Wyadra Hostel, run by the Blind, Deaf and Dumb Institution, opened in New Town in 1952. It was initially for children with partial hearing and later for those with no hearing. The Hostel closed in 1957. Wyadra Hostel opened officially on 21 April 1952 in Clare Street, New Town. The Institute for the Blind and…
The Girls’ Welfare School, the Education Department’s first special school, opened in 1924. A few girls from the Industrial School for Girls – Hobart attended the Girls’ Welfare School. In 1954, it became the Dora Turner School. The first principal of the Girls’ Welfare School, Dora Turner, remained there for 27 years. She aimed to…
Millbrook Rise Hospital opened in New Norfolk in 1933. It was a public psychiatric hospital which took some adolescent patients. In 1968, Millbrook Rise merged with Lachlan Park Hospital to form the Royal Derwent Hospital. Millbrook Rise officially opened on 21 February 1934 (Willow Court Tasmania website). Initially, the main purpose of Millbrook Rise Hospital…
The Hospital for the Insane replaced the Lunatic Asylum in 1859. It remained on the same site. Day to day management of the hospital was run by a Superintendent. General oversight of the Hospital was the responsibility of the Commissioners of the Hospital for the Insane until 1885, when this over was responsibility was transferred…
The Lunatic Asylum, New Norfolk began in 1827 as the Invalid Barracks for convicts. A good proportion of the invalids were classified as ‘lunatics’ and as the hospital became more crowded, it increasingly specialised in ‘caring’ for people with this diagnosis. Over time it catered for all kinds of people, rather than just convicts. The…
The Blind, Deaf and Dumb Institution, run by the Society for the Blind, Deaf and Dumb, opened in North Hobart in 1898. It provided an education and industrial training to adults and children with hearing and sight disabilities. There was accommodation for the country children who attended the school on the site. The Institution closed…
Wingfield House, run by the Board of the Royal Hobart Hospital, opened in 1938. It was on the grounds of St John’s Park. Wingfield provided residential and outpatient aftercare to children affected by the polio epidemic of 1937 to 1938. Later it offered services to children with a range of physical disabilities. It closed in…
Lachlan Park Special School, run by the Education Department, opened in 1959 following lobbying from the New Norfolk Branch of the Retarded Children’s Welfare Association. It was located within the walls of Lachlan Park Hospital, in a former hospital ward. Education at Lachlan Park had more or less stopped by 1965. Margaret Reynolds, the former…
Tascare Society for Children superseded the Tasmanian Society for the Care of Crippled Children in 1988. It provided support to the parents of children with disabilities.Tascare Society for Children closed in 2019. The name change appears to have followed the Society’s decision in the mid-1980s to give up its medical and clinical roles in order…
St Giles School, run by the Society for the Care of Crippled Children, opened in 1931. The School provided an education to the children with physical disabilities who lived at St Giles Home or attended it for treatment. Children did not live at the School. In the 1980s, the Education Department took the School over…
Dec 17, 2025
Dec 18, 2024
Nov 15, 2024