My Dad worked as a psychiatrist at this hospital from 1965 to about 1976. We lived on the grounds in one of the doctor’s residences. At about 11:52 minutes in, you show a large two storey dark brick house. That was our home. There were three bedrooms upstairs and one bathroom that included the toilet. My bedroom was downstairs and there was a large living room, kitchen, laundry and study. All rooms had an open fireplace. It’s quite strange to see it now, as back then it had lawns that were fenced off with tall hedges that my Dad used to trim. The pool was in constant use in the 1960’s when I was in primary school and I could swim the length underwater, holding my breath. At times some patients would come down with their nurses. It was always sparkling clean. Thank you for this lovely trip down memory lane.
Wow thank you for sharing your story & your family must have many special memories of this place. Really appreciate your descriptions inside the buildings & sharing all this info. Glad you enjoyed this little video
Wow that's cool . My mum got a shitty little trophy as recognition of her 45 years continuous service..what was your dads name my mums name is violet and her supervisor was stella
I worked at Gladesville Hospital as an electrician between 1990 and 1994. It was still in full swing on both sides of Victoria Road at the time, but as the NSW Government grew disinterested in caring for the mentally ill, it started to wind down from 1992 onwards until it closed for new admissions in 1993 then wound down to nothing in 1995. The north side was pretty much bulldozed and the land sold for medium density housing, though Ward 2, AKA The Priory, was kept, as were the nearby stables. Most of the south side remains due to a blanket heritage protection order and the interiors of many of the ward buildings were converted to office space for MOH project teams. The mansion you lived in was close to our workshop, which was a converted mortuary. The mansion was used for patient occupational therapy sessions. The house at 06:30 was called Patterson House, named for the Banjo Patterson cottage (now a restaurant) located just outside the fence. It was used as staff accomodation for a couple of the gardening staff at the time and still had working gas lighting, which has now been vandalised because no government in this country knows how to repurpose buildings in a timely manner. At 02:01, there is a door under those stairs that leads to a below ground plant room. Previously the plant room was part of a row of dungeons and a tunnel led from there down to where the stepped incline is around the oval near the water. Patients were taken off the boats at a jetty in the bay, which was filled in after WWI to become the oval (it's all reclaimed land) and were moved up the tunnel to Ward 17 and 18 which were the admissions wards at the time. When the bay was filled in to become the oval, the tunnel entrance at the top was bricked up to stop people using it. Digby House was known as Ward 22 when I worked there. I and my two colleagues, Ted and Kerry, rewired that whole building in 1991 and the rest of the large maintenance staff there at the time carried out a complete refit of that building. It became the pride of the whole Hospital at the time. In more recent times this building was used in the filming of the TV show A Place To Call Home. I still remember the large boiler station in full swing too - two massive coal-fired boilers supplied the whole site with hot water and heating all year round. The old boiler house where the big chimney was supplied steam for the adjacent laundry. It was a great place to work and I retain many fond memories of the place and it's a shame that parts of the site have been left to rot by the NSW Government.
Excellent work. So much beautiful architecture and open space that should have few million thrown at it and opened to the public or it will be lost for ever. Thanks and I have subscribed. Cheers
Brilliant! What a wonderful documentary. I have explored these grounds years ago and your informative piece has enlightened me! I sincerely hope that this extraordinary piece of Sydney heritage is never exploited and remains and is maintained forever!
Thank you for sharing this video. I haven’t got there yet cause of Covid. I finally found my Great Great Grandmother and she is buried there. Everyone else have made out she ran off and married someone else but she was committed here and didn’t last a year cause she was so sick. She shouldn’t have been committed as she was sick with kidney failure and melancholia which to me suggests she had post natal depression after just having my Great Grandmother. Mary Jane Rogers-Cole was Irish and she married my Great Great Grandfather Thomas Cole (Mariner) in 1856 in Scots church Sydney.
Really enjoyed this. I live in Gladesville and have been there many times. I like the folly although some locals have referred to it a 'tack room'(where horse harnesses were kept and maintained). Also have heard it has been used for modern witch covens for their meetings. There used to be a small museum there onsite and run by volunteers but it was only open about once a month. It had a lot of old medical equipment on display but not a lot relevant to the hospital. I am also fascinated by the number of people buried there in the area along Victoria Road in a long tree avenue west of Henley Cottage(your video captured a couple of the prominent headstones). Apparently the govt. wanted to sell the site to developers until an action group exposed the number of graves there. I think they disinterred some that they could identify and moved their remains to Field of Mars before realising the enormity of the situation.
Great documentary Sister. Have you thought of some of the other asylums Parramatta (Cumberland) Morriset and the one in the hawksbury River at Brooklyn? But there a probably heaps of others in ye old Sydney town. Thanks for sharing Sister and love and Light to all of you 💙
Very good. You missed though the “Madman tunnel” which is now blocked up. The road still exists. The northern side of the road had buildings but were lost due to development. I used to walk through there in the 1980’s. Great research though.
Hi my name is shawn , my mother worked a total of over 46 years as a psych nurse mainly at gladesville,and a few years at Macquarie (Bridgeview) hospital. When i was approx 4 years old we even lived for some time in the old nursing home and i would walk down to the river to go fishing.. my mum and other staff had so many spooky encounters there, especially while working night shifts....I plan to take her back there some day very soon so she can show me around what buildings are still left and tell me where she experienced certain things..
When someone tells you there are ghosts at Gladesville Hospital, believe them. I worked there for four years and our workshop was a disused mortuary. I was in there one night doing a quick job for myself when I heard a noise coming from near the slab fridges, where we stored hardware and other materials and a bundle of electrical conduit hanging over the top of the slab fridge was moving on its own - I don't mind telling you I shat my pants and bailed for the night. When I told my boss what happened the next morning he laughed and said he knew about the ghost that did that. He'd met with similar happenings late at night.
Speaking of the Parramatta Female Factory, you should do an episode on that, especially the Parramatta Girls Home (1 Fleet Street) which retains some of the 'abandoned buildings' feel. Of course, since many of the Parragirls are still alive, this is something that needs to be done with sensitivity.
I use to live near this (former) hospital (before moving to Queensland) and applied for Nursing jobs there when it was open, I had friends and family that worked there. The now residential accommodation you see around the 30 second mark was also once a part of the hospital. There was a history of cruelty and sadness here, as no doubt good as well and if legends are true (which I can't confirm or deny) is suppose to be haunted as well.
Very interesting and well-produced video. Have just found your channel and enjoying your content. Just asked my 89 yo Mum about Fairyland who knew of it but never went. We agreed that some older family members may have so ww are going to look through Grandparents' photo albums to see if anything is recognizable. Keep up the great work!
Thanks for your kind comment, would be amazing to see more vintage photos from Fairyland! Live in Newcastle now but hope to make more videos in future ❤
@1971gtrxu1 I also enjoyed the report on Fairyland. I have been there as a child in the mid sixties. This was because the Sunday School that I went to - St Paul's Chatswood would have their Sunday School picnics at Fairyland. I've been back in recent years and it's sad to see it now. The reason the whole central area has become a swamp is because the drainage system has been allowed to deteriorate and fail. We would go there by car, entering off Delhi Road, where you can still make out the entrance. I have also visited the site by boat. It's a fascinating place.
It had better still be there, would be a shame if it's gone. It is in a funny spot & tucked away...maybe go back & ask a worker to give you directions :)
@@shhsydney It's still there. When I worked at Gladesville it still had a roof and was in fairly good condition. It shows how quickly things can fall apart when neglected. There is a lot of rot on the Internet which includes tales that the folly was a former crematorium - it's not and was never used for this. For a time, it did serve as a caretaker's quarters.
I spent a month making handrails by myself in those first two buildings in the beginning of the video. Found some creepy stuff behind a staircase . Suitcases of people's belongings old medical records. I always felt very weird upstairs where all the cupboards and beds were. Happened to find a photo on the net of children in straight jackets all sitting on the floor upstairs where I was working. Bad stuff went down there. Went under the road where those old toilets are. Once again weird feeling . Silly going under there but it did. What happened under there who knows.
Hey, i really like this content and want to watch, but the music is distracting and makes it hard to listen to you. I'd love if you could upload a video with the music turned off :)
Most of Gladesville was closed in in 1993 and most of the buildings demolished except the few remaining my father in law worked there after returning from the 2WW, the remaining buildings may look nice historically but its the two underground levels that no longer exist single exclusion what could only be called in any terms total isolation , mental health was so misunderstood back then, source for the underground levels which obviously now have become foundations for town house complexes, well an old fella in his later years and yes I visited the site with him a true ANZAC in 1981 , a lot of demo and concrete was used to hide the truth , enough said , I will see myself out
Dearest sweetest infinitely precious Gia is there any chance of you making more of your infinitely wonderous videos. I truely look forward to seeing more of your videos Yours sincerely Angelo cardilli ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
My Dad worked as a psychiatrist at this hospital from 1965 to about 1976. We lived on the grounds in one of the doctor’s residences. At about 11:52 minutes in, you show a large two storey dark brick house. That was our home. There were three bedrooms upstairs and one bathroom that included the toilet. My bedroom was downstairs and there was a large living room, kitchen, laundry and study. All rooms had an open fireplace. It’s quite strange to see it now, as back then it had lawns that were fenced off with tall hedges that my Dad used to trim. The pool was in constant use in the 1960’s when I was in primary school and I could swim the length underwater, holding my breath. At times some patients would come down with their nurses. It was always sparkling clean. Thank you for this lovely trip down memory lane.
Wow thank you for sharing your story & your family must have many special memories of this place. Really appreciate your descriptions inside the buildings & sharing all this info. Glad you enjoyed this little video
Wow that's cool . My mum got a shitty little trophy as recognition of her 45 years continuous service..what was your dads name my mums name is violet and her supervisor was stella
The river used to be awesome huh..
I worked at Gladesville Hospital as an electrician between 1990 and 1994. It was still in full swing on both sides of Victoria Road at the time, but as the NSW Government grew disinterested in caring for the mentally ill, it started to wind down from 1992 onwards until it closed for new admissions in 1993 then wound down to nothing in 1995. The north side was pretty much bulldozed and the land sold for medium density housing, though Ward 2, AKA The Priory, was kept, as were the nearby stables. Most of the south side remains due to a blanket heritage protection order and the interiors of many of the ward buildings were converted to office space for MOH project teams.
The mansion you lived in was close to our workshop, which was a converted mortuary. The mansion was used for patient occupational therapy sessions. The house at 06:30 was called Patterson House, named for the Banjo Patterson cottage (now a restaurant) located just outside the fence. It was used as staff accomodation for a couple of the gardening staff at the time and still had working gas lighting, which has now been vandalised because no government in this country knows how to repurpose buildings in a timely manner.
At 02:01, there is a door under those stairs that leads to a below ground plant room. Previously the plant room was part of a row of dungeons and a tunnel led from there down to where the stepped incline is around the oval near the water. Patients were taken off the boats at a jetty in the bay, which was filled in after WWI to become the oval (it's all reclaimed land) and were moved up the tunnel to Ward 17 and 18 which were the admissions wards at the time. When the bay was filled in to become the oval, the tunnel entrance at the top was bricked up to stop people using it.
Digby House was known as Ward 22 when I worked there. I and my two colleagues, Ted and Kerry, rewired that whole building in 1991 and the rest of the large maintenance staff there at the time carried out a complete refit of that building. It became the pride of the whole Hospital at the time. In more recent times this building was used in the filming of the TV show A Place To Call Home.
I still remember the large boiler station in full swing too - two massive coal-fired boilers supplied the whole site with hot water and heating all year round. The old boiler house where the big chimney was supplied steam for the adjacent laundry.
It was a great place to work and I retain many fond memories of the place and it's a shame that parts of the site have been left to rot by the NSW Government.
Excellent work. So much beautiful architecture and open space that should have few million thrown at it and opened to the public or it will be lost for ever. Thanks and I have subscribed. Cheers
Dearest sweetest most precious Gia I truely love the way you explain all in infinitely exquisite detail. ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
Brilliant!
What a wonderful documentary. I have explored these grounds years ago and your informative piece has enlightened me!
I sincerely hope that this extraordinary piece of Sydney heritage is never exploited and remains and is maintained forever!
Thank you for a very interesting programme.Very informative & well narrated.A sad, but important part of our history.👍🏻🧐
Thank you for sharing this video. I haven’t got there yet cause of Covid. I finally found my Great Great Grandmother and she is buried there. Everyone else have made out she ran off and married someone else but she was committed here and didn’t last a year cause she was so sick. She shouldn’t have been committed as she was sick with kidney failure and melancholia which to me suggests she had post natal depression after just having my Great Grandmother. Mary Jane Rogers-Cole was Irish and she married my Great Great Grandfather Thomas Cole (Mariner) in 1856 in Scots church Sydney.
What a sad but insightful story, thank you for sharing this news of your GGGM & the real story behind her time at Tarban Creek 🖤
My uncle lived there for awhile never got see
Looks like a bucket list item!😅
I walked around the Gladesville Hospital grounds all the time as I used to live at the Blandville Court public housing unit complex across the road.
beautifully narrated
Really enjoyed this. I live in Gladesville and have been there many times. I like the folly although some locals have referred to it a 'tack room'(where horse harnesses were kept and maintained). Also have heard it has been used for modern witch covens for their meetings. There used to be a small museum there onsite and run by volunteers but it was only open about once a month. It had a lot of old medical equipment on display but not a lot relevant to the hospital. I am also fascinated by the number of people buried there in the area along Victoria Road in a long tree avenue west of Henley Cottage(your video captured a couple of the prominent headstones). Apparently the govt. wanted to sell the site to developers until an action group exposed the number of graves there. I think they disinterred some that they could identify and moved their remains to Field of Mars before realising the enormity of the situation.
New sub here from Australia keep up the great work 🙏🏼
Loved the video it was very educational and informative. If you get a chance you should do a tour of beechworth down in Vic.
This was great! Thank you for the video and all the research.
😂😂😂 love the early Australian / english accent commentary 😅😅😅 that was a great video ✌️
I grew up in Rozelle we used climb through the fence and jump in the pool when we were kids
Great documentary Sister. Have you thought of some of the other asylums Parramatta (Cumberland) Morriset and the one in the hawksbury River at Brooklyn? But there a probably heaps of others in ye old Sydney town. Thanks for sharing Sister and love and Light to all of you 💙
Very good. You missed though the “Madman tunnel” which is now blocked up. The road still exists. The northern side of the road had buildings but were lost due to development. I used to walk through there in the 1980’s. Great research though.
ahhh... beautiful sydney.
I especially liked how you source the pictures and footage.
Another great informative video. Thanks again
Hi my name is shawn , my mother worked a total of over 46 years as a psych nurse mainly at gladesville,and a few years at Macquarie (Bridgeview) hospital.
When i was approx 4 years old we even lived for some time in the old nursing home and i would walk down to the river to go fishing.. my mum and other staff had so many spooky encounters there, especially while working night shifts....I plan to take her back there some day very soon so she can show me around what buildings are still left and tell me where she experienced certain things..
When someone tells you there are ghosts at Gladesville Hospital, believe them. I worked there for four years and our workshop was a disused mortuary. I was in there one night doing a quick job for myself when I heard a noise coming from near the slab fridges, where we stored hardware and other materials and a bundle of electrical conduit hanging over the top of the slab fridge was moving on its own - I don't mind telling you I shat my pants and bailed for the night. When I told my boss what happened the next morning he laughed and said he knew about the ghost that did that. He'd met with similar happenings late at night.
Speaking of the Parramatta Female Factory, you should do an episode on that, especially the Parramatta Girls Home (1 Fleet Street) which retains some of the 'abandoned buildings' feel. Of course, since many of the Parragirls are still alive, this is something that needs to be done with sensitivity.
Always wished that tunnel at the beginning of the video had no GRAFFITI in it. Why are there no complaints about it? or why doesn't it get removed?
underemployed ferals...
Sweet content mate, great location keep up the wicked works. Cheers 👍🏻
Black collar project 👻
Once again amazing , Thanks
Wow that was an interesting story
Very informative documentary. I remember our educator telling us stories how people with disabilities were treated back then. Nice video! 💯
I use to live near this (former) hospital (before moving to Queensland) and applied for Nursing jobs there when it was open, I had friends and family that worked there. The now residential accommodation you see around the 30 second mark was also once a part of the hospital. There was a history of cruelty and sadness here, as no doubt good as well and if legends are true (which I can't confirm or deny) is suppose to be haunted as well.
A great place to wander
My great grandmother was a psychiatric nurse at this hospital. That was probably around 1910-20s.
Very interesting and well-produced video. Have just found your channel and enjoying your content. Just asked my 89 yo Mum about Fairyland who knew of it but never went. We agreed that some older family members may have so ww are going to look through Grandparents' photo albums to see if anything is recognizable.
Keep up the great work!
Thanks for your kind comment, would be amazing to see more vintage photos from Fairyland! Live in Newcastle now but hope to make more videos in future ❤
@1971gtrxu1 I also enjoyed the report on Fairyland. I have been there as a child in the mid sixties. This was because the Sunday School that I went to - St Paul's Chatswood would have their Sunday School picnics at Fairyland. I've been back in recent years and it's sad to see it now. The reason the whole central area has become a swamp is because the drainage system has been allowed to deteriorate and fail. We would go there by car, entering off Delhi Road, where you can still make out the entrance. I have also visited the site by boat. It's a fascinating place.
Live the videos! Keep them coming
Cheers Maria! Based in Newcastle & been locked out of Sydney for ages due to Covid, have more videos to come in time ❤️
@@shhsydney looking forward to it! Just moved to Sydney recently so looking for some nice spots to explore 😊
Well documented mate. This place is on my list for future explores. See any potential ways into closed buildings by any chance?
Looks so much like (architecturally) Callan Park”s Kirkbride buildings.
Love the b
Video mate I'm a big fan,I hope you grow back your beautiful long hair
Very informative
Hello. Nice document. Is this place currently available, could I do such a tour of this place legibly?
Excellent
Is the folly still there? I couldn’t see it when I went.
It had better still be there, would be a shame if it's gone. It is in a funny spot & tucked away...maybe go back & ask a worker to give you directions :)
@@shhsydney It's still there. When I worked at Gladesville it still had a roof and was in fairly good condition. It shows how quickly things can fall apart when neglected. There is a lot of rot on the Internet which includes tales that the folly was a former crematorium - it's not and was never used for this. For a time, it did serve as a caretaker's quarters.
Interesting! My convict ancestor died in the Tarban Creek Asylum.
I spent a month making handrails by myself in those first two buildings in the beginning of the video. Found some creepy stuff behind a staircase . Suitcases of people's belongings old medical records. I always felt very weird upstairs where all the cupboards and beds were. Happened to find a photo on the net of children in straight jackets all sitting on the floor upstairs where I was working. Bad stuff went down there. Went under the road where those old toilets are. Once again weird feeling . Silly going under there but it did. What happened under there who knows.
what a nice young man.
Made my day mate 😹
@@shhsydney x)
Wish I could be there!
I wouldn't bad vibes there.
Great voice impressions great tour Ta
Cheers! Do celebrity / accent impressions so really appreciate that mate 🤓
Hey, i really like this content and want to watch, but the music is distracting and makes it hard to listen to you. I'd love if you could upload a video with the music turned off :)
Appreciate your feedback & will work on sound editing so future docos aren’t too distracting 🤓
Funny old English ascent when you narrate the old news papers lol I bet you giggle to ur self
Great video but the music is to loud when you are talking
Agreed, made this video on my mobile & the sound is not great.
Most of Gladesville was closed in in 1993 and most of the buildings demolished except the few remaining my father in law worked there after returning from the 2WW, the remaining buildings may look nice historically but its the two underground levels that no longer exist single exclusion what could only be called in any terms total isolation , mental health was so misunderstood back then, source for the underground levels which obviously now have become foundations for town house complexes, well an old fella in his later years and yes I visited the site with him a true ANZAC in 1981 , a lot of demo and concrete was used to hide the truth , enough said , I will see myself out
Now days they locked them away not giving this people's freedom. Maybe they should do this now days so this peoples get better quicker
Are you interested in a haunted house in st Mary's western Sydney.
Hauntings aren't my specialty, but abandoned icons are - there's a lot of crossover with ghost busters & history hunters 👻
Gia might not be but I certainly am... 😅
Dearest sweetest infinitely precious Gia is there any chance of you making more of your infinitely wonderous videos. I truely look forward to seeing more of your videos
Yours sincerely Angelo cardilli
❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
Hi Angelo, thank you for your support. Live in Newcastle now but am considering making more videos that are historical but not just focused on Sydney.