City of Darebin Heritage Study Volume 1 Draft Thematic

DAREBIN HERITAGE STUDY STAGE 2A branch line was constructed from the Macleod railway station in 1912, with an electric train,presumably run form the hospital’s generator, which supplied the complex with power(electricity for this part of Preston and the railway was still many years off). Over the following20 years other buildings were added. The Ernest Jones Chapel/Entertainment Hall, built in1927 provided a community facility for patients and staff (O’Neill & Taylor, 1995 20-23; Lia2002a).An important feature of the Mont Park hospital is the landscaping, which was designed byHead Gardener, Hugh Linacre (also spelt Linaker). This appointment recognised theimportance of pleasant surroundings for mental patients, and Linacre created sweepinglandscapes of lawns and exotic and native trees, while retaining some indigenous red gums.Linacre became Superintendent of gardens for all of Victoria’s mental health institutions, andhe designed other public landscapes including Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance and theYarra Boulevard in the 1930s. Linacre established a nursery at Mont Park, where he raisedplants for the other institutions (O’Neill & Taylor, 1995 22; Lia 2002a).Mont Park’s farm was an extensive operation and included sheep grazing, piggery, dairy,poultry for egg and meat production, orchard and vegetable garden. In 1912 the farmemployed 212 patients and another 106 worked in the gardens. The farm supplied not onlyMont Park Hospital, but also other mental institutions, and even sold the excess produce. Thiskept costs down considerably. The farm continued to be worked by patients well into the1950s, but although milking machines were installed in 1954, many of the methods andequipment were primitive. However, according to Kenna, farming techniques were developedthat were unique to Mental Health Farms. A combination of factors - including changingtreatment of mental illness, mainly using drugs, and a reduced inclination by patients in anincreasingly urbanised society to do farm work - necessitated the employment of outsidelabour. Eventually the farm ceased to be viable, besides there were complaints about the smellsfrom residents in newly developing suburbs nearby, and so farming was abandoned. Much ofthe farm formed part of the new La Trobe University and some of the farm buildings wereused for storage (Kenna, 1988:110-123, 148).As noted in Chapter 7, the Laundry Workers Block and another ward became a militaryhospital during the First World. After the war the ex-servicemen suffering from psychiatricillness continued to be treated at Mont Park, and a military ward was built in 1924. These arenow Plenty Buildings 1-3. Meanwhile the Bundoora Repatriation Hospital was established atBundoora Park in 1924, later renamed the Mental Repatriation Hospital. The Hospital wasadministered through Mont Park at first. In 1933 Bundoora became the psychiatric hospitalfor all repatriation patients, when the last patients were transferred from Mont Park (Kenna1988: 123-29).Figure 82Staff at Mont Park, c1940s[National Library ofAustralia, an 8737396]118