Kew Asylum - Site and Planning

Site and Planning

During the 1850s, the existing lunatic asylums of the Colony of Victoria were overcrowded. Yarra Bend Asylum, while only six years old, was considered unsuitable and Carlton Lunatic Asylum (which was originally a jail) was in a state of disrepair. As a result, in 1854 the Government of the Colony of Victoria commissioned a report proposing sites and designs for a new lunatic asylum. Contemporary educated opinion was that lunatic asylums should be built "on a healthy site, freely admitting light and air, and drainage ... a gentle eminence in a fertile and agreeable country". In a report by the New South Wales' Inspector of Asylums, Frederick Norton Manning stated that "the site chosen is of primary importance. On it must depend the comfort, happiness and health of the inmates." Thus a hilltop site, across the Yarra River from Yarra Bend was recommended in a report by G.W. Vivian of the Public Works Office. Vivian described the site as

a section of land, about 400 acres in extent, situated on the River Yarra, about 4 miles from Melbourne, and ½ a mile to the north of the village of Kew ... the site selected is a fine slope, elevated about 100 feet above the level of the river, admitting of proper drainage and admirably adapted for ornamental grounds, the aspect chosen is south-east, and during the summer months the refreshing influence of the sea-breeze will be felt, without being exposed to south west gales.

G. W. Vivian, Report on the Proposed Kew Lunatic Asylum

The idea that breezes or wind-swept locations were healthy came from a wider Victorian belief that associated disease with congestion and squalor, and that miasmas of impure air caused epidemics. The area Vivian recommended for the asylum had originally been set aside for a village reserve. Locals from Kew were upset by the proposal and petitioned the government, to no avail. 340 acres (1.4 km2; 0.5 sq mi) of land in the County of Bourke, parish of Boroondara, city of Kew were permanently reserved as a "Site for Lunatic Asylum" in the Government Gazette of 1864. Construction began in 1864, however was halted almost immediately with reports of inferior works on the foundations. An investigation followed and Frederick Kawerau resigned. Contractor Samuel Amess continued construction at Kew using Kawerau's designs. They were derived from plans earlier outlined by Vivian, and were basically identical to Kawerau’s designs for Ararat and Beechworth, though Kew was much larger, and more expensive at a cost of ₤198,334.