Sunbury's Abandoned Asylum
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- Опубликовано: 4 окт 2024
- The Sunbury Asylum sits atop Jacksons Hill in Melbourne's north-west. But what is this huge complex of buildings and how did it get there?
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MORE INFORMATION
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My website: philipmallis.com
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I acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands on which this video was filmed, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people. I pay respects to Elders past, present and emerging, and their extensive and continuing connection to land, water and country.
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When I was a child in the 1970's our next door neighbour worked at the Sunbury Mental Asylum as it was known. One of my strongest memories of the time was him telling us that when a patient was released they were given a certificate saying they were "proven sane". He always found it funny that 99.9% of us had no such certificate.
I'm estranged from my mother as she is a compulsive liar. I have dismissed almost everything she told me when I was growing up but she did once tell me that 'she is sane and she has the certificate to prove it'.
I'm now questioning whether she may have been telling the truth in that instance after all.
I never knew it existed. Now I know. Thank you for educating me, Philip!
Great work. I think some inmates, judged not to be dangerous were transferred to what was then known as the Castlemaine Benevolent Home.
My great grand father, Dr Morris Gamble was the resident psychiatrist there in the early 1900's, my grand father and his siblings were born there.
This brings back memories. A friends mother used to work there until closure looked imminent and during the 1980's, I used to teach square dancing to some of the "inmates", they were very good.
My daughter also performed there with the Boilerhouse Theatre.
Awesome video. I studied music at Vic uni in 1999 and 2000 in Sunbury. Back then there were no houses on Jacksons hill and it was no mans land as you walked up the avenue to get there. Super weird vibe there especially at night. According to google maps there is a pizza shop nearby now. That would have been handy for us Uni students back in the day!!
Why do you not have more subscribers? You have such a great channel
I live in Sunbury & the old asylum buildings are always a hot topic of conversation, so much potential but sadly rotting away, every year the cost of renewing them gets higher and higher.
What a waste.
Sad to see all fenced off, We used to go there and admire the buildings all the time. In fact I did my sisters wedding photos at the main building.
Great and very informative video. Similarly, Larundel Mental Asylum in Bundoora has a shady history. An interesting place to visit and offered very rewarding walks during the COVID Lockdowns. Also, thank you as well for educating me to why the Boilerhouse Theatre Company won't put on a production of, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. All makes sense now.
Thanks Philip. I always wondered about these facilities. Or 'Luny Bins' as kids called them in my youth. My only visit was to 'Kew' and on phoning the facility the women on the phone said. "I hope you are 'worldly' and have a strong stomach". I arrived to see a tall naked young man in an excited state running around the Asylum with no one in pursuit. On entering I was assailed by staff and inmates with harrowing stories and sights. I never went back.
So the treatment worked then....
@@sergeant5848 I hope the treatment worked for the inmates. My own experience was unforgettable. ps. I love your funny innuendo.
Great video. Had no idea it was there!
I love your videos mate. When I was young there was a spastic center in Aspendale next to the rail line and opposite Mordialloc collage. I think this was used main for children, but I do remember some older folk there too.
Do the former northwest hospital please ! Phillip
Now demolished was a former TB hospital.
Providence rd Greenvale.
Would make an excellent location to open another TAFE imo
I started Work at Sunbury mental Asylum in 1977 when I was 17 I worked there until 1988 when I was asulted by a charge nurse where he picked up a lounge chair and through it over a 6 foot particion where it hit me in the back of the neck and flipped down my spine leaving me with crushed spinal cord and 3 levels of spinal damage the same night he kicked a client in the head ..he Lambert Boado was demoted for
6mths ..I loved working up the hill and the clients did make me laugh like one client had hit a nurse I asked her why did you do that sweetie she goes Nurse Loretta I couldn't help it the devil made me do it 😂 and who was I to argue with her❤
The 2011 closure was most likely due to the then government cost cutting exercise where many TAFE places closed... I was affected by this!
Thanks for the video it was interesting to learn about this!!
Thank you, you're very welcome!
I worked here and it was mainly higher education mostly nursing and midwifery, hospitality, business and law, and music. Main reason it was closed was students not wanting to travel so far on vline trains at the time. Also all buildings are heritage listed and solid bluestone walls which are difficult to maintain and costly. I really missed working there.
@@Scicluna83 I'm sure the distance didn't help... However at the time the Beiliou (Spelling!?) Government did slash a lot of funding for TAFE to the point that they had to close, and my course was cut altogether even though the campus had JUST built a brand new printing training floor....
Very interesting. Thanks for your work 👍
Thank you, you're very welcome!
I actually visited Sunbury institution as we were in Geelong theatre group performing a play that toured for two years based on this when it was Mental Institution. After interviewing two people who had some horrfic stories to tell as they were orphans. For research we entered. Ward 6 was the worst I'd ever seen. Just 2 empty large room. The patients had no clothes on and so neglected, They would lie in thier own eflunces (Sorry not to be offensive). After starting the theatre play , it was closed by Premier Race Matthews. So many suffered so glad it is closed down. Thanks for the video uplode
Another fascinating video Philip!! Thanks so much.
My grandfather used to work in the asylum as a plumber by trade. He'd work Monday to Friday & ride his pushbike home to Thornbury on the weekend. This was during the 1920s, 30s, 40s & 50s.
I'm working my way through your fascinating videos. My great grandfather was one of those neglected, poor and destitute children in the "Sunbury Industrial School" and also Princes Bridge. His mother had "turned him out [aged 8] and he got his living by gathering rags and bones and slept in the streets", his father having died after an 1866 brawl means he had one or two years on the streets! I have read about how beyond appalling it was at Sunbury, and no wonder he absconded at least 3 times. Did you see there the Monument to Dead Children? I can't make out names on the blurry plaque, but how incredibly sad. My gg also was on the hulk The Nelson which was also an industrial school. It seems incredible that he survived at all!
Many thanks for sharing, that's fascinating information. I did see the Monument and unfortunately, as you say, it doesn't seem to be well-maintained. It's a shame given how much suffering there was at the site.
You might find it interesting to know that in the days of the Industrial School, the control was so poor that children were rounded up by men on horseback in order to be counted. This was some long handed down oral history told to me by an academic with links to the dept from the 1960s.
Love your work Phillip, every video, cheers John
Nice video . Very well detailed . Thanks
Oh Dear, Oh Dear...
The recent Royal Commission barely scratched the surface...
I lived in Kew lunatic asylum for 17 years. I was in the historic section and am pretty sure there was a ghost that visited my apartment. I loved the ha ha walls such a great innovation at the time. Asylum buildings around the state were amazing, sadly they were unsuccessful on a massive scale.
There are also a couple of amazing ruins of old flour mills near the township. One not far from Bunnings on top of the cut on the right as you come from the Calder Highway, you can just see the tip of the roof. Half tumbled down but so interesting.
Got zapped by sheep fence there. Ouch.
the other is a waterwheel site near the new waterworks just out of town towards Melb on the Bulla Rd. On Jacksons Ck near Palomino wetlands just to the east of the road. You can see the outline of the buildings bases on Google Earth. Def. worth the walk. Beautiful brick and stonework on the millrace similar to Dight's Falls.
One of your best, mate.
While you are in the general area, it is always worth a look at the nearby "magnetic hill".
Crikey,if you mean the roll uphill place thats at Hanging Rock a fair way from Sunbury.
Thank you Philip a great vlog 👍🏽🙏🏽
Sunbury was where the cricket ashes urn originated from
can you tell us more?
Great video - fascinating history. Thanks for your work
I still go in and explore it every now and then
any security?
@@seamusoneill6128 yep but they’re fuckin clueless, there’s a car that patrols the road sections only so if you approach from the sides you’re good
really want to break into the asylum and explore it
I am liking this video purely because of the “haha wall”!
There is a still photo of a building in this story that looks awfully like a building that stands alone in an industrial wasteland in Somerville Rd, Brooklyn. I drive past it often and thought perhaps it may have been an orphanage or something like it. Are you familiar with this building at all, and if so, do you know anything about it? I'd so love to know.
Hi! I think you might mean this one, which has significant historical significance as the Huntsman Chemical Company: vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/106304
The asylum, school, jail and burial place are all still there.
You can't let Free Enterprise anywhere near these and other types of social institutions .
Fenced off because of persistant damage by trespassers. 🙁
Such a waste, left to ruin. I frequent the area hoping one day will be used again.
The cost of securities surely must outway possibilities of tenure.
it looks like a primary school
Make a great spot for a mental health facility vic government just cos kennet shut them all doesn’t mean we don’t need them
Looking at this, made me think: Like in the UK at the time, were there ever workhouses in the colonies of Victoria, and New South Wales at the time, such as those that existed in Victorian England:
ruclips.net/video/vIi1Ye6O68k/видео.html
Good question! This is the closest thing that I can find www.workhouses.org.uk/Adelaide/
@@philipmallis Might be worth investigating?!! Workhouses in the UK were set up to help those who were utterly destitute... but what were the equivalent policies and practices in the colonies of Victoria, and NSW up until social security and services became the safety net we have now?
The architect is responsible for 600 schools, apparently all built over a 10 year period from 1870 - 1880 , that's more the one building per week.
This made me think about logistics. He was a very busy man to say the leasy
The asylum story doesn't add up at all to me, seems like a lot of work for a facility that began in 1865, failed and was repurposed in 1879, then of course , more continued repurposement, up until today, where we see the government close it all off, for future demolition. This could be an example of a found site, not built by us, too many bricks, not enough people,
Just a thought, good work, very interesting, to look back at how things panned out.....
Hi Kane. Did you ever work or study there? I studied there for a year in 2007 whilst it occupied as VIC University. Heard stories that the music rooms still looked like padded cells and conveniently sound proof. Our theatre room had a friendly ghost which a nicknamed for some fun but rehearsal room always gave me the chills. Unfortunately our class size decreased and we had to study at a different site the following year which was no where as beautiful as this place.
Sorry I was meant to add that I when I was studying there, I was told by others that it was indeed a mental asylum previously..
Never studied there, I'm on a different page, I think,
A very different page,
Not even the same book.
My hypothesis is currently stating that Australia was already built out and functioning as a civilisation before 1788.
The buildings don't lie,
People do.
It's very interesting and mysterious our past. The government narrative is ridiculous and stupid when laid out on a timeline,
So even you can say that these buildings were repurposed repeatedly, over amd over,
How did we build all of our rail infrastructure before 1900,
Yet commercial steel production didn't even begin until 1901,
So , every stream train, carriages, millions of tonnes of steel track, everything was imported from overseas, according to the narrative,
This, of course, is completely impossible.
They have messed with the timeline to make it look like we are at the peak of civilisation, we are not at the peak, that was 200+ years ago,
As an engineer, it's also important for me to add that our most important and impressive buildings,
Eg , Sydney Town Hall, Royal Melbourne exhibition building,
Brisbane town hall,
Connot be replicated today,
Even if we had the money,
The skills required to build them isn't in the population anymore.
It was 200+ years ago that the true artesian masters were alive and well.
Thanks
@@kanesmith9325 oh I hear what you're saying now and agree that most things we are told by our "trusted" Govt do not add up. So from an Engineers point of view, when do you think our oldest and most impressive buildings in Australia were originally constructed?
@kfg7248 hundreds of years,
By a society of Christians.
Feudalistic and honourable, at the very least,
Knowledgeable and well educated,
Prosperous and synergetic.
There was no crime.
Each town was a royal family of sorts with bigger cities holding more important or prosperous families.
There had to be an understanding of science that I don't think people, including myself, understand, government buildings ,
Churches, especially, all had a purpose and function within its design, churches couldve been places of actual healing, though sound frequency and light, and song.
The geometry of them ,the material arrangement in construction, the types of materials used, including marble,copper,steel,iron, glass,crystal stone, and concrete.
The sheer optulance and over the top extravagance (capital city town halls,) expesses a society that knew things we don't.
It's just a theory,
But, as far as I'm concerned the official narrative is even crazier.
Thanks
Great video and info!!
The old Greenvale Sanatorium is also quite interesting to research.
Although they demolished it, I went there during lockdown and found old cutlery engraved with Greenvale Sanatorium on it, coke bottles from the 50s and beer bottles (in fluid ounces), old tooth paste and even used morphine capsules.
If you go there today, you can still see the where the gates were in more recent years.
Here is an article on it:
sksainitheauthor.blogspot.com/2012/05/haunted-places-in-melbourne-australia_27.html?m=1