Ballarat Mental Hospital was opened by the Victorian Government at Ballarat in 1893. It was located on a site that had previously been the Ballarat Industrial School, an earlier iteration of the Ballarat Asylum from 1877 to 1879, and the Ballarat Boys’ Reformatory. It was initially known as the Ballarat Asylum, then from 1905 to 1934 as the Ballarat Hospital for Insane, then Ballarat Mental Hospital until 1969, and finally as Lakeside Hospital. The Ballarat Mental Hospital was primarily a hospital for long-term adult patients with mental illness and intellectual disabilities, however it is known to have also admitted young people under the age of 18. Patients were often transferred between Ballarat Mental Hospital and other Victorian mental health institutions. At its peak in 1959 Ballarat Mental Hospital had capacity for 1100 patients. It closed in 1996.
From
1893
To
1996
Alternative Names
Ballarat Hospital for the Insane
Ballarat Asylum
Lakeside Hospital
1893 - 1996
Ballarat Mental Hospital was located at Wendouree (now called Lake Gardens), Ballarat, Victoria (Building Partially demolished)
