Adelaide Lunatic Asylum About 1878 (Courtesy SLSA B39362/12)
The last fifty years have seen treatment of people with mental illness improve dramatically in Adelaide. No longer are people incarcerated under inhumane conditions in asylums - sometimes simply because they were poor or homeless.
Adelaide Lunatic Asylum opened in 1852 and was the first purpose built place in SA designed to hold and treat mentally ill people. Situated on North Terrace, it was in an elevated position allowing the inmates to see over the walls down the hill into the Botanic Gardens (established in 1854) and feel the fresh breezes.
The Former Morgue in the Grounds of the Botanic Gardens
The new asylum held sixty patients plus staff, and was situated sufficient distance from town to avoid annoying the inhabitants, yet close enough for official Visitors to inspect the facilities. It soon became clear that the facilities were simply not big enough to accommodate increasing demand and it was proposed that a new building housing 200 patients be built further from Adelaide.
By 1866 plans were under way for the new Parkside Lunatic Asylum - later known as
Glenside Hospital, which eventually opened a separate secure ward for the criminally insane
called the Z Ward.
Meanwhile Adelaide Lunatic Asylum continued operation, but the number of patient deaths made a
dead house or morgue necessary. In 1882 The
South Australian Register announced that a tender to build the new asylum dead house had been accepted.
The morgue was built from Yatala stone, probably quarried by prisoners from stone along the
Dry Creek Linear Park. It was a simple rectangular building with white rendered internal walls with timber roof supports and a galvanised iron roof. Windows and ventilators provide the air flow that would have been essential during autopsies, while a slate floor is canted to a central drain.
The Morgue Has a Slate Floor With Central Drain
On the left of the door a long stone slab has a trough where a body can exsanguinate. The room is a similar size to the morgue at
Torrens Island Quarantine Station which was constructed 30 years later.
The former Adelaide Lunatic Asylum Morgue or
death house is one of only a few buildings from the original asylum to survive today. Situated not far from the ultra modern
Bicentennial Conservatory, the original morgue table was reputedly used in the 1980's by gardeners as a table for potting plants, but these days the building is only used as a storage shed.
Inside the Adelaide Lunatic Asylum Morgue
The former asylum's Yarrabee House and stables survive nearby as part of the National Wine Centre, and you can read more about them at this fascinating National Trust site
dedicated to Adelaide history.
A Plaque Tells the Story of the Morgue
The new
Adelaidia website from History SA contains a wealth of information about Adelaide - old photographs, maps, and well researched history stories are all available on many topics including the
Adelaide Lunatic Asylum.
Today the serene atmosphere of the Botanic Gardens and the National Wine Centre give little indication of its more disturbing past. But it does demonstrate that Adelaide has some well kept secrets, and should never be thought to be boring.
The Bicentennial Conservatory and Cascade Glass Sculpture Nearby
Thanks to Vin from Vintuitive Website Development for the story idea.
