Royal Park Mental Hospital and Receiving House

Royal Park Receiving House was opened by the Victorian Government in 1907 at Royal Park. It was a facility for the short term diagnosis and treatment of people with mental illness or intellectual disability. Patients requiring more extensive treatment were transferred from the Receiving House to other mental health hospitals in Victoria. In 1909 the Royal Park Mental Hospital was opened nearby as an extension to the Receiving House. It admitted patients who required longer-term treatment, with many patients transferred to the Mental Hospital from the Receiving House. The hospital was initially known as the Royal Park Hospital for the Insane until 1934, when the name was changed to the Royal Park Mental Hospital.

From 1954 the Royal Park Mental Hospital stopped admitting long-term patients, and was used as a hospital for short-term diagnosis and treatment only. At the same time the name for the hospital and the receiving house was changed to the Royal Park Psychiatric Hospital. In 1995 the hospital became part of the services of the Royal Melbourne Hospital. It closed in 1999.

While the Royal Park Mental Hospital and Receiving House were primarily institutions for adult patients, they are known to have admitted children and young people as well.  Many young people were admitted directly by their families or doctors, however some, including wards of the state, were admitted by the Child Welfare Department. Some young patients were admitted for only a few weeks, while others remained there for years. From the 1960s the hospital began to develop programs specifically tailored for children and young people, which mostly operated out of what had been the Receiving House. In 1965 a new unit called the Parkville Psychiatric Unit was opened at the Hospital. This was initially an adult unit but was shortly changed to an adolescent unit. In 1988 a research unit called the Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Centre was established, which later became part of the Orygen Research Centre. In 2025 this still occupies the Receiving House site.