Willow Court has been known by many names; Invalid Barracks, Colonial Hospital, Madhouse New Norfolk, Her Majesty’s Lunatic Asylum, Mental Diseases Hospital, Lachlan Park and Royal Derwent Hospital. Thankfully attitudes towards mental health have changed a bit over the years! The complex opened in 1827, 3 years before Port Arthur, making it the oldest asylum […]
MORTON HOUSE
Originally thought to have been built by Alexander Waddle, a freed convict and hotelkeeper in 1832, the two storey Georgian house was subsequently established as St John’s Hospital in 1845. It was the location Dr W. R. Pugh first performed surgery under anaesthetic two years later in 1847. This was the first use of ether […]