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The first attempt to house and restrain those considered to be mentally ill in Western Australia was in the hull of a ship, the Marquis of Anglesey that had been grounded at Arthur Head in Fremantle. The first patient was the ship’s surgeon of the Rockingham who had gone insane on the long voyage from England.
Scott’s Warehouse was the next location used to house mental patients and it has been described as “foetid”.
The Fremantle Lunatic Asylum was constructed by convict labour between 1861 and 1865.
The building was designed to house 32 lunatics but when it opened it admitted 45. Overcrowding was to be a feature of the institution.
Sadly for those who were incarcerated, the definition of lunacy was very broad and included conditions that have no relation to mental illness such as epilepsy, post natal depression or even just a rebellious nature.
Cases are recorded of uncooperative wives being admitted by their husbands, employees who walked away from their jobs committed by their employers, in fact women who showed any sign of independence could find themselves locked away on a whim.
Males had equally harsh treatment when it came to being admitted to the asylum. Being a vagrant or considered to be a burden on society or even a little slow was enough. You could be put away where no one would see you and polite society did not have to spare a single thought for your future.
These unfortunates were not even separated form those who were truly insane and violent.
The asylum was expanded in the decade between 1886 and 1896 but there was never enough funding and no will to make conditions any better for those incarcerated within the walls.
There were isolation cells that were used to subdue violent intractable patients but they were also used to punish others for fairly minor infractions.
Staff were not trained in the care of mentally ill people and although nurses had some medical knowledge, there was no real compassion. There were accusations of patients being beaten with sticks, deprived of food, stuck with pins and sleep deprivation among other things.
Ill treatment, dreadful conditions and complete apathy by the authorities and government meant that patients were condemned to a living hell.
Bed bugs, fleas and insanitary conditions all added to the misery experienced by patients. The harsh, grim interior included no areas for recreation and no respite for more normal patients from the wailing of those who were indeed totally insane.
In the 1890s it wasn’t just adults being condemned to this facility. Increasing numbers of children aged between 9 and 15 were incarcerated. Some were to live out their lives in asylums, starting at Fremantle and then being transferred to Claremont when the Fremantle institution closed in 1909.
The length of time people stayed in the asylum varied considerably depending on their perceived usefulness to society. Those considered capable of work spent on average 6 years. Others thought to be lost causes could spent 12 to 30 years and some, their entire remaining lives.
It is probably little wonder that in more modern times, there have been many reports of restless spirits and a feeling of hopelessness in different areas of the building. People report emotions ranging from despair to rage and overwhelming sadness.
Chilling encounters have led some visitors to run screaming from the building, refusing to return and others have been seen struggling with an unseen force.
The most famous inmate of the asylum was Moondyne Joe, or more properly Joseph Bolitho Johns.
Joe spent his last days in the asylum where he died in 1900.
Official enquiries into the horrific conditions at the asylum all came to nothing until one headed by Frederick Vosper in 1900. The enquiry found that the asylum was completely unfit for purpose and that a new asylum urgently needed to be built.
Sadly although this inquiry was the instigator of change, it was to be nine long years before the asylum closed and the inmates were moved to a new facility.
The asylum closing was not the end to the misery this building was associated with because as the asylum closed down a women's home opened.
This was not the protective style of institution that we would associate with that name today but a rather punitive place that was once more used to hide away those people who society no longer wanted to be seen in public.
Widowed and abandoned women, single mothers and any woman unable to care for herself could be dumped in the home and left there indefinitely.
Part of the building was used as a midwife’s training school and at least women admitted there could expect a level of medical care and a matron who showed compassion. Again lack of funding and staff shortages plagued the place.
The men’s home in Dalkeith was much better funded and was the sole beneficiary of a large bequest.
Any woman unfortunate enough to contract venereal disease could expect to be locked up in the home and kept away from society to whom they posed a threat.
These ‘troublesome women’ were housed in te old asylum building from 1910 to 1942.
With the Second World War the asylum became accommodation for members of the U.S. Navy. This was not good news for the women who had been living there as they were bundled off to a dilapidated house in Guildford. 70 women were now expected to live in a building that had previously housed just 21.
The old asylum buildings were first fumigated and then renovated and Supply Base 137 began operating.
When the war ended in 1945, the asylum was abandoned, the seeming end of its existence punctuated by a fire and the explosion of ammunition left behind by the departing Yanks.
Parts of the building were used for a time as a school while John Curtin School was beinng constructed. By 1956 the buildings were left to the cockroaches and ghosts.
In 1958 it was decided to demolish the place but at the last minute a group headed by George Seddon and Mayor Fred Samson was able to save the asylum and although it took quite some time, the building opened to the public as a maritime Museum in 1970.
In 1972 the Arts Centre began to operate and the rest, as they say, is history.
Most of the details for this page came from the book 'May They Rest In Peace' by Jane Hall. Published by Hesperian Press.
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