Bloomfield Hospital

About

Bloomfield Hospital is a heritage-listed former psychiatric hospital at Forest Road, Orange, City of Orange, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by Walter Liberty Vernon and George McRae and built from 1923 to 1931. It is also known as Orange Mental Hospital. The property is owned by NSW Health (Crown Land). It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 10 March 2006.

At the turn of the nineteenth century, institutions for the mentally ill were fast becoming overcrowded. In response to this pressure and the demand for treatment of rural based mentally ill patients, Frederick Norton Manning, Inspector General for the Insane, proposed that a number of hospitals for the mentally ill be established in rural areas. Under his guidance, Kenmore Psychiatric Hospital was built in Goulburn in 1897. In 1898 Eric Sinclair took over from Manning and continued the work of developing rural based psychiatric hospitals with the Morisset Hospital completed in 1910.

In 1889, 260 hectares (640 acres) south of Orange was secured and dedicated for the future development of a Mental Hospital yet it was not until 1909 that a general site plan for the Mental Hospital at Orange was developed by Government Architect Walter Liberty Vernon.

The north-eastern buildings within (today's) Riverside or Bloomfield North precinct were designed in 1910, approved for construction in 1922 as the First World War intervened. The construction of the hospital was further delayed until 1923, when work on the first of the hospital buildings began. This was the upper precinct.

The construction of the hospital building was assisted by patients as well as local carpenters, labourers and craftsmen. The patients had been transferred from the Gladesville Mental Hospital and in 1923 the Orange and District Illustrated Times noted that many of those patients were discharged due to the improvement of their condition through the work. By October 1925 the Admissions and Convalescent Sections on the eastern part of the site had been completed and accommodated 270 patients from other overcrowded institutions. The official opening by Acting Inspector for the Insane, Dr W. A. Couttie was held in November 1925. Between 1925 and 1931 the wards, Administration, service buildings workshops, kitchen, Recreation Hall and Nurses Home and staff accommodation were constructed on the western part of the site.

The hospital was built to facilitate the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century theories of the treatment of the mentally ill propounded by Manning and later developed by Eric Sinclair. Manning championed a shift from seeing institutions for the mentally ill as asylums or places of confinement to being places for the treatment of the patient's illness where the architecture and setting of the hospital was integral to patients treatment. During his term as Director General for the Insane he worked to further eliminate the stigma of mental illness by ensuring that medical practitioners alone were responsible for scheduling mentally ill patients. Doctors were charged with the administration of the hospitals and the treatment of patients.

Sinclair further developed Manning's ideas infusing them with the newer "scientific" theories on Mental Illness such as the germ theory of mental illness which maintained that mental illness was most responsive to treatment in its early stages. This theory emphasised the benefits of quarantining "curable" patients from those with more intractable forms of illness.

The design of Bloomfield ensures patients perceived to be able to be rehabilitated were accommodated in the eastern area of the site in the Admissions Ward, completed in 1923 and the Convalescent Wards which were finished by 1924. The initial building programme was only completed in 1925. The Government Architect in this period was George McRae (1912-1923). The upper precinct adopted the symmetrical layout as a master plan in the form of an axis with lateral wings in sympathy with the site's topography. The Male Wards were located to the left or north-west of the main axis and the matching Female Wards to the right or south-east of the axis. Administration and management used the lower Riverside precinct for admissions and classification of patients and treatment of those expected to recover in a relatively short period. Those with little hope of recovery were regarded as long-term patients and accommodated in the upper Bloomfield South precinct, according to their gender and illness. The upper precinct's construction commenced in 1922, with the majority of buildings completed by 1935.

Patients suffering more debilitating and profound disturbance were accommodated in the nine wards spanning the north–south ridge in the western part of the site (completed between 1927 and 1931).The eastern and western areas were separated by landscaped gardens and playing fields. In each of these areas further separation of patients was accommodated with wards for men and women, separate wards for female and male sick and infirm, and for men and women considered "quiet and industrious" and those with more challenging and entrenched behaviours - the "violent and noisy " wards. All the buildings and wards at the hospital were specifically designed to reflect the proportions and style of domestic architecture to ally the impression of being an institution of confinement.

The setting in which patients were treated was considered to be of utmost importance and much attention was paid to the planting of both formal gardens and of parklands across the hospital property. Wards were built to take advantage of light and ensure easy access to fresh air. The hospital was planned to be a virtually self sustainable community with patients growing vegetables and fruit and in earlier times tending the dairy and piggery.

Like all patients experiencing mental illness, patients at Bloomfield, were committed by law to receive treatment at a mental hospital. In 1900 the classification of those who were able to be committed was expanded to include alcoholics and inebriates with serious behavioural problems. Bloomfield was the first hospital to be licensed to treat these patients. In the 1930s new psychiatric treatments for the mentally ill such as hypnosis, use of bromides, fever therapy, coma therapy and leucotomy were being implemented in the state's hospitals. Bloomfield was well equipped to keep abreast with these new therapies having a purpose built operating theatre included in the schedule of hospital building completed by 1931.

Recreational and occupational therapy developed as important forms of treatment at Bloomfield from 1929 and the value of sporting activity was recognised from early on. The first cricket pitch was established near the most northern entrance to the side. During the 1930s this pitch and adjoining area (39 hectares (96 acres) in total) was redeveloped as Bloomfield Aerodrome. A second pitch, located on land between t he eastern and western part of the site was developed in 1928. This Cricket Ground became a focal point for patients, staff and visitors over the years.

An important addition to the hospital was the construction of two TB Wards in 1934. These Wards were built in response to a decade or more of measures put in place to control the epidemic spread of TB. The Women's TB Ward was located at the eastern end of the Convalescent Section and the Male TB Ward was located at the end of the Male Wards in the western part of the site. Both wards had north-east facing airing yards considered essential to the design of such wards at the time. The wards were unusual in that they were two of the few attached to Mental Hospitals and as such posed the architectural challenge of ensuring patients remained confined and isolated from the broader population while still providing access the therapeutic effects of sunlight and fresh air.

The majority of the buildings were created in the period up to 1935.

The War years saw characteristic shortages at the hospital including the dearth of male staff members. This was coupled with an influx of patients from Kenmore which was used for military purposes and resulted in overcrowding for the patients and an increasing workload for the mainly female staff. Overcrowding remained a difficulty after the war and there was little progress in the development of effective treatments or the improvement of facilities at the Orange Mental Hospital.

During the 1950s new behaviour stabilising drug treatments such as largactil and lithium and the provision of community care to patients were implemented to reduce the demand for mental hospital accommodation. Nevertheless, Bloomfield, as Orange Mental Hospital was renamed in 1954, remained a large hospital with a routine of therapeutic treatments and activities. The emphasis creating links with the local community through sporting and cultural activities was continued at this time with the establishment of a Dramatic Society which involved patients and staff in regular productions. Performances were attended by those associated with the hospital and members of the wider Orange Community. The Society was the precursor to the recently formed, semi-professional Orange Theatre Company.

During the 1960s another incentive to promote patient integration into the community was the establishment of a Bloomfield Branch of the Country Women's Association. Patients belonging to the Branch to participate in choral and drama performance and various fund raising activities. In 1965 a nine-hole golf course was established on the site, a third sporting field Pringle Park was established just below the Male Wards and a new laundry complex servicing the Central West area hospitals was built.

In 1983 the Richmond Report recommended a major overhaul of the operation of Mental Health Services which focused on separating services for the mentally ill and those with developmental disability and the rehabilitation those with mental illness back into the community with the support of community services. In the mid 1980s the Admission and Convalescent Sections of Bloomfield were "removed from Bloomfield and consolidated as the Riverside Centre". (2004, NSW Government Architects Office. Preliminary Heritage Assessment). Also around this time an acclaimed clinical community rehabilitation scheme was piloted out of Bloomfield. This program, the elite Housing Integrated Program Support (SHIPS), is still operating in Bathurst and Orange.

In 1986 Bloomfield came under the administration of the Central West Health Services and the program of deinstitutionalisation continued, reducing the number of beds available at Bloomfield to 274 and it number of patients to 197 in 1989. A review of the hospital's operations in 1989 recommended that the two storey ward blocks be decommissioned. The wards treating those with dementia were also earmarked for closure in this report. In the early 1990s a new Admissions unit was built, a Short Stay Unit was built and an Aged Care Unit was also built.

In 2005 the site was considered for redevelopment which will integrate a new Base Hospital for Orange into the Mental Health Services operating from the site.