Ward 13, Dunwich Benevolent Asylum (former)

General

Also known as

Sibelco Training Room; CRL Training Room

Classification

State Heritage

Register status

Entered

Date entered

30 April 2021

Type

Health and care services: Benevolent institution/home

Themes

4.4 Working: Unpaid labour

4.5 Working: Surviving as Indigenous people in a white-dominated economy

10.2 Providing health and welfare services: Caring for the homeless and destitute

10.4 Providing health and welfare services: Caring for the aged and infirm

Construction period

1889–1893, Ward 13

Historical period

1870s–1890s Late 19th century

Location

Address

8 Mallon Street, Dunwich

LGA

Redland City Council

Coordinates

-27.50059, 153.405061

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Significance

Criterion AThe place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland’s history.

Ward 13, Dunwich Benevolent Asylum (former), constructed c1889-93, is important in demonstrating the Queensland Government’s response to the care and treatment of the aged, homeless and destitute in the late 19th century. The asylum operated on Minjerribah/North Stradbroke Island from 1865-1946 and was the first and largest institution of its type in Queensland. Ward 13, the only in-situ example of inmate accommodation at the asylum, illustrates the spartan nature of the accommodation provided, which reflected the Government’s minimal expenditure at Dunwich.

Criterion BThe place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland’s cultural heritage.

The Dunwich Benevolent Asylum was the largest government institution for Queensland’s aged, homeless and destitute between 1865 and 1946. Ward 13 is the only known in-situ example of inmate accommodation at Dunwich, and the earliest surviving example of benevolent asylum inmate accommodation in Queensland.

Criterion GThe place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons.

As a surviving building of the Dunwich Benevolent Asylum, the former Ward 13 has a special association with past inmates and staff members of the asylum, and their descendants, including the Quandamooka people of Minjerribah/North Stradbroke Island.

The asylum could not have functioned without the labour of Quandamooka men and women throughout its c.80 years of operation (1865-1946). With the assistance of the Australian Workers Union, the asylum’s Aboriginal male labourers were granted award wages in 1944 – more than two decades before Aboriginal workers in the pastoral industry.

History

The former Ward 13 was constructed c1889-93 as a ward for male inmates of the Dunwich Benevolent Asylum, which was operated by the Queensland Government on Minjerribah/North Stradbroke Island from 1865 to 1946. The asylum was Queensland’s first and largest institution for the destitute, accommodating people who, due to age, unemployment, illness, or mental or physical disability, could not support themselves. In 1946 the asylum’s inmates were transferred to ‘Eventide’ at Sandgate; Ward 13 was then used by sand mining companies; reduced in length between 1947 and 1955, and converted to a conference/training room in 1986. In 2021, it is the only known in-situ example of inmate accommodation at a government benevolent asylum in Queensland.

The site of the benevolent asylum at Dunwich, also known as Goompi, is part of the traditional land of the Quandamooka people, on the west side of Minjerribah/North Stradbroke Island.[1] Prior to the asylum, Dunwich had been used by Europeans during the Moreton Bay Penal settlement era (1824-39), when there was a garrisoned out-station (1827-31, QHR 602139) at Dunwich. A mission to the Quandamooka people by the Passionist Order existed at Dunwich from 1843-7; and a quarantine station, located on high ground northeast of the causeway, operated from 1850-66. The convict-built stone causeway of the outstation [QHR 601021] and the buildings of the quarantine station were later utilised by the asylum.[2]

The asylum at Dunwich was an Australian version of the English poorhouse, established to house and feed those members of the community who were unable to provide for themselves. During the 19th century and early 20th century, poverty was seen as the fault of the individual. Charity recipients had to be ‘deserving’, i.e. respectable, grateful, and obedient; and, if possible, work to help ‘earn their keep’. Institutionalisation (’indoor relief’) was seen as one solution to poverty, and government aid was provided to various private charity groups, such as benevolent societies.[3]  

In 1844 the Moreton Bay Benevolent Society formed as a charity administered by citizens, with some government funding. The society was given responsibility for the Brisbane hospital on George Street in 1858. This became known as the ‘Brisbane Hospital and Benevolent Asylum’, as hospitals of the time were also used as a place of relief for the destitute. In 1861 the Queensland Government passed the Benevolent Asylum Wards Act, awarding funds to all Queensland hospitals to set wards aside as benevolent asylums.[4]

From 1863 the Brisbane hospital committee sought to separate the hospital from the benevolent asylum, and in 1865 it rejected the idea of a separate benevolent asylum building on the grounds of a proposed new hospital on Bowen Bridge Road. The hospital committee wanted an immediate solution to overcrowding at the existing hospital; so responsibility for the benevolent asylum was transferred to the Immigration Department. In May 1865, some inmates of the benevolent asylum were sent to the vacant 1860s buildings at the Dunwich quarantine station, under the charge of Dr Jonathan Labatt. However, the continuing intermittent use of the quarantine station for vessels meant that inmates were moved between Dunwich, Brisbane and South Brisbane, before finally moving back to Dunwich in November 1866.[5]

The asylum at Dunwich, the first and largest Government-run benevolent asylum in Queensland, was the last resort for people experiencing poverty who had no other means of support, including their families.[6] Its remote location was considered a useful way to keep these people away from the temptations of alcohol and out of sight of polite society.[7] Theoretically, both admission and discharge of the elderly poor was by request.[8] The majority of inmates were from unskilled or low-skilled occupations; 60 years of age or older; and male, with females fewer than 11.7% of total admissions. Dunwich drew its inmates from across Queensland, although the opening of ‘Eventide’ (meaning the end of the day, or the evening) at Charters Towers in 1929 reduced the number of males admitted to Dunwich from Western Queensland.[9] It has been estimated that during the 19th century, 25% of Queensland men older than 65 were in the asylum, before this dropped to 10% in 1901 as the total number of older people in Queensland increased. The statistics for men aged over 60 at the asylum are 5% in 1891 and 4.5% in 1901.[10]

As well as Dunwich, and Eventide in Charters Towers, there were three ‘Government homes for aged women’ in Queensland by 1929: The Hospice, South Brisbane; the Brodribb Home, Toowoomba; and the Rockhampton Benevolent Asylum, although these three were small institutions.[11] By 1943, there were four Government benevolent asylums: Dunwich, the Brodribb Home, Eventide at Charters Towers, and the Rockhampton Benevolent Asylum. No early inmate accommodation remains at the latter three sites.[12]

Most people younger than 50 were sent to Dunwich because of specific chronic illnesses or disabilities, rather than age or poverty. At various times the asylum housed people suffering from leprosy, diabetes, cancer, and tuberculosis; ‘inebriates’ (alcoholics); unemployed people; people with epilepsy; people with mental or physical disabilities, including vision impairments; and orphans or the children of inmates.[13]

Hospital wards and a ‘blind’ ward were built at Dunwich. A lazaret (for inmates with leprosy/Hansen’s disease) was also established on Adam’s Beach, on the south side of Dunwich, in 1892 (moved to Peel Island in 1907), and a tented camp for ‘consumptives’ (tuberculosis patients) was set up at Polka Point, north of the female division, in 1904.[14]

Queensland’s first Inebriates Institution, for the confinement of alcoholics, was located within the asylum, from 1899-1910 and 1916-1946. Inmates were committed, under the Inebriates Institutions Act 1896, at their own or their family’s request, or because of repeated convictions for public drunkenness.[15] Amongst the younger inmates were returned soldiers of World War I, committed to the Inebriates Institution as early as 1916, and these men were the majority of admissions to that facility, housed in Ward 91/2 of the asylum, from 1918-24.[16]

The diversity of ages and mental and physical conditions of the inmates meant the facility was overcrowded and difficult to manage. Superintendents at Dunwich had broad powers over the inmates and, as the local government representative, over the Quandamooka people on the island. However, they had limited power over visitors to the island.[17]

There were two major enquiries into the asylum, which had some effect on conditions at Dunwich. An 1884-5 inquiry into the asylum led to several reforms: a separate female division; the appointment of Superintendents with medical qualifications; and a set of regulations for the asylum, after passage of the Charitable Institutions Management Act 1885. The Act made inmates, or their relatives, with means, liable for their costs; inmates could also be directed to work if capable, and could be punished for disobedience of the regulations ‘by way of fine, solitary confinement, hard labour, or deprivation of food or comforts’. A 1905-6 inquiry, due to accusations of neglect, later led to (although not specifically recommended) extra buildings, food refrigeration, and a steam laundry.[18]

Until the 1900s, inmates able to work provided most of the asylum’s workforce, undertaking positions of responsibility in the wards and administration, and odd jobs such as cleaning, mattress stuffing, wood cutting, nightsoil removal, grass cutting, gardening and minor maintenance, boot repair, candle making, shepherding, and working in the mess and kitchens. Inmates were also involved in food production, as the government attempted to offset some of the asylum’s expenses through fishing, crops (hampered by poor soil), and keeping dairy cows, pigs, sheep and poultry.[19]

Heavy work for the asylum was undertaken by members of the Quandamooka people, who lived at Myora, and later at the One Mile, both north of the asylum. Quandamooka men sourced firewood, dug graves, and unloaded the supply ship. Other jobs included herding, working in the dairy or piggery, and tracking lost or escaped inmates. Quandamooka women worked as servants, maids, and assistant nurses. In the early 20th century some Quandamooka men held trade and skilled jobs, including on the supply boats and in the electricity generating plant (electrification occurring at Dunwich c1928).[20]

As the asylum relied on the cheap labour of the Quandamooka people (initially paid in rations), a longstanding and complex relationship developed. The Quandamooka people were subject to the Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act of 1897, and were placed under the control of the asylum’s superintendent, who could theoretically exile them from the island or ban them from the asylum grounds; yet because their labour was critical to asylum’s operation, the Quandamooka people living on Minjerribah/North Stradbroke Island were less repressed and controlled than Aboriginal peoples living in Queensland Government Aboriginal Settlements such as Barambah (Cherbourg) and Taroom.[21]

In its 80 years of operation, the asylum admitted 21,000 people, with inmate numbers rising each year until the early 1900s. During the depression years of the 1890s and 1930s, and the Federation drought, the asylum was in heavy demand. Admissions per annum rose sharply in the late 1890s-early 1900s, just before and after World War I, and in the mid-1930s. The number of inmates passing through (‘relieved’) during any one year peaked in 1903, at 1589 relieved in total.[22] The annual death rate averaged 10.9% per year, based on total admittances.[23] Between 1901 and 1925, anywhere from 1.8% to 4.8% of inmates also ‘ran away’ annually, mostly by failing to return from approved leave on the mainland.[24]

The steady increase in the inmate population between 1865 and 1903 meant that accommodation space, and the requirement for new wards (most for male inmates), was always an issue at the asylum. As well as wards, tents were also utilised in periods of high demand, and trusted inmates could build their own huts, or live outside the asylum.[25]

The first buildings used by the asylum were five from the quarantine station.[26] By 1879, there were 10 main buildings other than the superintendent’s quarters.[27] The number of wards fluctuated over time, as new wards were built, buildings were converted to wards, and old wards were converted to other uses or demolished.

The Dunwich asylum ward buildings and their layout were designed by the Queensland Government’s Department of Public Works to a ‘pavilion plan’, a mid-19th to early 20th century health and architecture theory. From the 1860s to the 1930s, almost all Queensland hospitals were based on these principles. Wards were separated into detached pavilions, which were long and narrow, and typically accommodated a single large dormitory with high levels of natural light and ventilation. They were laid out in a regularised pattern, often symmetrically or around shared outdoor spaces, on open elevated sites to catch breezes. The wards were usually timber and incorporated wide wrap-around verandahs, and had open space on all sides. Those at Dunwich adhered to these principles.[28]

Males and females were housed separately at Dunwich, even if they were married. A new female division opened to the northwest of the main complex in 1886 – the same year a timber jetty was built at the end of the causeway, to enable landing of supplies at any state of the tide, which were delivered by horse-pulled tramway to a storeroom, and later the 1910 laundry/kitchen complex. No new accommodation was built in 1887, and in 1888 a laundry was converted into two male wards. [29]

Ward 13 is not present on an 1885 plan,[30] but a major building programme of 11 new male wards was undertaken between 1889 and 1893. During this period, the number of inmates present at the end of each year rose from 542 in 1889, to 792 in 1893.[31] This was a result of both increased admissions and decreased discharges during the economic depression of the 1890s.[32] The annual reports of the asylum in the 1890s complained that a number of unemployed men who entered Dunwich did not leave because there was no work for them; and they could not be compelled to leave, even if they were able bodied.[33]

The wards at Dunwich were long, narrow timber buildings with encircling verandahs and galvanised iron hipped roofs, and some also had roof ventilators. Through doors in both short ends, they accommodated a single open room with windows on either long side between the beds against each wall – in times of overcrowding, a row of beds could be added down the centre of the room, or on the verandahs. An 1888 plan, most likely for the new ward constructed by Fitzwilliam Williams in 1888-9, shows a ward 90ft by 22ft (27.4m by 6.7m), with 7ft (2.1m) verandahs on four sides, and a central set of steps to each verandah; eight windows along each long side, and a doorway at each end. Ward 13 appears to be similar in design to this plan.[34]

As mentioned, further wards were erected by 1893, including Ward 13 – although the latter’s exact construction date is unknown.[35] Ward 13 is labelled ‘19’ in a c1905 plan, and ‘13’ in a c1908 plan, which indicates the numbering system evolved over time.[36]

The wards at Dunwich were very basic. Inmates had little space and limited privacy; each inmate was allocated a bed and a bedside locker. Mattresses were stuffed with grass from Peel Island. Inmates were responsible for airing and washing their own blankets, but evidence to the 1905–6 inquiry indicated that this was rarely enforced, with bed bugs and mites being prolific.[37]

A site plan from December 1913 (Ward 13 still labelled as such) illustrates the development of the asylum at the time of its peak, including the female division; 23 numbered male wards; and a new mess hall [QHR 601163], opened in October that year. The asylum was on the high ground in a 'u' shape around a lower lying open community space (in 2021 the public reserve) which fronted the beach, with several rows of male wards on the high ground (the site of the Dunwich shops in 2021) west of the square of wards around the laundry and kitchen.[38] By 1917, there were 22 single room male wards (657 beds), 7 female wards (147 beds), a tent section (80 beds), and the tented consumptives’ camp (30 beds).[39] By 1942, when a site plan shows Ward 13 as “Ward 4’, there were 20 wards in the male division, and 5 wards in the female division.[40]

Coupled with poor funding and unqualified staff, asylum conditions were often considered appalling. In 1904, the typical diet for inmates was a plate of hominy (dried corn, softened), bread and tea for breakfast; boiled beef with potatoes (or rice) four days a week, with stew three days a week, for dinner (midday meal); and bread with molasses, and tea, for ‘tea’ (evening meal). There was a lack of vegetables, and fish was often rotten, until refrigeration was introduced to Dunwich in 1912.[41]

Contemporary media coverage of the asylum fluctuated between positive and negative, from considering it a tranquil island paradise with good food, to a grim prison marked by deprivation.[42] The consensus amongst modern researchers is that the experience was demeaning, and infantilised the inmates. As Joseph Goodall stated, ‘The overwhelming majority of [Dunwich] inmates deserved more charity than they received. They were sent to Dunwich not because they were needy, but because they were unneeded, to live out their last few years in a dull existence of physical austerity and spiritual barrenness which few of them questioned. This was the most tragic thing of all: that they themselves, convinced they deserved nothing more, went quietly and gently into the night’.[43]

For inmates who did not have a job, the daily routine hardly changed over the lifetime of the asylum. A description from a Sunday Mail article in 1934 stated: ‘One day is much like another at Dunwich. A bell rings at 6 a.m. to waken the community, and they prepare for breakfast at 7.45. Then they may read or fish, play cards or swim, until their dinner time at 12.45. The tea hour varies according to the time of year, but is served as a rule about 4.45 p.m’.[44] Inmates of the non-hospital wards had to be out of their ward from breakfast to late afternoon. There was a curfew and ‘lights-out’ in the wards at 9 pm.[45]

Throughout the existence of the asylum, the Quandamooka people remained an indispensable part of the workforce, and after a long campaign and the assistance of the Australian Workers Union, the Aboriginal male labourers achieved award rates for their wages in an agreement with the Queensland Government in 1944 – more than 20 years before Aboriginal workers in the pastoral industry received equal pay (1968).[46]

Despite gradual improvements to conditions at Dunwich over time, the institution reached the end of its usefulness after World War II. During early October 1946, after minimal notice, the inmates were transferred to the former RAAF Station at Brighton, Sandgate, which was renamed 'Eventide'. Staff remained at Dunwich until June 1947, dismantling the asylum, which was then officially closed.[47] Ward buildings were sold and either relocated on site or to the mainland. The 1907 church, and the 1913 men’s mess building, both survived [QHR 601163], with the latter becoming the Dunwich Public Hall. A former police lock-up and some staff housing is also extant in 2021.[48]

Ward 13 is the only inmate accommodation to survive in-situ in 2021. What was left of the asylum was surveyed in September 1947, with a new road grid for the town surveyed in 1948.[49] Ward 13, which at the time of the 1947 survey retained its full length, was left for the use of the sand-mining company Titanium and Zirconium Industries (TAZI), which acquired prospecting rights for rutile and zirconium in 1947, and was later granted mining leases.[50] By 1955, a large, corrugated iron building had been erected west of Ward 13, and almost half of the southeast end of the former Ward 13 had been removed. By 1958 a new processing plant had been built, incorporating the 1910 laundry and kitchen buildings, to the south and east of the ward.[51]

Ward 13 was used as a kitchen, and then as the base for the Dunwich Pottery/Ceramic Group, until Consolidated Rutile Ltd, which took over the lease in 1985, renovated Ward 13 as a training centre in 1986.[52] Mineral sand mining on Minjerribah/North Stradbroke Island ceased at the end of 2019, and the site of Ward 13 is due to be remediated in 2021 by Sibelco (owner of Consolidated Rutile) prior to the transferral of the site and Ward 13 to the ownership of the Quandamooka Yoolooburrabee Aboriginal Corporation.

Description

Ward 13, Dunwich Benevolent Asylum (c1889-93) is a modest, lowset timber building standing near the centre of Dunwich on Minjerribah/North Stradbroke Island. Constructed prior to the formation of the existing surrounding roads, the rectangular building stands on an angle within its allotment, roughly following along the sloping, grassed terrain with its long sides facing northeast and southwest. Its core is surrounded by a verandah on three sides and has a timber-framed hip roof continuous over the verandah. Originally symmetrical and accommodating a long single dormitory room, almost half the building (the southeast end) has been demolished (1947-55), truncating the roof at this end into a gable.

The building has single-skin timber wall framing, with studs and diagonal bracing exposed externally, clad on the internal side by chamferboards. Windows are on both long sides in a repeated pattern fitted between every fifth and sixth stud.

The building does not have a front and originally had entrances into the interior at either short end. It retains its entrance at the northwest end, and later entrances have been made on the northeast and southwest sides. The remaining half of the long dormitory has been divided into two spaces by a later partition and the northwest room retains its lofty ceiling, lined with beaded boards on the rake of the roof, exposing the timber tie beams.

The southwest verandah has been enclosed with chamferboards to form smaller rooms, with a large opening made in the verandah wall into the dormitory and all original window openings on this side closed over with chamferboards. The chamferboards of the verandah enclosure, the southeast end wall, a small lean-to enclosure on the southeast end of the building, and the internal partition match those of the verandah walls, and may have been reused from the demolished portion of the building.

Features of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• Location and orientation
• open setting with space on its southwest, northwest, and northeast sides
• lowset rectangular form with encircling verandah and hip roof
• corrugated metal roof sheets and metal watergoods
• timber-framed construction
• single-skin timber-framed verandah walls with externally-exposed studs and diagonal bracing
• chamferboard wall linings with V-joints (chamferboards of later verandah enclosure, southeast end wall, lean-to on southeast side, and internal partition may be reused originals. If not, they are not of state-level cultural heritage significance)
• timber verandah posts and beams with stop chamfering (stop chamfering indicates original location of verandah posts, posts appear to be later replacements, most in original location)
• timber board floors to interior and verandah
• timber collar beams and cross tie beams (exposed internally)
• timber beaded board ceiling linings with ventilation grilles (sheeted over)
• original window openings between wall studs, timber-framed double-hung sashes, and small diamond-shaped fixed windows above
• glazed French doors with moulded panels and glazed fanlight (northwest end)
• original brass door and window hardware (including lever handles of northwest French doors and swivel catches on double hung window sashes)

Features not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:

• trees and all vegetation
• understorey stumps and perimeter slat enclosure (non-original)
• verandah balustrade and flat sheet verandah ceiling (non-original); metal security grille and door and adjacent concrete stair of northeast verandah at east end (non-original); metal ramp to northeast verandah (non-original)
• external stairs (not original, western stair is in original location)
• eastern wall (non-original)
• southwest verandah enclosures (non-original, excludes original verandah fabric within enclosure)
• clear-finished timber joinery including dado wall panelling, decorative fretwork arch, and architraves around diamond windows (non-original)
• partition in dormitory suspended ceilings and flat sheet wall and ceiling linings (non-original)
• carpet, ceramic tiled, and vinyl floor finishes (non-original)
• timber-framed casement window in northwest verandah wall (non-original, no window originally here), later awning sashes added into original window openings replacing original sashes, and aluminium-framed windows
• non-original doors throughout including boarded double doors onto the northeast verandah and reproduction panel door in former dormitory 
• non-original door and window hardware (generally chrome)
• kitchen and bathroom fitouts (non-original, including fixtures, fittings, finishes, and all associated fabric)
• pvc watergoods (non-original)
• fences (non-original)
• electrical and other introduced services including lights (non-original)
• remnant metal pipes (Wormald Bros Grinnell Australia) and small timber lean-to housing on exterior of southeast end wall (non-original)

References

[1] Stradbroke Island was separated into two by the Jumpinpin break in 1896.
[2] The 1827-31 out-station’s barracks and store were located near the shore, north of the causeway (QHR 602139, ‘Public Reserve incorporating the Privy Pit and Site of Convict Barracks and Store’; QHR 601021, ‘Dunwich Convict Causeway’; QHR 601163 ‘St Mark's Anglican Church and Dunwich Public Hall’; QHR 650252, ‘The Fort’ (Passionist mission); ‘Dunwich Public Hall: Conservation Management Plan’ for Redland City Council, March 2014. Converge Heritage + Community (timber depot); Information from Applicant). After closure of the convict out-station, Dunwich was used as a timber depot until 1837. The Passionist mission was the first Catholic mission to Queensland’s Aboriginal peoples.
[3] JB Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns: the Dunwich Benevolent Asylum, an institutional biography 1866 - 1946’. PhD Thesis, Department of History, University of Queensland, 1992, pp.12, 20-24, 44-6, 101; H Guille, A paltry paradise: a history of the Dunwich Benevolent Asylum, Tingalpa Queensland, Boolarong Press, 2019, pp.4, 29, 33, 38. Financial assistance for the poor was not seen as a right until the development of the welfare state during the 20th century.
[4] Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns’, pp.21-24; Guille, A paltry paradise, p.9. The hospital on George Street was the old convict-era hospital.
[5] Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns’, pp.25-34;  R Evans, ‘Charitable Institutions of the Queensland Government to 1919’, Masters Thesis, School of History, University of Queensland, 1969, pp.45-50. According to Goodall, those with disabilities or terminal illnesses were not sent to Dunwich for medical treatment; the asylum was instead ‘a refuge for people who would be an embarrassment if allowed out on the streets’ (Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns’, pp.93, 109). It was also an alternative to sending homeless people to gaol (Evans, ‘Charitable Institutions of the Queensland Government to 1919’, pp.43-4, 156).
[6] The Colonial Secretary’s Office assumed complete control of the facility from the Immigration Department in 1867. Peel Island was eventually confirmed as the new quarantine station in 1874; and Dunwich was later administered by the Home Office from 1896, and the Department of Health and Home affairs from 1935 (Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns’, pp.36, 38, 157-8).
[7]  Evans, ‘Charitable Institutions of the Queensland Government to 1919’, pp. 45, 158-60. During a parliamentary debate in 1878 on a potential benevolent asylum at Ipswich, Arthur Palmer, MLA (and former Premier) preferred that people be sent to Dunwich, as ‘…it was most undesirable to have benevolent patients in the neighbourhood of a town. It was unfortunate for the people themselves, and it would be exceedingly unpleasant to the inhabitants of the town, and give a bad impression of the colony to all visitors’ (‘Legislative Assembly’, Toowoomba Chronicle and Darling Downs General Advertiser, 9 May 1878, p.3.).
[8] Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns’, pp.144-5. Initially, almost 3 in every 10 inmates would return to the community each year; but due to changes in admission requirements after 1885, fewer healthy people were admitted, and annual discharges were less than 2 in 10 by 1937.
[9] For example, those 60 or over were 63.3% of the December 1887 inmate total; 58.2% in 1893; and 73.8% in 1909. Males represented 86.4% of the inmate total in 1887; 85.1% in 1893; 85.8% in 1909 (Annual Reports of the Dunwich Benevolent Asylum, contained in Queensland Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly, and (from 1902) Queensland Parliamentary Papers). Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns’, pp.102-3, 108, 114, Figure 3.3, p.375 (inmate socio-economic status; Eventide, Charters Towers); Guille, A paltry paradise, p.157 (percentage of female inmates). Unlike Dunwich, the inmate accommodation at Eventide at Charters Towers (initially for 150 men and women) was single or double huts. Another ‘Eventide’, also with huts, later opened at Rockhampton in 1950 (‘Home for the aged. Charters Towers institution’, The Telegraph, 9 August 1929, p.19; QHR 602832, ‘Grove Street pensioners’ cottages’). None of these huts survive at the Eventide facilities in Charters Towers (Hackett Terrace) and Rockhampton (Campbell Street) in 2021.
[10] Guille, A paltry paradise, pp.160-1 (25% of men over 65 at Dunwich). As the asylum’s annual reports only gave age groups by decade (60-70, 70-80 etc.), with no gender breakdown, it can be estimated (using Queensland census data from April 1891 and March 1901) that in December 1891, around 5.1% of Queensland’s males 60 and over were present at the asylum; and this figure fell to 4.5% in 1901. As 592 males were present at the asylum on 31 December 1891, and 61.8% of the 685 total inmates present at that time were 60 or older, that gives an estimate of 366 males aged 60 or over at the asylum; or 5.14% of  the 7115 males aged 60 or over in Queensland, according to the 1891 census. In 1901, there were 863 males (of 1026 inmates) at the asylum on 31 December, with 76.2% of the inmates being 60 or over – giving an estimate of 658 males aged 60 or over present at the asylum; or 4.46% of the 14,741 males aged 60 or over in Queensland, according to the 1901 census.
[11] ‘Answers’, Brisbane Courier, 23 March 1929, p.18. The Hospice also known as ‘Mrs Weinholt’s Home for Impecunious Gentlewomen’ (‘Wise’s Queensland Post Office Directory’ 1930, p.185). The benevolent asylum in Rockhampton apparently served as a ‘branch’ of Dunwich asylum, holding people from the Central districts en-route for Dunwich (‘The Rockhampton Benevolent Asylum’, Morning Bulletin, 30 January 1903, p.5).
[12] In 1943, the Dunwich Benevolent Asylum, the Brodribb Home in Toowoomba, Eventide at Charters Towers, and the Rockhampton Benevolent Asylum were the only four benevolent asylums in Queensland, as defined by such being ‘wholly or partly maintained by contributions from …a State’ (‘Proclamation’, Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, 8 July 1943, No.148, p.1397). According to aerial photography, the original buildings on the sites of the Brodribb Home (est. 1898, Goggs Street, Toowoomba), and the Rockhampton Benevolent Asylum (est. 1879, West Street), no longer exist in 2021.
[13] Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns’, pp.75-83, 94, 149-50; Evans, ‘Charitable Institutions of the Queensland Government to 1919’, pp.55, 151-4, 166. Although there were young people at the asylum, in the period 1888-1925 no more than 1.58% of total inmates were ever under 20 years (peaking in 1906); and never more than 3.47% of total inmates were 20-30 year olds (peaking in 1922) (Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns’, Figure 2.3, p.368). ‘An inability to exist in society, not age or physical condition, was the prerequisite [for admission to Dunwich]’ (Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns’, pp.73-5). A 1906 Brisbane Courier article noted that Dunwich was not just for the poor or the elderly; it was like a large hospital, but without the usual staff for one (Guille, A paltry paradise, p.75).
[14] Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns’, pp.75-83; Guille, A paltry paradise, p.15. Consumptives had previously their own ward in the asylum proper (annual report of the asylum for 1886). The consumptives’ camp officially closed in 1930, but they were present at Dunwich until the last patients died in 1935.
[15] Information from Applicant; Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns’, pp.84-5; Guille, A paltry paradise, pp.15, 171-2, 180-82, 186. The Inebriate’s Institution was briefly moved to Peel island, from 1910-16. Visitors to Minjerribah/North Stradbroke Island were an annoyance to the asylum, as they brought in alcohol. Regulations in 1906 gave the superintendent some power to prevent ‘undesirables’ entering the asylum, but no permanent local police officer was appointed until 1931 (a police residence was moved from Myora to Dunwich c1902). (Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns’, pp.213, 263-266).
[16] Guille, A paltry paradise, pp.187-9, 197. All returned soldiers in the Inebriates Institution at Dunwich were committed by judicial order, under the Inebriates Act. Although shell shock may have made the diggers more susceptible to alcoholism, at the time they were not considered eligible for care arranged by the Commonwealth Repatriation Department. A total of 227 returned soldiers were admitted at least once to Dunwich, from 1916-25. Despite the presence of the Inebriates Institution, alcohol was accessible at Dunwich through ‘medicinal’ supplies being held by the asylum; it was also smuggled onto the island by visitors, and was concocted by inmates (Goodall ‘Whom nobody owns’, pp.133-5).
[17] Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns’, pp.153-61. For a list of superintendents at Dunwich, see Guille, A paltry paradise, p.25. To this list can be added immigration agent John McDonnell (1866-67) (Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns’, pp.34-7, 159; Evans, ‘Charitable Institutions of the Queensland Government to 1919’, pp.50-3).
[18] Guille, A paltry paradise, p.103-7. The Charitable Institutions Management Act 1885 resulted in the first regulations specific to the Dunwich asylum,  which clarified who the asylum was for: ‘those who, owing to age or infirmity, are unable to maintain themselves, and have no friends or relatives who are willing or who can be compelled to support them’ (Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns’, p.45, 157-8).  It also confirmed that the asylum was based on the charity, not entitlement, model of welfare – inmates had to contribute, by payment or labour. The 1884-5 and 1905-6 inquiries documented inadequate treatment, poor hygiene, bad food, and a lack of medical attention. Improvements made up to World War I included extra wards, the steam laundry and refrigeration, and paid nurses replaced inmate ward attendants. But the basic arrangement of up to 40 inmates per open ward, continued (Guille, A paltry paradise, p.112).
[19] Information from Applicant; Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns’, pp.119-25, 193-7, 200; Guille, A paltry paradise, pp.83, 206-7. Manufacture of clothing and bed linen, and metal articles also took place. The asylum eventually employed more, better skilled staff, partially due to the 1905-6 inquiry, and the proportion of inmates able to work also dropped, as less able-bodied inmates were sent to Dunwich. After 1925, inmates were still used for light jobs, but all positions of responsibility were filled from outside. The official staff to inmate ratio in 1885 was: 1 per 130; in 1901: 1 per 77.53; in 1913: 1 per 29.96; and in 1935: 1 per 14.97 (Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns’, Figure 5.2, p.429).
[20] Information from Applicant; Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns’, pp.254-6, 362; Guille, A paltry paradise, p.24, 26, 117-8, 130, 135, 137-9, 281. Early estimates of the Aboriginal population of Stradbroke island were variable, including either 150 or 300 in 1844; and nearly 100 at Myora in 1898 (Guille, A paltry paradise, p.120). The Kate (1854), a paddle steamer, supplied Dunwich from the 1860s-80s.The Kate was replaced by the Otter, originally purchased for the Queensland Maritime Defence Force in 1885. The motor launch Karboora also served the asylum, operating from Cleveland from 1910 (Guille, A paltry paradise, pp.225-7, 235-6).
[21] Guille, A paltry paradise, pp.viii, 2, 24, 26, 117-8, 122-3, 131, 133-4, 142-3; Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns’, pp.256-7. According to Guille, the fact they were ‘needed’ gave the Quandamooka on Minjerribah/North Stradbroke Island an advantage over Aboriginal peoples elsewhere in Queensland; in the form of better employment, diet, housing, clothing, freedom of movement and religious practice, and proximity to their traditional lands.
[22] Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns’, p.133, Figure 3.6, p.382 (rising numbers), and Figure 3.8, p.386 (graph, total admittances per annum); ‘Annual Report of the Dunwich Benevolent Asylum for 1903’, Queensland Parliamentary Papers 1904. After discharges, transfers to other institutions, deaths and those absent without leave, 1140 were inmates present on 31 December 1903. Although the numbers present in December for 1902, and 1905-07 were slightly higher than in December 1903, the total number of people relieved in those years was lower.
[23] Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns’, p.149, Figure 3.20, pp.411-2. The death rate ranged from a low of 4.8% in 1870, to a high of 15.7% in 1946, the year inmates were transferred to Sandgate. Between 1865 and 1946, 8,426 inmates of the asylum were buried at Dunwich cemetery, located at the northern edge of the asylum (Guille, A paltry paradise, p.22).
[24] Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns’, p.69, and Figure 2.2, p.366. Although Queensland introduced pensions in 1908, and the Commonwealth in 1909, this had a limited effect on admittances initially. Inmates of government institutions in Queensland were not eligible to receive the Commonwealth pension until 1917 (Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns’, pp.42, 63, 65-6). The Queensland pension applied to those 65 or older, who had been resident in Queensland continuously for 20 years, and were not ‘Aliens or Asiatics’ (Memorandum re Indigence allowance, 1934, in QSA Item 279392, ‘Dunwich Benevolent Asylum’, batch file 1891-1941). Those who could not prove their age, or had not been in Australia long enough to qualify for a Commonwealth pension, were sent to Dunwich, at Queensland’s expense. Chinese were sent to the ‘Asiatic Ward’ at Dunwich. By the 1920s, most of the inmates’ pension money was paid to the asylum; but the share of costs met by the Queensland Government had also steadily dropped from 1912 (Guille, A paltry paradise, pp.93, 201-5; Goodall ‘Whom nobody owns’, p.103).
[25] Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns’, p.131. The men in tents apparently had more freedom and privacy, than those in the timber wards (Guille, A paltry paradise, pp. 79-80).
[26] Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns’, p.27; Guille, A paltry paradise, pp.18, 42.
[27] ‘The Benevolent Asylum at Dunwich’, Brisbane Courier, 21 May 1879, p.5. These included the superintendent’s quarters; three timber wards, used for male inmates of the asylum; and a brick hospital, used for female inmates.
[28] T Blake, M Kennedy, and Pullar, M, ‘Queensland Health, Heritage Survey Vol I’, October 1996, pp.13-14, 20.
[29]  Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns’, pp.71-2 (married couples); Map of Dunwich 1885, in Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns’, p.360 (early location of female wards); ‘The report on the Benevolent Asylum, Dunwich, for the year 1886’, Votes and Proceedings 1887, Vol. 1, p.1191 (new female division, jetty extension); Reports on the Benevolent Asylum, Dunwich, for the years 1887 and 1888, Queensland Votes and Proceedings; Guille, A paltry paradise, p. 219, 222 (jetty extension, tramway). There were eight couples at Dunwich in 1894 (Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns’, p.72).
[30] Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns’, p.360. In the 1885 plan the superintendent’s quarters are located on the high ground immediately east of the convict causeway; the female wards are just to the northeast of the superintendent’s quarters; and the male mess and the male wards form a line to the northeast of the female wards, before angling around the southwest and southeast sides of what would later become a square of male wards around a vegetable garden. Two older buildings to the northwest of what would later become this square were also being used as male wards, and the proposed new female division is shown near the beach to the northwest of the main asylum complex.
[31] Guille, A paltry paradise, pp.42, 47; O’Connor, ‘Dunwich Benevolent Asylum – buildings’, (research notes and plans of the asylum held by the North Stradbroke Island Museum on Minjerribah), August 2009. Apart from the laundry conversion in 1888, annual reports for the asylum between 1885 and 1893 mention 11 new male wards between 1889 and 1893.
[32]  Annual Reports of the Dunwich Benevolent Asylum, Queensland Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly, 1891, 1901. The number of inmates present at Dunwich each December rose from 685 in 1891, to 1026 in 1901. However, admission numbers for males during most of the 1890s were not much greater per year than during the 1880s (although there was a noticeable increase in admittances for females); while both male and female admissions rose sharply during the 1898-1903 period. Meanwhile, discharges during the 1890s dropped as a percentage of inmates, compared to the 1880s (Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns’, Figure 3.6, p.382 (percentage of inmates admitted per year), Figure 3.8, p.386 (annual totals admitted per year) and Figure 3.15, p.401 (percentage of inmates discharged per year)).
[33] Annual reports of the Benevolent Asylum, Dunwich, for the years 1893 (Votes and Proceedings, 1894, Vol. 2, p.841), 1894 (Votes and Proceedings 1895, Vol.2, p. 142), 1895 (Votes and Proceedings 1896, Vol. 1, p.892), and 1897 (Votes and Proceedings 1898, Vol.1, p.792). In the asylum’s annual report for 1895, Medical Superintendent Patrick Smith stated that the asylum needed to revert to admitting the aged and infirm, ‘not merely men who cannot find work… Under the present system, the institution is becoming a workhouse, without the powers of a workhouse to extract labour from the capable’.
[34] QSA Item 107973, ‘General correspondence records’ (plan of ‘Proposed ward to be erected at Dunwich’, dated May 1888; an indenture between the Department of Mines and Works and Fitzwilliam Williams, for a new ward and a bakehouse, signed 17 September 1888, with 20 weeks to complete; plus an indenture between the Department of Mines and Works and William Popple, for two new wards, signed in July 1889, with 20 weeks to complete); ‘New wards at Dunwich’, Queenslander, 17 August 1889, p.317, cited by the Applicant; Guille, A paltry paradise, p.44 (beds on verandahs, down centre of wards). By August 1889, construction of two more wards by William Popple, to match the existing buildings, had commenced. Unlike Ward 13, these had small annexes on one long side for a scullery and lavatory, and a double fireplace at the centre of their rooms.
[35] The male division in 1893 comprised 22 wards, including hospital wards; 10 wards, including Ward 13 (unnumbered), were arranged in a square around a vegetable garden (March 1893 plan of asylum, in C O’Connor, ‘Dunwich Benevolent Asylum – buildings’). At least another 10 wards, including one female ward in 1907 and a female detention ward in 1909, were built between 1894 and 1913; yet the 11 wards constructed from 1889-93 remained the most concentrated burst of additional accommodation (Annual reports of the Benevolent Asylum, in Queensland Votes and Proceedings and Queensland Parliamentary Papers, 1894-1913; O’Connor, ‘Dunwich Benevolent Asylum – buildings’).
[36] QSA Item 436474, ‘Benevolent Asylum Dunwich, male division, plan of proposed alterations to drainage etc’, c1905; O’Connor, ‘Dunwich Benevolent Asylum – buildings’ (c1908 plan). There are 27 numbered male wards/hospital wards in the c1905 plan.
[37] Only when a steam laundry was built in 1910 (when an adjoining steam kitchen was also built, the two buildings forming an ‘L’ in the former vegetable garden square) were linen sheets introduced to the asylum (Information from Applicant; Guille, A paltry paradise, pp.80-3; ‘Annual Report of the Benevolent Asylum, Dunwich, for the year 1910’, in Parliamentary Papers 1911, Vol.2 (includes photographs of the new brick laundry and kitchen, and other buildings. The northwest end of Ward 13 is visible behind the laundry in two of these photos)).
[38] QSA Item 635167, ‘Sketch survey map of Benevolent Asylum, Dunwich. 5 chains to the inch. Drawn by David Dietrichson, surveyor’, December 1913; Information from Applicant; Guille, A paltry paradise, p.62 (new mess hall). In 1913 the asylum included a tennis court (northeast of the base of the causeway), the Victoria Hall, a post office, school, chapel, small detention ward/lock up, staff quarters (mainly north of the male division, and near the female division), tent accommodation, farm facilities (piggery, fowl shed, milking shed), and a rifle range east of the male division.
[39] Guille, A paltry paradise, p.78.
[40] QSA Item 111998, ‘Dunwich Benevolent Asylum. ARP Site Plan - Female Division’, March 1942; QSA Item 111999, ‘Dunwich Benevolent Asylum ARP Site Plan - Male Division’, March 1942.
[41] Guille, A paltry paradise, pp.91-3.
[42] Guille, A paltry paradise, pp.65-71. The male division included 4 hospital wards, a ‘mental’ ward, ‘Asiatics’ ward’ and a ‘blind’ ward.
[43] ‘Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns’, p.152. Goodall also notes that ‘quickly developing institutional behaviours, the Dunwich inmates did nothing and were difficult to motivate. Some were bedridden or immobile… They were subject to overcrowding, senseless regimentation, little or no recreational opportunities, lack of toilet and bathing facilities, infantilisation and poor quality or unappetising food…privilege and punishment…became major factors in their lives’ (p.151). The ‘Dunwich motto’, according the Worker, in 1901, was ‘Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he’ll surely get it’ (Guille, A paltry paradise, p.72). For personal stories of individual inmates, a good source is A Rentoul, Island of a million tears: history of Dunwich Benevolent Asylum 1866-1946, Capalaba Queensland, Inspire Publishing 2015.
[44] ‘Spending the winter of life at Dunwich’, Sunday Mail, 27 May 1934, p.25, cited by Applicant.
[45] Non-working inmates had very little to do between meals, although asylum staff and private individuals provided some recreation activities, including a library, games room, picture shows, concerts, and boat trips. The Victoria Hall, the first recreation/entertainment building at the asylum, was built in 1897, and a tennis court existed by 1899. From 1918, film evenings in Victoria Hall twice a week. The Victoria Hall was also used for religious services, as no church was built at the asylum until a Church of England chapel, St Mark’s [QHR 601163] was built in 1907, thanks to a donation by Lady Chelmsford, the wife of Queensland’s Governor (Information from Applicant; Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns’, p.129-30, 131, 237; Guille, A paltry paradise, pp.60-1, 63-4.  Lady Chelmsford’s donation was initially anonymous (‘Annual Report of the Benevolent Asylum, Dunwich, for the year 1907’, in Queensland Parliamentary Papers 1908, Vol.2 p.186).
[46] Guille, A paltry paradise, pp.24, 140-5; Information from Applicant. However, after their 1944 wage settlement, the ‘Aboriginal Gang’, as the male labourers were referred to (Guille, A paltry paradise, p.24), was expected to have a white overseer, purchase goods from the asylum’s store, and could now be fired for poor work (Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns’, pp.240-2).
[47] The move to the mainland, most likely prompted by the age of the asylum buildings and the supply ship Otter, and the availability of the military buildings at Sandgate, came as a surprise to staff – as the 1946 annual report had mentioned large future expenditure at Dunwich. The move was also kept secret to minimise protests by Sandgate residents; and was timed by the then-Labor Queensland Government to fall after the September 1946 Federal election, but well before the 1947 State election (Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns’, p.302-28)
[48] The police lockup and seven cottages are identified in a proposed ‘Schedule of Local Heritage Places’, Redland City Council, 2020, https://yoursay.redland.qld.gov.au/local-heritage-places (accessed 18 February 2021). Concrete remnants from the Victoria Hall, and part of the route of the tramway to the kitchen and laundry, are still visible in Junner Street South Park.
[49] Department of Resources, Survey Plan D9041, Sheet 2, 18 September 1947; Survey Plans D9042 to D90411, 1948. Various buildings, including wards, were auctioned in March 1949 (Guille, A paltry paradise, p.251).
[50] Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns’, p.335; Guille, A paltry paradise, p.250.
[51] Department of Resources, aerial photographs QAP0537008, 27 July 1955; QAP0768140, 16 May 1958; QAP1857184, 4 May 1968; QAP4348043, 19 July 1987; and QAP4095100, 8 June 1988; Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns’, p.334. The large post-1947 building west of the ward (extant in February 2021) was apparently a powerhouse, with diesel-powered generators (Pers. Comm, Stephen Kendall, Sibelco, 1 February 2021). Most of the processing plant, and the laundry and kitchen buildings, was demolished c1988, apart from the powerhouse; a section of saw-toothed building just east of the ward, and a building (present by 1968) to the south near Ballow Road
[52] Information from Applicant (Ellie Durbidge, (April 2004); NSIMM archives); Goodall, ‘Whom nobody owns’, p.334; Department of Resources Certificate of Title 17551072 (Lease to Associated Minerals Consolidated Ltd from 1982).

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