| Historical notes: | In October 1879, the government purchased some 340.5 acres of Kenmore Estate at a cost of 1,252-5-0 pounds. Manning had recently been appointed the colony's first Inspector-General of the Insane and the acquisition of the Kenmore property represented his first major achievement in his new role.
THE BUILDING OF THE HOSPITAL 1894-1900
The first contracts for the construction work were let in 1894, the major one going to the Sydney builder, John Baldwin, for an amount of 12,760-6-5 pounds. A second contract for about 923-9-0 pounds was awared to the local Goulburn builder, JC O'Brien. Baldwin's contract involved the erection of a number of permanent buildings in brick, as well as some temporary wooden structures.
Although the first patients would be chosen for their quiet and industrious natures, it was necessary to provide separate accommodation for any patients who became violent or uncontrollable. O'Brien's contract called for the erection, at a cost of 423-9-0 pounds, of a small brick 'special ward' (site of today's dental clinic) where such patients could be kept under lock and key.
In March 1941, the NSW government offered the hospital to the army as the site for a military hospital, an offer the army promptly accepted. Over the next twelve months, Kenmore's patients were moved to various mental institutions in Sydney, in preparation for the army's occupation of the site.
The army moved out at the end of January 1946, the Department of Health resuming control of Kenmore a week later.
REVERSION AND REDIRECTION 1946-93
With the army's departure, patients were gradually moved back in to Kenmore, ward by ward, from other mental institutions in the state. It was not long before the accommodaiton situation at the hospital took on a familiar pre-war appearance. By 1949, Kenmore was once again overcrowded.
The modernisation of the hospital in the 1960s and 1970s, together with the reorientation of treatment policy towards rehabilitating patients, produced a reduction in the number of beds at the hospital and eventually an elimination of the overcrowding from which it had almost always suffered. by 1974, the bed capacity of the hospital stood at an approximate figure of 700. Further policy changes in the 1980s accentuated the trend towards smaller patient numbers. The emphasis was on removing patients from the hospital environment where their illness or incapacity might become thoroughly institutionalised and never improve. Instead, mentally ill and handicapped people were encouraged to live out in the community where, it was believed, their chances of recover or adjustment were better, and where moreover they were far less costly for the state to maintain. With the trend away from housing and treating the mentally ill or handicapped in large psychiatric instituitons, Kenmore must look forward to a modified or wholly different role. |