From: Mitchell Toy — Department of Internet, Herald Sun
SOME had a history of drinking, others were violent and abusive, and many had little reason to be admitted at all.
Patients in Victoria’s hellish psychiatric institutions of the 1800s were submitted to gruelling treatment including restraint bags, strapped chairs and soul-destroying isolation cages.
Hand-written case files, made available to the Herald Sun Department of Internet through Public Records Office Victoria, give a fresh insight into patients’ state of mind in a system that often saw people condemned for simply being different.
The Sunbury Lunatic Asylum was among several institutions, including Ararat, Beechworth, Yarra Bend and Kew, to house thousands of patients during and after the gold rush
It took just two signatures to have a person condemned to a psychiatric ward in a time when understanding of mental illness was desperately wanting.
In their own words, male patients at the Sunbury hospital describe how they came to be in the institution’s care.
The patients’ stories were taken down verbatim by a ward doctor, described by one patient as Dr O’Brien, who made notes over time about their progress and prospects for work and recovery.
None of the five men who gave the accounts below survived the asylum.
An undated image of the Sunbury Lunatic Asylum. Picture: State Library of Victoria
‘I MET THE DEVIL’
Daniel Dooley, 59
23/8/1892
I was brought by a policeman because I was silly, and I was in the habit of saying my prayers. I stayed a night out looking for a quartz reef. I value it at 100 pounds. I’ve been at Dunolly on an unemployment pass. I brought a tent. I saw a lot of larrikins there, and they burned my tent. When I came back I could not find the place. I met five men dressed like navvies (Irish workers). I spoke to them and they did not answer.
I met more and I spoke and they said they were ghosts. I wanted to go into a house, but they said it was haunted. I then saw the Devil — like a steam engine. I then saw the B.V.M. (Blessed Virgin Mary) and I spoke to her and shook hands with her. She took a tree up to make shelter for me and sent J. C. (Jesus Christ) to obtain another for me. She lifted up the tree as easy as I can this chair. And there was music and ejaculations of the Hail Mary. I asked for money and she had a bird in her hand and placed it on a perch, and one of the men had a purse with him but that money I’ve not got yet. I told a priest and he told me to be off.
‘SOMEONE’S COMING TO KILL ME’
Timothy Shannon, 35
20/5/1892
My name is Tim Shannon. I was born in County Clare. I have friends out here — two in Melbourne. Pat Shannon lives in Dryden St South Melbourne and the other is Tom Shannon, a caster — in Carlton. I forget the name of the street. I suppose it is 3 or 4 years since I went there. You are Dr O’Brien — at least I’ve heard them call you so. I got frightened of the people outside going to kill me. I took it in my mind like that. I’ve got these ideas in my mind now. I think they try to injure me but I did not see them. I would like to get out. But I think he could not support me if I did not work. I used to take 4 or 5 pints of beer — I don’t sleep at night. I’m frightened at somebody coming to kill me. I am not strong enough to work.
One of the handwritten case files from the Public Records Office.
‘I DON’T KNOW THIS PLACE’
Will Robinson, 54
20/5/1892
My official name is Will Robinson — my correct name is Charles Hutton. I was born in 1833, I’m 54 years of age. I don’t know this place. I came from several places. I cannot tell where I came from last. I left Beechworth in 1854, 1855, this year is 1887. I was never in an asylum in my life. I’m not married. I have relations. I can hardly tell you where they are. I cannot tell you where one is. I see well.
Mrs. Packard at UCI Drama 