Before the Lunacy Act 1871, the primitive mental health system in Western Australia had been governed by the English Lunacy Act 1845. Reflecting a general social apathy, the Lunacy Bill was not even debated before it passed into law.
The Lunacy Act 1871 defined a 'lunatic' as 'every person of unsound mind, and every person being an idiot' (s.2). Commitals could be ordered (Schedule A) or voluntary, at the request of a 'private person' (Schedule B). Epilepsy was one of the conditions explicitly referred to in the Act (committal Schedules). The Schedules also give examples of the information that was to be collected prior to admission, and the forms to be used at admission and for medical reports.
We do not currently have any resources linked to this entry, but resources may exist. If you know of any related resources, please contact us.
The Find & Connect Support Service can help people who lived in orphanages and children's institutions look for their records.
Last updated:
30 November 2021
Cite this: http://www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/wa/WE00995
First published by the Find & Connect Web Resource Project for the Commonwealth of Australia, 2011
Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License