Callan Park Hospital for the Insane

Indigenous, early colonial and residential use Before European settlement the Wangal clan or band lived at the site and their territory extended along the Parramatta River from about Petersham westward. The Wangal were part of the Eora or Dharug tribes. Due to a smallpox epidemic between 1789 and 1790 and European land development, only about 50 people from Dharug families were living in the Sydney area by 1900. These grants by the 1840s were in common ownership and became Garry Owen estate, later known as Callan Park. In June 2008, Rozelle Hospital services and patients were transferred to Concord Hospital. In the face of strong community opposition, by October 2008 the Government rejected the university's plans to accommodate up to 6,000 students on the Callan Park site and announced that of the site would be handed to Leichhardt Council. ==Current use==

The parklands are currently open to the public for use and enjoyment in accordance with the principal objects of the Callan Park (Special Provisions) Act 2002. The restricts future uses of the site to health, tertiary education, and community (not-for-profit). Commercial (profit-making) activity in Callan Park is disallowed under the Act. After a period of extensive renovation, the Kirkbride Complex which housed the former hospital, the Sydney College of the Arts, the fine arts campus of the University of Sydney, commenced occupancy under a 99-year lease. It was later revealed in Sartor's biography, The Fog on the Hill – How NSW Labor Lost its Way, that the Keneally-led NSW Government secretly planned to compensate Sydney University on the 'loss' of Callan Park by offering it the North Eveleigh site in Redfern, which had been prepared for tender. However, it was reported that the North Eveleigh site had been prepared for the market and was valued at about A$100 million. Cabinet had also approved the proceeds of the North Eveleigh sale to go towards a major upgrade of Redfern Station. Yet the university was only prepared to pay some $30 million, and so the 'deal' did not go ahead. NSW Ambulance Headquarters and Education Centre moved into the site some time after 1994 (date unknown), and officially vacated in 2024, moving to Sydney Olympic Park. Other tenants include Writing NSW, formerly the New South Wales Writers' Centre. In 2015, the New South Wales Parliament approved the draft masterplan and agreed to establish a specialised trust, finalise the site's master plan and develop a sustainable long-term funding model to protect it. It was envisaged that the Callan Park and Broughton Hall Trust would manage the site, comprising the following trustees appointed by the Governor: • an appointee to represent the traditional owners; • three appointees on the recommendation of the Premier to represent the relevant NSW Government Ministers in relation to Heritage, Health and Environmental considerations; • three appointees on the recommendation of relevant local Council area, at least 1 of who has expertise in heritage; • an appointee to represent mental health consumers; • an appointee from the local council area to represent the Friends of Callan Park; • an appointee to represent educational/arts tenants/lessees; • an appointee from the local council area to represent sporting bodies; and • an appointee to represent not-for-profit organisations which are tenants/lessees. The government did not proceed with these plans, and in 2015, the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage was delegated management of several precincts in Callan Park. == Description ==

Rozelle Hospital site is 61 hectares of undulating waterfront parkland site, with complexes of buildings clustered across it, and diverse landscape elements and plantings. The site incorporates many layers of archaeological, Aboriginal, historic, cultural, aesthetic and environmental heritage. It contains many heritage buildings, including two of the original houses (1839 and 1842) of the three original estates on which it is based: and the magnificent Kirkbride Block, completed in 1885 for the Callan Park Psychiatric Hospital, and now the campus of the Sydney College of the Arts. Garry Owen House (now Writing NSW) This, the first building on the site, c.1840, was built on a curved earth terrace projecting from the slope (the edge of the sandstone ridge where the land begins to fall away at the top of the slopes) with commanding views over Iron Cove. It was originally a grand private residence and prominent in Leichhardt society (1991 Heritage Study of Rozelle Hospital). It retains some early estate and garden layout, showing the influence of English pattern books on laying out a garden – with axial approach to the front door with a carriage loop. Garryowen also retains some early plantings, such as an old (1.5m trunk girth) evergreen or Southern magnolia /bull bay, (M.grandiflora) and a Camellia japonica cv. (double red with a fleck of white) west of the house's main garden front (western side) in front of Garry Owen Cottage (1880s, designed by Government Architect James Barnet for male convalescent patients. Four mature jacarandas (J.mimosifolia) and 3 cabbage tree palms (Livistona australis) and a cedar wattle (Acacia elata) are to Garryowen's north. A Cordyline stricta, Western Australian peppermint (Agonis flexuosa) and a hedge of Cape plumbago (P.capensis) are to the house's north-east. To the north are a Bunya pine (Araucaria bidwillii), 3 Bhutan cypresses (Cupressus torulosa) and a Norfolk Island hibiscus tree (Lagunaria patersonia. To the west are more jacaranda trees. The house has two main front rooms (drawing room and dining room) accessed through sliding doors from a central hall, enabling the opening of both right up into a large single ballroom, similar to that of Government House (which Mortimer Lewis had implemented, overseeing the plans prepared by English architect, Edmund Blore. It shows Lewis' architectural trademarks, such as reeded, rather than fluted mouldings in the tops of window cases, floor skirtings are panelled, French doors onto the verandahs (onto the entrance front (north) and garden front (west) sides of the house (these doors were later changed by James Barnet to hung windows). The octagonal asphalt paving blocks on the verandah floors are a trademark of James Barnet, also seen at his Police & Justice Museum near Circular Quay and South West Rocks Lighthouse. The Library and another room are divided by sliding doors. A gardener's cottage has 6 rooms. The original small cottage has been incorporated into the present mid-Victorian two storey building. Additions have been made to the east and south. The stair hall has a fine Neoclasical interior and domed ceiling, with stained glass inserts. There is a centrally placed entrance on the north elevation with elegant fanlight and classically detailed moulded entablature. It is constructed of rendered brick ashlar coursed single-storey verandah with timber supports and posts, corrugated iron roofed. The main roof is of galvanised iron, hidden behind the parapet. Extensive brick additions to the east which have been rendered and painted (1992, Preliminary Heritage & Conservation Register – Central District Area Health Service). Garry Owen Cottage (1880s) This was designed by Government Architect James Barnet for male convalescent patients is of sandstone, sited on the edge (west) of Garryowen's earth platform, and together with the group of Convalescent Cottages (zone 5) forms part of the deliberately composed picturesque setting for the Kirkbride Block. Also there is a small male attendant's cottage designed by Government Architect Walter Liberty Vernon in the zone. Kirkbride Complex The Kirkbride complex sits proud on a high ridge on the site to the north east of Garryowen's grounds. It is a magnificent sandstone complex of buildings and courtyards, surrounded by walls and has (hidden boundary lines behind 'sunk fences'). The complex was completed in 1885 for the government-run Callan Park Psychiatric Hospital. This complex has more recently been used by Sydney University as a campus of the Sydney College of the Arts. ==Heritage listing==

On 2 April 2017 the area and buildings were listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register with the following statement of significance: The building was also listed on the (now defunct) Register of the National Estate. In popular culture • The site features in the 1996 Australian film Cosi. • It features in the novel Jessica by Bryce Courtenay with the lead character committed to the asylum for four years. • It is also the setting for Dorothy Porter's 1999 verse novel What a Piece of Work. • The 2008 film The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce shot several scenes in the dungeons and tunnels of the old asylum. A gallows was erected in the grounds to film the execution of Alexander Pearce. • The music video for Ricki-Lee's song "Crazy" was filmed at the hospital in 2012. • The television series Love Child and Doctor Doctor, and the films Bliss and Ravenswood were filmed at the hospital. Theft of antiques A theft occurred in 2003 of thousands of medical antiques from the Callan Park Hospital for the Insane, including a human skeleton, medical and dental instruments, lithographs and furniture. == Notable inmates and staff ==

Inmates • J. F. Archibald, editor and publisher of The Bulletin, who published much writing by Henry Lawson. • William James Chidley, sex reformer and eccentric, died at Callan Park 21 December 1916. • Michael 'Tarzan' Fomenko (c.1930–2018), ocean rower and hermetic bushman • Louisa Lawson, Australian suffragist, (mother of poet Henry Lawson) together with her sons, Charles and Peter. • Bea Miles (1902–1973), eccentric and bohemian rebel. • Charles Samuels (1863/1864–1912), diagnosed with Melancholia. • Claude Webb-Wagg (1893–1945), theatre musician, music teacher and businessman. • Francis Webb (1925–1973), poet and son of Claude Webb-Wagg. Staff • Lillian May Armfield (1884–1971), a pioneering Sydney police detective worked as a nurse at the Callan Park Hospital for the Insane (1907–1915), before embarking on her police career. • Graeme Revell, noted film composer, was a nurse in the facility in the late 1970s. • Craig Powell, (1940–2022), poet and psychiatrist. ==See also==