Figure

One: Aradale Mental Asylum circa 1880s. Courtesy of Heritage Victoria.

What Happened at
Aradale?
Located in Ararat in central Victoria, Aradale
Mental Asylum was built in 1864 and has
become one of Victorias most infamous
asylums. Throughout its approximately 130
years of operation, Aradale experienced many
physical and administrative changes, but a
change in the treatment of patients is still
contentious. Due to a number of issues, it
appears that while Aradale always seemed to
have the best intentions to help patients, but it
fell short and patients were subjected to
questionable practices and treatment.

Gold was discovered in Victoria in the 1850s
and it caused an inundation of people and
the establishment of many towns. Ararat,
founded in 1857, was one of these towns. By
the end of 1857 Ararat had grown to be
home to between 30,000 and 50,000 peoplei.
By 1859 work had begun on a County gaol
that became known as J Wardii, and the
construction of Aradale began six years later
in 1865 ( Copyright. R.G. Burgin 2015)iii.

The Building

Aradale was specifically built to help with the

overcrowding that was occurring in the
asylums already in existence, especially the
Yarra Bend Asylum, and assumedly to improve
the treatment and rate of cure of patients. It
was built during a time when the medical and
general society had begun to believe that moral
therapy, that is treating patients with activities
such as gardening, board games and reading
along with medical treatmentiv, was the most
effective way to combat mental illnesses. As
such Aradale was meant to be a retreat where
people could go to improve their mental
health. However, from the start the treatment
of patients leant towards being negative.

Aradale, and its two sister asylums in Kew
and Beechworth were built in barrack style
buildings that entailed patients living like
soldiers ( Copyright. R.G. Burgin 2015)v. It
had already been found that living in a more
natural style that consisted of houses and
cottages, as was the style used at Yarra Bend
was much better for the treatment of
patients. However, this was more expensive
as more staff was needed, so the decision
1

was made to build huge, imposing buildings.

Ironically, these were built to make a
statement about the wealth of Victoria at the
time, which was caused by the Gold Rush (
Copyright. R.G. Burgin 2015)vi.

Figure Two: Aerial shot of Aradale circa 2000.

Authors own photo taken of a photo/information
board in the waiting room at J Ward, Ararat.

Overcrowding
It took barely two years for Aradale to
become overcrowded, and this problem only
worsened. Despite many buildings being
added. At it height, it is believed Aradale had
between 60 and 70 buildings, though this
number is contested ( Copyright. R.G.
Burgin 2015)vii. Overcrowding occurred
mainly because many people admitted to
asylums that didnt need to be there. This
included people with drinking problems, and
people of low intellectual capacity who
would have been cared for at home before
this time ( Copyright. R.G. Burgin 2015)viii.
There is even a reported case where a man
was arrested whilst having an argument
with his wife, and as a result was almost
interred in Aradale ( Copyright. R.G. Burgin
2015)ix.

Other than overcrowding, little can be found
regarding treatment of patients (
Copyright. R.G. Burgin 2015)x. However, at
this time the doctors in charge of asylums

like Aradale, more often than not surgeons,

had little or no training in mental health. The
nurses and attendants were poorly paid and
held even less training ( Copyright. R.G.
Burgin 2015)xi. Adding to this was some of
the medical treatments at the time. For
example, in England patients often had their
heads shaved to allow their brains to cool
because it was believed that the overheating
of the brain caused insanity. Though there is
no reference to this practice directly,
inclusion in newspaper reports of the time
hint at overheating brains being an accepted
cause at Aradale ( Copyright. R.G. Burgin
2015)xii. At Aradales sister asylum in Kew, a
wooden cabinet was found that patients
would be strapped into. Water would fall
from an overhead pipe as a form of water
therapy ( Copyright. R.G. Burgin 2015)xiii.
No such cabinet has ever been found at
Aradale, but the similarity between Kew and
Aradale may imply that some form of this
water treatment was used. From all of this it
can be assumed that the treatment of
patients was unpleasant.

Figure Three: One cottage built to help with

overcrowding. Though these types of buildings were
more expensive due to more staff being needed, several
were built at some point in time. Authors own photo
taken at Aradale, Aradale.

Zox Royal Commission
Interestingly, despite using treatments that
are viewed today as barbaric, i.e.
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electroshock therapy; water therapy etc., the

wider community of the time was very
concerned with the treatment of patients.
Following pressure from Ararat, the
government ordered a Royal Commission
into conditions at Aradale in 1886. Known as
the Zox Royal Commission, it found the
system at the time to be very defectivexiv. It
contained about 65 recommendations (
Copyright. R.G. Burgin 2015)xv and directly
led to changes in law through the Lunacy
Amendment Act 1886 and the Lunacy Act
1903. Some of these recommendations also
directly worked to help with the problem of
overcrowding. One of these was that male
patients who were criminally insane were to
be housed separately from the general
population. This led to the acquisition of the
county jail by Aradale in 1886xvi. Though it
was meant to be a temporary measure, J
Ward remained open until 1991 (
Copyright. R.G. Burgin 2015)xvii.

Another key recommendation was that
people admitted due to drinking problems,
or because of low intellectual ability, be
moved to an asylum separate from ones for
the insane. This led to the construction of the
Kew Idiot Ward and other asylums for
inebriates ( Copyright. R.G. Burgin
2015)xviii.

Dr. Eric Cunningham Dax
The main changes to both Aradale and J
Ward at the start of the twentieth century
was physical as more buildings were added,
and with the installation of a sewerage
system in 1939/1940xix. The next big change
in terms of treatment and administration
was in the 1950sxx.

Dr. Eric Cunningham Dax was a British
trained psychiatrist who was brought out to
Australia in 1952 to revolutionise the
various Hospitals for the Insane (as they had
been called since the Lunacy Act 1903) in
Australiaxxi. He became Chairman of the
Mental Health Authority and implemented
many changes within the systemxxii. The
main one was the idea of occupational
therapy. He believed that keeping the patient
busy, either by working or by producing art,
would help cure the patient and assist them
in getting back into society, as had long been
the aim of mental asylumsxxiii. He worked to
give patients more freedomxxiv and organised
for patients to be paid for their work and to
receive a pension from the governmentxxv.
He drastically improved living conditions by
cleaning all of the asylums and by moving
patients to where they were supposed to be.

Figure Four: Front of J Ward as it appears today. Authors

own photo taken at J Ward, Ararat.

Figure Five: Dr. Eric Cunningham Dax. Courtesy of The

Dax Centre.

The problem of overcrowding had only

gotten worse in the intervening years
between the Zox Royal Commission and
when Dax was appointed chairman. Dax
realised that this impeded the diagnosis and
treatment of patients, and tried to alleviate
this problemxxvi. He did this by encouraging
patients to be reintegrated into the
community. The fact that Dax needed to
implement changes and even be brought out
to Victoria to improve the mental health
system shows that the treatment of patients
was not acceptable. It appears that the
Victorian era idea of moral therapy had
fallen out of favour, or had been forced out
by overcrowding and the lack of training of
carers and doctors.

Figure Six: The back of staff quarters today. Staff,

especially unmarried women, lived at Aradale while
they were working there. Authors own photo taken at
Aradale, Ararat.

The training of carers and doctors was also

something Dax believed needed to be
addressed, and he worked to do this by
providing them with tutors to teach them
about mental illnessxxvii. For a while, it
appears that Daxs work, along with the
implementation of new drugs and ideas
regarding the treatment of mental illness,
greatly improved the treatment, lives and
living conditions of the patients. However
once again something went wrong.

1991 Parliamentary
Investigation
By 1991 things had become so bad that an
investigative task force was created to look
into patients treatment at Aradale. The
investigation was ordered when an
anonymous source reported allegations of
physical and sexual abuse of patients,
unprofessional procedures, theft or misuse
of patient and government funds and
property and possible breaches of the law or
codes of practicexxviii. Evidence confirming
almost all of these was found, though
physical and sexual abuse appears to have
occurred between patients and not carers
and patientsxxix. This shows how far
treatment had fallen from Daxs time, and
almost suggests that conditions were
perhaps comparable with conditions when
Aradale first opened.

Over the years, the number of patients had
been gradually falling, but the number of
staff, both direct carer and non-direct carers
(cooks etc.), had remained steady and even
gone up slightly. This directly affected the
patients in term of competency because
when there were more patients than staff,
patients had been expected to help with their
own care, through housekeeping. Once Dax
worked to change things, it was also through
paid work that improved conditionsxxx.
Surplus staff combined with the end of
programs that raised issues around client
rights, patients were left idle and with very
little to do. One example of this was the
vegetable garden at J Ward. According to
guards, the patients had immense pride in
regards to their garden, but were confused
and upset when it was stopped because of
issues about patient exploitation because
they didnt understand why they couldnt do
something they loved xxxi.

4

found basically, that there was widespread

mistreatment in the form of handling of
patients money, the amount and variety of
food patients were getting and the fact that
patients had little to do during the day. This
was added to by things not discussed here
due to space such as the roster of staff which
didnt allow for continuity of programs or
care (it was a 2 days on 2 days off system)
and accountability of staff in regards to their
Figure Seven: Courtyard of J War as it looks today. Not
actions and treatment towards patients as
pictured is the gate leading to where the vegetable
garden was, but it is a wrought iron gate. Weeds and
well as theft. It is not surprising that J Ward
grass can be seen through it. Authors own photo taken at
was shut down in 1991, whilst Aradale was
J Ward, Ararat.
shut down in 1998.
In other cases, when programs such as

cooking classes were actually run, the
Aradale and J Ward have had a long and
patients had no chance to apply the skills
sordid history. Patient treatment appears to
they had learnt, as they were not needed due
have been mainly negative, despite the many
to the sheer number of staffxxxii. Patients
positive things Dax tried to do as Chairman
were completely reliant on staff, and this led
of the Mental Health Authority.
to the opportunities for staff to mishandle
Overcrowding, lack of staff training, forms of
the money of patients. It was the staff that
treatment at the time and lack of things for
decided when and how much money to draw
patients to do were the main reasons for this.
from a patients account, not the patients.
From the idea of moral therapy, to Daxs
Although records were meant to be kept
changes and to the idea that asylums were
regarding these transactions, none were kept
meant to cure patients and then reintegrate
properly and this meant that whilst carers
them back into society, the mental health
may not have deliberately stolen from
sector over the years appear to have had the
patients, the investigation found there were
best intentions, but it often fell short due the
funds missingxxxiii.
reason previously outlined.


Overall, there appears to have been much
confusion regarding the roles of carers,
especially in relation to rules and
regulations. There was an overabundance of
stock and supplies at Aradale due to carers
and management not communicating, and
this led to reports of widespread staff
pilferingxxxiv. However, patients were
underfed according to reports, and staff
sometimes used patients funds to buy extra
fresh fruit for the individual wardsxxxv. The
Figure Eight: Aradale from its driveway as it appears today.
findings of the parliamentary investigation
Authors own photo taken at Aradale, Ararat.


i Graeme Burgin, The J Ward Story, (Ararat, Victoria; The Friends of J Ward Inc., 2009), 10ii Burgin, The J Ward Story, 12.
iii Graeme Burgin, The Building (Ararat, Victoria; The Friends of J Ward Inc., 2015), 22.
iv Lens Levin, Bibliotherapy: Tracing the Roots of a Moral Therapy Movement in the United
States From the Early Nineteenth Century to the Present, Journal of the Medical Library
Association, 101/2 (2013), 89.
v Burgin, The Building, 18.
vi Burgin, The Building, 19.
vii Burgin, The Building, 33.
viii Burgin, The Building, 78.
ix Burgin, The Building, 56.
x Burgin, The Building, 77.
xi Burgin, The Building, 77.
xii Burgin, The Building, 79.
xiii Burgin, The Building, 80.
xiv Ephram L. Zox et al. Royal Commission on Asylums for the Insane and the Inebriate,
Treatment of the Insane, [online document], (1886, Parliament of Victoria)
http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/papers/govpub/VPARL1886No15Pi-clxxii.pdf, xxviii,
accessed 6th of October 2016.
xv Burgin, The Building, 78.
xvi Burgin, The Story of J Ward, 13.
xvii Burgin, The Building, 78.
xviii Burgin, The Building, 78.
xix Burgin, The J Ward Story, 170.
xx There has been contracting evidence as to whether it was in 1952 or 1957.
xxi Kenneth Clifford Kirkby, Art for Psychiatrys Sake: An Interview with Dr. E Cunningham
Dax, History of Psychiatry, 9/33 (1998), 39.
xxii Kirkby, 39.
xxiii Dr. E Cunningham Dax, Mental Hygiene Authority, Report on the 1957 Overseas Visit,
(Victoria; 1957), 1.
xxiv Dax, 15.
xxv Dax, 17.
xxvi Dax, 3.
xxvii Kirkby, 44.
xxviii Victoria, Parliament, The Investigative Task Forces Findings on the Aradale Psychiatric
Hospital and Residential Institution, Parl. Paper 198, Victoria, 1988-91, 5
http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/papers/govpub/VPARL1988-92No198.pdf, accessed 6th
of October 2016.
xxix Victoria, Parliament, 94-110.
xxx Victoria, Parliament, 55.
xxxi Burgin, The J Ward Story, 141-142.
xxxii Victoria, Parliament, 55.
xxxiii Victoria, Parliament, 45.
xxxiv Victoria, Parliament, 49.
xxxv Victoria, Parliament, 62-67.



Primary Sources
Dax, Dr. E Cunningham Mental Hygiene Authority, Report on the 1957 Overseas Visit,
(Victoria; 1957).

Victoria, Parliament, The Investigative Task Forces Findings on the Aradale
Psychiatric Hospital and Residential Institution, Parl. Paper 198, Victoria, 1988-91,
http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/papers/govpub/VPARL1988-92No198.pdf, accessed 6th
of October 2016.

Zox, Ephram L. et al. Royal Commission on Asylums for the Insane and the Inebriate,
Treatment of the Insane, [online document], (1886, Parliament of Victoria)
http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/papers/govpub/VPARL1886No15Pi-clxxii.pdf, accessed
6th of October 2016

Images

Figure One: Aradale Mental Asylum circa 1880s, in National Trust Database [online
database], accessed 29th of August 2016.


Figure Two: Aerial shot of Aradale circa 2000. Authors own photo of
information/picture board in waiting room at J Ward, taken 18th of September 2016 at J
Ward, Ararat.


Figure Three: Accommodation Cottages. Authors own photo, taken 18th of
September 2016 at Aradale, Ararat.

Figure Four: Front of J Ward. Authors own photo, taken 18th of September 2016 at J
Ward, Ararat.

Figure Five: Dr. Eric Cunningham Dax, in The Dax Centre [online website], accessed
17th of October 2016.

Figure Six: Back of staff quarters. Authors own photo, taken 18th of September 2016
at Aradale, Ararat.

Figure Seven: Courtyard of J Ward, Authors own photo, taken 18th of September
2016 at J Ward, Ararat.

Figure Eight: Aradale from the driveway. Authors own photo, taken 18th of
September 2016 at Aradale, Ararat.

Secondary Sources
Burgin, Graeme, The Building (Ararat, Victoria; The Friends of J Ward Inc., 2015).

Burgin, Graeme, The J Ward Story, (Ararat, Victoria; The Friends of J Ward Inc.,
2009).

Kirkby, Kenneth Clifford Art for Psychiatrys Sake: An Interview with Dr. E
Cunningham Dax, History of Psychiatry, 9/33 (1998), pp.39-49.



Levin, Lens Bibliotherapy: Tracing the Roots of a Moral Therapy Movement in the
United States From the Early Nineteenth Century to the Present, Journal of the Medical
Library Association, 101/2 (2013), pp.89-91.