The Lunacy Department was established in 1905 as a department of the Victorian State Government, and part of the Chief Secretary’s Department. It replaced the Hospitals for the Insane Branch of the Chief Secretary’s Department. The Lunacy Department was responsible for the treatment of people deemed to have mental illness or intellectual disability. It had oversight of the management of public asylums and mental hospitals in Victoria, including Mont Park, Kew Children’s Cottages, Travancore, and the hospitals at Sunbury, Beechworth, Ballarat, Ararat, Royal Park, and Kew. In 1934 the Lunacy Department was replaced by the Department of Mental Hygiene, following the proclamation of the Mental Hygiene Act of 1933.