provide wards for the temporary reception of patients as well as long term patients. Up until the Mental Health Act 1959 became operative in 1962 these "short-term" wards were known as "receiving houses" or "receiving wards". The Mental Health Act 1959 (No.6605) designated hospitals providing short-term diagnosis and accommodation as "psychiatric hospitals". However throughout its life Sunbury has been used almost exclusively for long-term patients.
Patients could not be retained in an Asylum without a warrant requesting their admission. Prior to 1867 the warrant was signed by the Governor. After this date the Chief Secretary (VRG 26) was responsible for this function. From 1934 the Director of Mental Hygiene (VA 2866) and from 1952 the Chief Medical Officer of the Mental Hygiene Branch (VA 2866) were successively responsible for admission of patients. The Lunacy Act 1914 (No.2539) made provision for the admission of patients on a voluntary basis, i.e. on a patient's own request for a specified period of time.
In 1962 under the provisions of the Mental Health Act 1959 (No.6605) Sunbury was proclaimed in the Government Gazette as a Mental Hospital and a Training Centre as it was responsible for mentally disturbed and mentally retarded patients. In 1985 responsibility for Sunbury was passed from the Mental Health Division (VA 6961) of the Department of Health II (VA 2695) to the Office of Intellectual Disability Services (VA 2909), a division of the Department of Community Services (VA 2633). It was used for a period thereafter as a training centre to accommodate intellectually handicapped persons.
Victoria University accepted the Urban Land Authorities' offer in 1992 to take over the Caloola site and operated it as a university campus for several years; it closed the campus in 2011 but is still home to a primary and specialist school, 3NRG radio, and the Boilerhouse Theatre Company.
In 2013, a group known as the Sunbury Asylum Alliance was established with the aim to reclaim the site for a community, training and tourism hub.[1]
^Sunbury Asylum Alliance campaigns for new Abbotsford Convent style hub at Jacksons Hill, By Barry Kennedy, 3 June 2014, Sunbury Leader
-37.596313; 144.72925 Sunbury Lunatic Asylum was a 19th-century mental health facility known as a lunatic asylum, located in Sunbury, Victoria, Australia...
Ararat Asylum and female dangerous patients to SunburyAsylum. The commission also recommended that inebriates and idiots be housed in asylums separate...
hospitals. There are no institutions known to have existed. There are no asylums known to have existed. Glenside Hospital James Nash House Cascades Female...
The Sunbury Industrial School located on Jackson's Hill in Sunbury, Victoria, Australia, was a school developed to educate and house destitute children...
Mont Park, Pioneer Women's Memorial Garden within the King's Domain, SunburyAsylum, Yarra Bend Park, and the SEC company town of Yallourn He also was involved...
murnong by Aboriginal people on a sloping ridge of land owned by SunburyAsylum, in Sunbury, Victoria. He called the cultivation "accidental gardening", while...
Victoria, Australia. Originally known as Ararat Lunatic Asylum, Aradale and its two sister asylums at Kew and Beechworth were commissioned to accommodate...
cruelty to patients, from which he was exonerated. When he went to SunburyAsylum, he introduced malariotherapy, the first successful treatment, into...
year, after a manic period, she was involuntarily committed to the SunburyAsylum. During this stay, her sister Helen burned some of Palmer's papers,...
introduced mandatory reporting of child abuse, formally closed the notorious SunburyAsylum however little was done to accommodate the insane who for the most part...
elderly couple in Sunbury-on-Thames where Hassan lived following his arrival in the United Kingdom two years earlier claiming to be an asylum seeker. The incident...
relieved to some extent when new asylums were opened at Royal Park, and Mont Park in the metropolitan area, and Sunbury outside the metropolitan district...
History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 3: Shepperton, Staines, Stanwell, Sunbury, Teddington, Heston and Isleworth, Twickenham, Cowley, Cranford, West Drayton...
between 1911 and 1964. The line was opened in 1911 to serve the Mont Park Asylum complex, with the construction expense met by the government Health Department...
pp. 57–62, ISBN 0-902238-06-X "History of the Queen Mary Reservoir – Sunbury Matters", Village Matters, February 2014, retrieved 25 April 2014 Introduction...
History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 3: Shepperton, Staines, Stanwell, Sunbury, Teddington, Heston and Isleworth, Twickenham, Cowley, Cranford, West Drayton...
University of Melbourne, Melbourne Public Library and Sunbury Industrial School [later Sunbury Lunatic Asylum] in 1854 – all on the same day. Sir Redmond Barry...
Urban Search and Rescue (Canadian Task Force One), British Columbia York Sunbury Search & Rescue - New Brunswick In Croatia the SAR Service is part of the...
Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. Company C, also known as the Sunbury Guards, was formed primarily with men from Northumberland County. Companies...