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On 2 May 1888 the buildings formerly used for the Protestant Orphan School at Rydalmere, near Parramatta, were set apart by proclamation for the purposes of a Hospital for the Insane. (1) The Hospital was managed as a branch of Parramatta Hospital for the Insane, and received patients considered chronic cases, transferred from the main hospital at Parramatta. After extensive repair to the buildings provided additional available accommodation, it was decided to manage the Hospital as a separate institution, with a Medical Superintendent appointed on 1 September 1891. (2) The institution was gazetted as Rydalmere Hospital for the Insane on 4 April 1892. (3)
It was not intended that patients would be admitted to Rydalmere, but that the hospital would receive chronic cases ‘the overflow from the overcrowded wards’ of Parramatta, Callan Park and Gladesville Hospitals, as transfers. (4) A new ward, the first designed specifically for the needs of epileptic patients was contracted for, and opened in 1892. (5) Initially Rydalmere accommodated only male patients, but on 31 December 1894 the Hospital return lists 84 female patients also resident. (6)
In the Inspector General's Report for 1915, the title Hospital for the Insane was replaced with Mental Hospital. (7)
In May 1968 Newington State Hospital was closed, with the remaining residents placed in wards 9, 22, and 23 of Rydalmere Hospital (8), and in September 1968 Rydalmere commenced as a regional Admission Centre (9), with patients admitted under the provisions of the Mental Health Act 1958 (Act No.45, 1958).
The appointment of Rydalmere Hospital as a place for the admission and temporary treatment of mentally ill persons was revoked in March 1983. (10) This revocation excluded Wards 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 30, 31, 32 and Cottage 1-5 inclusive, which were retained for the admission and temporary treatment of mentally ill persons. (11)
An inquiry into Mental Health was undertaken in 1983. Known as the Richmond Report, in part it recommended progressively reducing the size and the number of existing Fifth Schedule hospitals by decentralising the services they provided. (12) It also recommended that the Parramatta Psychiatric Centre (and services at Rydalmere Hospital until 1985-86) be responsible to the Parramatta Hospitals Board. (13) Its recommendations were adopted as government policy and their implementation commenced in 1984. (14)
At 30 June 1984 there were 399 patients in residence at Rydalmere Hospital, which was still gazetted as a Mental Hospital under the Public Hospitals (Hospitals Incorporation) Amendment Act, 1983 (Act No.1, 1984) . (15) This figure had increased to 414 patients by 30 June 1985. (16) From the 1 August 1985 the separation of institutional services for mental health and developmental disability became effective (17) (18), and by 1988 Rydalmere had ceased to function as a psychiatric hospital and instead treated developmentally disabled patients. (19)
Responsibility for Developmental Disability Services was transferred to the portfolio of the Minister for Family and Community Services on 1 July 1989. (20)
The Parramatta South Campus of the University of Western Sydney was established on part of the site from 1993. (21)
Endnotes
1. NSW Government Gazette No. 285, 4 May 1888, p.3162.
2. Inspector General of the Insane, Report for the year 1891, in Votes and Proceedings 1892-93, Vol. 7, p.1048.
3. NSW Government Gazette No. 252, 5 April 1892, p.2795.
4. Inspector General of the Insane, Report for the year 1891, op cit.
5. Inspector General of the Insane, Report for the year 1892, in Votes and Proceedings 1892-93, Vol. 7, p.1090.
6. Inspector General of the Insane, Report for the year 1894, in Votes and Proceedings 1894-95, Vol. 5, p.489.
7. Inspector General of the Insane, Report for the year 1915, Parliamentary Papers 1916, Vol.2, p.893.
8. Director of State Psychiatric Services, Report for the year ended 30 June 1968, in Parliamentary Papers 1968-69, Second Session, Vol.3, p.596.
9. Director of State Psychiatric Services, Report for the year ended 30 June 1969, in Parliamentary Papers 1969-70-71, Vol. 4, p.708.
10. NSW Government Gazette No. 45, 11 March 1983, p.1147.
11. Ibid., p.1148.
12. D T Richmond, (Chair), Inquiry into Health Services for the Psychiatrically Ill and Developmentally Disabled, Summary of Recommendations, March 1983, p.1 (accessed on NSW Parliament website http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au).
13. Ibid., p.11.
14. Legislative Council Parliamentary Paper No 368, Select Committee on Mental Health, Mental Health Services in NSW, Final Report, Dec 2002, p.10 (accessed on NSW Parliament website http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au).
15. Report of the Department of Health for the year ended 30 June 1984, Parliamentary Papers 1984-85-86, Vol.11, paper 172, p.62.
16. Report of the Department of Health for the year ended 30 June 1985, Parliamentary Papers 1984-85-86, Vol.11, paper 173, p.64.
17. Report of the NSW Department of Health for the year ended 30 June 1986, Parliamentary Papers 1986-87-88, Vol.18, paper 267, p.27.
18. NSW Government Gazette No. 108, 26 July 1985, p.3844.
19. Report to the Minister for Health on Mental Health and Developmental Disability by the Ministerial Implementation Committee, Vol.1, Nov 1988, Parliamentary Papers 1988-89-90, Vol.21, paper 291, p.101.
20. Report of the Department of Health for the year ended 30 June 1989, Parliamentary Papers 1988-89-90, Vol.15, paper 210, pp.39-40.
21. NSW Heritage Register http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/heritageapp/ViewHeritageItemDetails.aspx?ID=5000658(accessed 21 March 2013).
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