History
The Royal Derwent Hospital was originally an Invalid Barracks, for invalid convicts and lunatics who had been transported to Van Diemens Land. It was expanded in 1830 by Lt-Governor Arthur, and held more than 130 invalids and lunatics. During the 1850s it was taken over by the Colonial Government, from then on numbers of the inmates expanded rapidly, as penal institutions started to close down across the colony and their invalids were sent up to the Hospital.
The hospital was closed in late 2000, as smaller community-sited care institutes proceeded rapidly, and the hospital could no longer be funded by the Tasmanian State Government.
Today the hospital site is currently sitting derelict and has been the subject of a great deal of vandalism and was badly damaged by separate arson attacks in January 2008 and December 2010
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