Lane Cove Historical Society Announces their 2025 History Prize Winner – Tarban Creek Lunatic Asylum

The essay will be published in the LCHS Journal, archived in the LCHS Collection, and given to the Local Studies Unit of the Lane Cove Library. This project will primarily benefit the residents of Lane Cove. However, it will also enrich the reserves of historical research within New South Wales and Australia.

You may have driven along Victoria Road in Gladesville and noticed the old Gladesville Hospital site.  This site has had a history of name changes and was the first purpose-built Lunatic Asylum built in NSW.

• Tarban Creek Lunatic Asylum (1838-1868)
• Gladesville Hospital for the Insane (1868-1914)
• Gladseville Hospital 1915 – 1993

The site is owned by the NSW government and is used as offices and for community activities.

Christina’s essay focuses on two of the earliest superintendents of the Tarban Creek Lunatic Asylum and highlights how, in the early 19th Century, mental health treatment was rudimentary.  The essay examines the tense relationship between Mr Digby, a non-medical superintendent and Dr Campbell, an ambitious physician.

Patients were usually brought to the Asylum by the police, and it was not uncommon for some patients to pass away within a day of arriving at the Asylum.

The first Superintendent, Mr Digby, was not a medical practitioner, and patients were restrained with straitjackets.   Governor Sir Richard Bourke selected Mr Digby as he had experience in the administration of mental institutions in England.  Mr Digby and his wife (who was appointed Matron) relocated from England to take up the position as Superintendent.

Mr Digby’s correspondence (outlined in the winning essay) with the Governor is fascinating, as authorities routinely rejected requests for soap or hay for mattresses.  However, the requests show a man dedicated to his role.

The second superintendent was Dr Campbell.  When he first arrived at the Asylum, he reported to Mr Digby.  He disagreed with Mr Digby’s methods, and he took steps to undermine him.  Mr Digby’s methods as superintendent were made public when letters to the editor were published in the Sydney Morning Herald.  The letters were written under a non-de-plum and argued strongly that mental asylums should be run by medical staff.

“Campbell’s fame rests upon his reputation as a clinician. He introduced concepts of non-restraint, adequate diet, planned recreation and clinical regimes. He failed as an administrator and was personally criticised to Henry Parkes by Surgeon George Walker as ineffectual.”

In December 2019, the Mental Health Commission of New South Wales held a memorial to acknowledge and remember the lives of former residents of the Gladesville Psychiatric Hospital on Victoria Road in Gladesville.

The following is noted on the NSW Mental Health Commission website:

“The Gladesville Hospital Cemetery is the final resting place of more than 1,200 former patients and several staff.  Almost all the graves are unmarked — an indication of the high level of ignorance and shame that pervaded attitudes towards those who experienced mental health issues in the past.”