Education, Health and Welfare – Mental Health Records
Public Record Office Victoria (PROV) holds extensive records from many of the institutions which have provided some form of care or control over people with a mental illness and people with an intellectual disability. Most of these records are clinical records, documenting the treatment of individuals admitted to mental institutions.
As the records clearly demonstrate, medical and societal attitudes towards the treatment of people with a mental illness or an intellectual disability have changed enormously since the first institution was opened at Yarra Bend in 1848. It was not until the 1880s that any distinction was made between those termed “lunatics” (people with a mental illness) and “imbeciles” and “idiots” (people with an intellectual disability). Victoria’s lunatic asylums were also used for the containment of inebriates until the late 1880s when separate licensed retreats were established.
Institutions for which records are held by Public Record Office Victoria:
Ararat Asylum/Hospital for the Insane/Mental Hospital – VA 2841
Ballarat Asylum/Hospital for the Insane/Mental Hospital – VA 2844
Beechworth Asylum/Hospital for the Insane/Mental/Psychiatric Hospital – VA 2842
Belmont Licensed House – VA 2854
Bendigo Receiving Ward – VA 2862
Brightside Inebriate Retreat – VA 2850
Cloverdale Licensed House – VA 2855
Collingwood Asylum – VA 2851
Cremorne Glen Holme Licensed House – VA 2924
Hillcrest Licensed House – VA 2859
Janefield Colony/Training Centre – VA 2847
Kew Asylum/ Hospital for the Insane/Mental/Psychiatric Hospital – VA 2840
Kew Idiot Asylum/Children’s Cottages – VA 2852
Landcox Licensed House – VA 2925
Lara Inebriate Retreat – VA 2849
Merton Licensed House – VA 2858
Mont Park Hospital for the Insane/Mental/Psychiatric Hospital – VA 2846
Mt Ida Licensed House – VA 2857
Northcote Inebriate Asylum – VA 2853
Pleasant View Licensed House/Receiving House – VA 2848
Royal Park Receiving House/Hospital for the Insane/Mental/Psychiatric Hospital – VA 2845
St Helens/Pleasant View Licensed House/ Receiving house – VA 2848
Sunbury Asylum/Hospital for the Insane/Mental Hospital/Training Centre – VA 2843
Sunnyside Licensed House – VA 2860
The Tofts Licensed House – VA 2856
Travancore Special School/Development Centre/Psychiatric Development Centre/Child and Family Centre – VA 2861
Yarra Bend Asylum/Hospital for the Insane – VA 2839
Types of Records Held
Most of the records of mental health institutions held by PROV were required by law to be created and maintained in a certain format. Listed below are some types of mental health records held by PROV which were common to all or most institutions and which are of most interest to family historians.
Admission Warrants which are the official documents authorising a person’s committal to an asylum.
Registers of Patients/Admission Registers in which the clerk of the asylum had to enter details of the patient being admitted. (See Online Records below)
Case Books (to 1912) and Patient Clinical Notes (from 1912) contain details of each patient admitted and were periodically updated to record the patients condition and treatment. (See Online Records).
Annual and Quinquennial Examination Registers record the regular medical evaluations of patient health for government reporting.
Trial Leave Registers record dates and periods of trial leave from asylums granted to patients.
Discharge Registers record the discharge, removal or escape of patients from asylum custody.
Nominal Registers of Patients are alphabetical listings of patients which provide access to Admission Registers, Case Books and Admission Warrants.
Online Records
The following institutions have had record series digitised:
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Institution |
Series |
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Nominal Register of Patients |
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Nominal Register of Patients (Ballarat) Nominal Register of Patients (Ballarat/Sunbury) Register of Patients (Ballarat/Sunbury) |
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Case Books of Male Patients Case Books of Female Patients |
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Registers of Patients |
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Register of Patients |
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Cremorne |
Alphabetical List of Patients in Asylums (a series of volumes, includes Cremorne patients) |
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Nominal Register of Patients (includes patients at Kew Cottages VA 2852) Nominal Register of Patients Register of Patients |
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Nominal Register of Patients |
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Asylum Records |
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Index to Male and Female Case Books |
Access to mental health records
Because of the sensitive and personal information contained in the records, some, including almost all clinical records are closed to public access for many years after their creation. This means that only nineteenth and some early twentieth century records are currently available.
Other sources of information about patients in psychiatric institutions
Records of the Chief Secretary (VA 475)
There are many records within the Chief Secretary’s correspondence system which provide information about the administration and staffing of asylums and about the admission, treatment and discharge of patients for the period 1851 to 1905.
Records of the Master in Equity/ Master in Lunacy (VA 2624)
From 1851 until the 1940s the estates of people deemed to be insane were controlled and administered by the Master-in-Equity. Some of the records created by this office are held in PROV.
Inquest Records (see PROVguide 71)
Every patient of a mental institution who died while in care was the subject of an inquest. PROV holds records of inquests conducted in Victoria since the 1840s.
