Callan Park Mental Hospital

Callan Park Hospital for the Insane was officially opened in 1878 at Lilyfield, Sydney. It was under the control of the New South Wales State Government office of the Inspector General of the Insane. It was opened to help relieve overcrowding at other mental health hospitals in New South Wales. In 1915 the name of the Hospital was changed to the Callan Park Mental Hospital, then again in 1976 to the Callan Park Hospital, and finally in 1994 to the Rozelle Hospital. Rozelle Hospital closed in 2008.

Callan Park Hospital is known to have provided ‘care’ to young people under the age of 18 from at least 1888. The Correspondence Files of the Colonial Secretary includes letters relating to the admission of children as young as 11 years old to Callan Park, some of whom had been transferred from other mental health hospitals, and a few who had been transferred from children’s homes or destitute asylums. These records, as well as other patient files from Callan Park, are held by Museums of History NSW (State Archives NSW).

This practice of admitting young people to Callan Park continued at least into the 1960s and 1970s. It was mentioned in several submissions to the 2004 Senate Inquiry into Institutional Care (Submissions 318, 416, and 469). The authors of each of these submissions describe being sent to Callan Park by the Child Welfare Department as teenagers of either 15 or 16 years of age, as a result of depression or behaviour resulting from traumatic experiences in childhood. The author of submission 318 states that at Callan Park he was placed on an adult ward with other patients.

In 2007, following the announcement of the closure of the Rozelle Hospital, an Oral History program was established to capture the memories and experiences of former patients and staff of the hospital. One of the participants, Peter Gray, spoke about his experience being admitted to the maximum security unit at Callan Park at 17 years old. He described his life at Callan Park as revolving around “a mixture of regular beatings for misbehaviour, and occasional rewards such as going to church or being allowed to visit the gardens”, and stated that this experience was preferable to the alternative of being sent to juvenile detention facilities. The Oral History collection of recordings and transcripts is held by the State Library of New South Wales,