How I spend my days
Thank you so very much for posting the photo of Woogaroo Asylum. My grandfather was a Warder at the Woogaroo Asylum in 1883 (from one of his children's birth certificates).
You have definitely captured something spectactular with your brilliant photography - thanks for sharing it.
All the best,
Bronwen....
How the passage of time and decay transform a once imposing and formidable building to a mere ruin - something benign and with artistic character they say! But through my mind's eye, I see superimposed over your photo, a scene so terrible and sickening that my heart sinks into a deep pit that I have not experienced for fifty years, when I last visited an inmate there. Your photo is meaningless art. I'd prefer one of rubble or ashes or bare dirt.
Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum 1865-now modern terminology dictates it to be called Wolston Park Hospital,as people who are ill in General Hospitals pre 1900 did not have the slur of ignorant people calling them Lunatics.This was the original home of Dr Stephen Simpson,from 1844-1852, when he moved 3klms down river to Wolston House,1852-1860.The doctor in 1835 wrote a medical treatice"The Practical Advantages of Modern Homeopathy.
I think the photo is amazing ... truly one worth publishing ... I would like to see more photo's of this building ... as ugly as what it may have been, when being thought of in todays terms; in its day it was what was seen as a necessity; not just an asylum but something that removed fears and tribulations about the mentally ill from the community .. unfortunate but true ... I just hope that this history of this place is preserved ...
Hello. I had a great grandmother by the name of Jessie Elizabeth Harvey or Jessie Elizabeth Magub who was placed in Goodna/Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum in the 1800s by her husband. If anyone has any URL from which I can get information about her (her medical records/burial place etc) or if anyone is willing to visit a library/public archives for me, I would love to gain any information possible about her. My family feels that she was wrongly imprisoned, and we would especially like to know where she was buried... If anyone has any information on this, could they please email me at smagub@hotmail.com, with the subect line: Information About Jessie. E. H/M.
It would be a great help to me and my family. Thank you.
my grandfather's first wife died at Woogaroo Asylum in 1891 at the age of just 18 years old. the death certificate states enteric fever as the cause of death and that she was buried in the asylum cemetery. I am trying to find out about the circumstances of her death and how it was that she was in the asylum. any advice would be appreciated.
Can anyone help me with infomation on the history of Wolston Park we are not getting much infomation. We are interested in History and stories about the people that were inprison there.
PLease help us as I am writing a book about the house.
Thanks
Woogaroo Hospital has to be one on the most shrouded secret places in Queensland.
Don't look for any information about it's past, you won't find any.
So anyone looking to compare the treatments of patients past and present, ask them why?
I have been trying to get information on my grandfather who was admitted to Wolston Park in 1923 and died there in 1924. I have followed all the correct FOI processes but have been unable to access any information. I would like to hear from others who are trying to get information on their family who were patients there and if they have been able to access information. Please email me at mcgrath64@hotmail.com
Wow, my son and I went for a look at the old building today and it was a very scary and forbidding place. Gave us the shivers just looking at it from the outside. His girlfriend swore she saw someone in one of the upstairs rooms, apparently wearing glasses. She didn't seem concerned until she started thinking about how he could have possibly got there. Strange. It would certainly be interesting to know some of the stories and see more of the interior of the building. I had a distant cousin sent to Wolston Park but it was much later, approx 1950, so he would not have been housed in the original building. Has anyone found anything more about it?? I have some photos of the exterior that I took today. kelly_benson2003@yahoo.com
The Female Ward of 1866 was built of sandstone and was to have been for both Male and Female Paying Patients in early 1866 but as none were forth coming, the ward was taken over for 40 Female Patients who originally numbered only 12 were housed from 10th Jan 1865 till Oct 1866 with adjoining ward of the 57 Males 300 yards lower down the hill were the Wolston Park Golf Clubhouse is situated now.
Between these two present buildings will be the proposed Goodna Bypass Motorway and Bridges below across the Brisbane River and which will be built through the original residence site of Dr Stephen Simpson which the Qld Government bought from him the original residence in 1860. Source ref QSA, Microfilms MLA Papers,Q5-1868-69 pages 936+, Q6-1870-71 pages 951+.
It was amazing how many people your photo touched. I was browsing trying to find a way to get my older brothers records and found this disturbing photo. To the innocent it evokes the days gone by, history still standing only family and staff know the terrors behind that photo. Human testing and atrocities that we abhor in the second world war but were documented as happening at Wolston Park and other psychiatric hospitals, where women who were sane but not required anymore could be placed. Children who were born with physical not mental disabilities were hidden. This is a photo that should be enhanced and added on. The way that you feel walking through the park is prominant. It isnt just sight seeing, you feel something.
I have just found your photo and thank you immensely for bringing my great grandmother's death certificate to life (so to speak). Until now it has simply been a piece of paper, albeit with very sad undertones, but with no concrete information to assist me in filling in a very large gap in my family history.
My great grandmother was Isabella McCarthy. She died at the Woogaroo Asylum on 20 June 1889 at the "young" age of 36 after having five babies, only two of whom survived. She was buried at the Asylum Cemetery on 22 June 1889.
That begs the question - is the cemetery still identifiable? And also - are the graves marked?
I suspect, from family stories handed down, that Isabella was suffering from post-natal depression. Now I am on a mission to discover more about the circumstances surrounding her admission, the length of her stay and her death.....if I can!!??
Your photo has inspired me to make the trip to Queensland from Melbourne to have a look for myself.
Berris Aitken
berta8@bigpond.com
Hi
Just come across this discussion after seeing the current exhibition regarding the institution at the museum of brisbane (in city hall). It is deeply moving. Should you get the chance, I strongly recommend a visit.
Looking forward to going back to the exhibition, and also visiting the site.
I live 20min from the wolston mental institution, and when I was younger me and a few friends wanted to check it for ourselfs as we had heard many storys of what happend in the old abanded buildings.
How they had human testing, that's deaths were accuring rapidly, that the place was making litterly people insane, that the nurses were hunted with memories for the rest of there lifes, while we we're looking around it looked like and old prison, bars everywhere! Stains on walls and we had heard there was a cemetery.. But we could never find it. Its quite a big place and would be quite easy to get lost.
Also what id like to kno, is why there is soo many kangaroos around there, its like gards trying to keeps us from entering the forbidden
The history of this asylum is a disgrace! People were treated like animals and the wardens and so called Dr's families left today should look at the horrific conditions and realise that this is nothing to be proud of. I have studied this Institution for the past 12 months and the more i learn the more I am astonished. I have been inside the buildings in the last 12 months and not only is it a very cold and lonely left spirited ruin but also an embarassment to Qld's history. Governed by British law under the Insanity Act 1864 and then to the Lunacy Act in 1914, these patients whom were apparently recieving "health care" were not...Only to be tested like bloody rabbits.....First cemetary was placed in 1869, only 2 years after opening, and then, second cemetary placed in 1872 along with a morgue.....Oh and did i mention consolidary confindment for the first 44 years???? Imagine that, no family, no friends just horrid Dr's and wardens whom did what they felt was ambilical to the Australian Societies Democratical policies....Bloody Commonwealth BULLSHIT!!!!
I have just found out today by receiving my Great great grandfather's death certificate that he died in the Woogaroo Asylum in October 1900 he was only 33 years old. The cause of death is phthisis he was a miner and had only been in the country for 12years. The other thing is my grandmother work at the Wolston Park Hospital from the mid 50's until she retired in the mid 80's I had up until recently one of her uniforms. She didn't talk much about the place, all she said was that by working there it gave her a roof over her head and food on the table. My Great great grandfather who died there was my grandmother's ex husbands grand father. I would like to know why my Great great grandfather was sent there and not the Ipswich hospital. When I started researching my family hisotry my grandmother told me a couple of stories about what happened at the Wolston Park Hospital when she was there but I don't know if they happened or if they were only stories to scare me.