As old as the state of Queensland itself, Goodna Mental Hospital became Australia's largest asylum, housing 50,000 people over its lifetime. The place has had so many names, Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum, Goodna Asylum, Brisbane Special Hospital but I think most people know of it as Wolston Park.
Green shoots break through cement floors, committing atrocities against human dignity. Rust eats away at handrails in violent invisible chemical reactions. Much like the disturbing stories of how past patients were treated, some stories were pushing on human torture.
The history of this place in not good and the truth is hard to find. Tragic events happened in Wolston Park, this article in no way undermines the patients past and present and acknowledges that these people should be respected.
Until recently, information from mental asylum case books was rarely released (even under Freedom of Information) for genealogy or family history purposes, but some case book entries over one hundred years old are now open to the public here.
For what is worth it, Wolston Park Hospital Complex is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland's history.
Some places are afforded more time than others. Time to sit empty, festering, and decaying, falling into a state of perceived isolation until, nature takes over.
If you are curious to know more, check the below links to ABC Radio series All in the Mind shares stories from people who lived and worked there, from a nurse who worked there from the 1940s to a woman incarcerated as a young ward of the state, now fighting for justice.
Up until the rising of major institutional and cultural upheaval, the Office of the Patient's Friend opened its doors in 1977, the first patient advocacy service to operate within the confines of an Australian psychiatric hospital.
Part advocate, part whistle-blower—running the service has taken a might of steel and a heart of gold. Thirty years later, Nadia Beer remains in the role.
All In The Mind
Part 1 of 3
Part 2 of 3
Part 3 of 3
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