Entertainment Room at Callan Park, a curved wall of louvre and casement windows wraps around the room in a wide semicircle.

01 Callan ParkRozelle2015

ISO 1001/50f/8.014mm

Series · 95 prints

Callan Park

Photographed 2015
Frames 95
Camera NIKON D7000
Location Rozelle, NSW
Status Public parkland; hospital closed 2008
Years 1878 to 2008
Heritage NSW SHR 00818
Architect James Barnet (Colonial Architect)
Specs 61 hectares · 10 ward blocks · 170 single rooms
01 ABOUT THIS SERIES

Series story

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

Callan Park is a former psychiatric hospital at Rozelle on Iron Cove, proclaimed Callan Park Hospital for the Insane on 1 August 1878 and closed on 30 April 2008. Its Kirkbride Complex, built from 1880 to 1885 by Colonial Architect James Barnet with Inspector General of the Insane Frederic Norton Manning and Botanic Gardens director Charles Moore, was the first hospital in Australia designed on moral therapy principles: 10 sandstone ward blocks, 5 male and 5 female, linked by a continuous covered veranda in 61 hectares of parkland.

Manning toured asylums in England, France, Germany and the United States in 1876 and brought back drawings of Chartham Down Hospital in Kent, the model for Callan Park, altered for the New South Wales climate with extensive verandahs. The buildings were meant to treat: pavilions of two storeys, rising to three at their ends, set around landscaped courtyards and airing courts, some with views to the Blue Mountains, in grounds planned as a therapy space for patients. The first ward opened on 1 July 1884 with about 50 male patients.

Designed for about 600 patients, the hospital held 1,500 by 1930. Inquiries into overcrowding followed in 1923 and 1948, the Stoller Report in 1955 and a Royal Commission in 1961. In 1905 Callan Park opened special admission wards for curable cases, the forerunner in New South Wales of voluntary treatment without committal, and on 1 September 1976 it was amalgamated with the neighbouring Broughton Hall Psychiatric Clinic as Rozelle Hospital.

Psychiatric care in the Kirkbride Block was phased out after 1991, and Sydney College of the Arts then occupied the complex under a 99-year lease, moving to the University of Sydney's Camperdown campus in 2020. The hospital closed on 30 April 2008. Callan Park Conservation Area and Buildings was gazetted on the NSW State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999, the Callan Park (Special Provisions) Act 2002 protects the site's open space in perpetuity, and since December 2020 about 38 of its 61 hectares have been vested in the Greater Sydney Parklands Trust as public parkland.

NSW State Heritage Register listing 00818, Dictionary of Sydney (Callan Park Mental Hospital), Sydney Morning Herald (16 June 1885) and National Trust of Australia (NSW) position paper (2017)

02 TIMELINE

Chronology

1874
1876
1878
1880
1884
1885
1930
1961
1976
1999
2002
2008
2020
03 PRINTS

Prints in this series

Hand-signed and numbered, printed from the original RAW file. Open editions in the two smallest sizes; limited editions of 100, 50 and 25 in the three larger, never reissued once they sell through.

Entertainment Room at Callan Park, a curved wall of louvre and casement windows wraps around the room in a wide semicircle.
Entertainment Room
Rehabilitation Rooms at Callan Park, you can see the old wire mesh windows and a beautiful brightly lit Jacaranda out.
Rehabilitation Rooms
Horizontal blinds on a tall, narrow window at Callan Park break the incoming daylight into even bars across the floor.
Backlit Blind
Sunlight streams through the windows of a disused clinic at Callan Park. The door marked Clinic hangs ajar, its dark timber stained and worn.
Clinic
Crosslight at Callan Park, a corridor cuts through the centre of the building, narrow and dim.
Crosslight
Side Lit Hallway at Callan Park, an old hallway with mould starting to take over the paintwork on the walls.
Side Lit Hallway
Chaplain's Office at Callan Park, there was an active bee swarm in the curtain to the right.
Chaplain's Office
Curved multi-paned windows wrap the full width of an empty room at Callan Park, their frames throwing sharp reflections across the polished floor below.
The Greatest View
Shadows In Reverse at Callan Park, a narrow corridor recedes into near-darkness.
Shadows In Reverse
Toilets at Callan Park, hexagonal floor tiles in black and white spread wall to wall.
Toilets
Dining Room at Callan Park, if ever you needed an example that nature always finds a way.
Dining Room
Wheelchair at Callan Park, a single wheelchair that has sat in one place for years if not decades.
Wheelchair
Boarded Sunroom at Callan Park, a long enclosed sunroom with its windows boarded from outside and ceramic tiles covering the floor.
Boarded Sunroom
Long Hallway at Callan Park, one of the long corridors of the main ward.
Long Hallway
Frosted glass panels line both sides of a narrow corridor at Callan Park, with a closed door centred at the far end catching the only strong light in the frame.
Rehabilitation Hall
Broken Up at Callan Park, you can see patches on the floor where it is starting to rot away.
Broken Up
Nurses Office at Callan Park, an office used by the nursing staff with bright blue carpet and a view out over the park.
Nurses Office
Ward Hallway at Callan Park, a pale green steel door sits at the end of a short corridor.
Ward Hallway
Green exit signage still glows above the central doorway of a ward interior at Callan Park, its light catching the polished concrete floor below.
Ward
Bathtub at Callan Park, a white-tiled hydrotherapy room.
Bathtub
Bedside cabinets with numbered drawers and hanging privacy curtains line the right wall of an abandoned room at Callan Park, the number 7 still legible on one unit.
Empty
Open Door at Callan Park, a narrow corridor ends at a heavy white door, closed.
Open Door
White tiles line a washroom in the Kirkbride Block at Callan Park. Two ceramic sinks sit beneath chrome taps, a small green door left open below to expose the pipework behind.
Clean
Recovery Ward at Callan Park, an old recovery ward.
Recovery Ward
Shower at Callan Park, white ceramic tiles line the walls of a communal shower block.
Shower
Kitchen at Callan Park, a commercial kitchen stripped to its bones.
Kitchen
Light streaks across the polished floor of a corridor deep within the Kirkbride Block at Callan Park, pulling the eye toward an open doorway and the bright, tiled room beyond.
Reflections
Green light bleeds through curtained windows along one side of a corridor at Callan Park, casting a pale wash over grimy floor tiles and a white brick wall opposite.
Patio
Wall-mounted taps over a trough basin fitted with a metal drain grate occupy one end of a tiled washroom at Callan Park.
Utility
Prep Kitchen at Callan Park, stainless steel benchtops line three walls of an institutional kitchen.
Prep Kitchen
Heaters at Callan Park, cast-iron column radiators line the wall of a tiled room inside Callan Park.
Heaters
Bathroom at Callan Park, a green swing door stands open against white-tiled walls.
Bathroom
Bath Area at Callan Park, a white porcelain bathtub sits on a tiled plinth at the centre of the room.
Bath Area
Four heavy metal doors punctuate the right wall of a long corridor inside the Kirkbride Block at Callan Park, their surfaces marked by decades of wear.
Waterview
Room 7 is stencilled on a white door left ajar, opening onto a glimpse of an adjacent space where painted-over windows block the light entirely at Callan Park.
Room 7
Rehabilitation Ward at Callan Park, light falls through a pair of green double doors and spreads across a dark polished.
Rehabilitation Ward
A double-basin ceramic sink with a chrome two-handle tap is mounted against white tiles at Callan Park, drawing the eye toward an open doorway and the sunlit corridor beyond.
Hand Basin
Exposed brick walls and polished concrete run the length of a narrow corridor at Callan Park, where light from a row of windows on the right throws long reflections across the floor.
Balcony
Shower Area at Callan Park, three louvre windows line the tiled wall, frosted glass diffusing a flat grey light.
Shower Area
Light cuts sharply under a closed door and across the tiled floor of a derelict washroom at Callan Park, catching the debris scattered between the stalls.
Ruined Bathroom
Ward Entrance at Callan Park, timber wall bars stand bolted to the corner of a dim room.
Ward Entrance
Rehabilitation Room at Callan Park, diffused light presses through frosted glass panels, flooding the polished concrete.
Rehabilitation Room
Light filters into a disused storage room at Callan Park, illuminating dust motes in the still air.
Storage Room
Floral-patterned sofas with wooden frames sit in rough rows beneath ceiling fans and fluorescent tubes in a long room at Callan Park.
Entertainment Area
Stainless steel benchtops run the length of a narrow utility room at Callan Park, twin basins stained with grime and a paper towel dispenser still mounted above.
Tea Room
An underground boiler room beneath one of the main wards at Callan Park. Horizontal and vertical runs of heavy pipe cross the space at multiple levels, several showing blue-green residue at the valve joints.
Boiler Room
The Green Room at Callan Park, deep green paint covers the walls in uneven, overlapping strokes.
The Green Room
A hallway stretches through a former ward at Callan Park. Vertical shafts of light fall through open doorways onto a grimy concrete floor scattered with debris.
The Long Walk
Chapel Hall at Callan Park, a narrow corridor runs between dark timber-panelled walls.
Chapel Hall
Fallen Down at Callan Park, a ward room inside Callan Park.
Fallen Down
Basins at Callan Park, two porcelain basins sit against a wall of square cream tiles.
Basins
Washrooms at Callan Park, glazed tile walls line a communal washroom inside Callan Park.
Washrooms
A cast iron radiator sits beneath a large multi-paned window in the Kirkbride Block at Callan Park, its white paint flaking against pale tiled walls.
Heater
Office at Callan Park, a timber bench wraps the corner of a narrow room.
Office
Patterned floor tiles recede toward a green door with a rectangular window at the far end of a corridor at Callan Park, the light picking out reflective metal wainscoting along the right wall.
Storage Corner
Scuffed light blue walls and a lino floor run the length of a reception corridor at Callan Park, where a wooden service counter with a glass partition occupies the near wall. A green exit sign hangs above the main door.
Parkview
Room 1 at Callan Park, a white door marked "ROOM 1" stands open against a steel-framed partition wall.
Room 1
Red Room at Callan Park, a bay window curves outward from an empty room.
Red Room
Four heavy brown curtain panels cover the exit doors and flanking windows of a room in the Kirkbride Block at Callan Park, admitting only thin strips of light along their lower edges.
Blackout
Pink Room at Callan Park, a cast-iron radiator sits beneath a tall sash window in an empty room.
Pink Room
04 STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE

Kirkbride Block is significant as the collaborative work of three prominent figures in the late 19th century, James Barnet, Charles Moore and Frederick Norton Manning, as the largest remaining mental institution in NSW and as the first to be designed as a curative and therapeutic environment. ... The landscape cannot be separated from the buildings and performs an equal and active function in the creation of the therapeutic environment

NSW State Heritage Register · Listing 00818 (1999) · Statement of Significance

05 ABOUT THE PRINTS

How they’re made

Made to order by Brett in Sydney, from the original RAW file. Each print is hand-signed and numbered before it ships.

Paper

Ilford Galerie cotton rag, 310 gsm. Acrylic on metallic gloss, 260 gsm.

Editions

Open in XS and S. Limited in M (100), L (50), XL (25). From $100.

Print tiers →

Lead time

Unframed: 5 to 10 business days. Framed and acrylic: 10 to 20.

06 FIELD NOTE

From the field

Read all field notes
07 BACKGROUND

Notes on the site

Patients built the seawall

Between 31 August and 3 September 1880 Dr F. N. Manning, Inspector General of the Insane, wrote to the Mayor of Sydney for 3 flap traps from the Corporation Stores, for 18 inch drain pipes at Callan Park, because 'The Medical Superintendent is building a sea Wall with the patients' + attendants' labour, and has tried in vain to obtain traps large enough'. The traps cost 52 shillings each, £7 16s the lot.

Source 12

Water from the roof

Two underground tanks, each 152 feet long, 50 feet wide and 20 feet 3 inches deep, held 1,886,652 gallons between them, and a Tangye steam pump lifted water to a 100-foot tower carrying two fire-fighting tanks. The Illustrated Sydney News described the system in October 1885. An Evening News account of the engine room that August said the establishment 'depends chiefly on the supply caught on the roof and conserved in tanks'.

Source 13

An asylum for a day

An Evening News journalist who spent a day at Callan Park in June 1895 counted 30 buildings, 4 acres of roofs, 170 single rooms, 44 day rooms and 54 baths, 'all in a row in an immense bath room, with hot and cold water, that flows only on the application of the keeper's key'. The sleeping wards were 'fresh and sweet', and the day rooms had 'a piano and plenty of flowers'.

Source 15

08 REFERENCES

Sources and further reading

  1. 01
    Callan Park Conservation Area and Buildings, NSW State Heritage Register listing 00818Heritage NSW · 1999hms.heritage.nsw.gov.au/App/Item/ViewItem?ItemId=5051544
    T1
  2. 02
    Callan Park Mental HospitalDictionary of Sydney (Peter Reynolds and Ken Leong) · 2008dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/callan_park_mental_hospital
    T2
  3. 03
    The Callan Park AsylumSydney Morning Herald (Trove, National Library of Australia) · 1879nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13444200
    T1
  4. 04
    The New Asylum for the Insane at Callan ParkIllustrated Sydney News and New South Wales Agriculturalist and Grazier (Trove, National Library of Australia) · 1879nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63335710
    T1
  5. 05
    Callan Park AsylumSydney Morning Herald (Trove, National Library of Australia) · 1885nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13591166
    T1
  6. 06
    Callan Park heritageGreater Sydney Parklandsgreatersydneyparklands.nsw.gov.au/learn-and-discover/heritage/callan-park-heritage
    T1
  7. 07
    Callan Park Hospital for the Insane (1878-1914) / Callan Park Mental Hospital / Callan Park Hospital (1915-1976), AGY-69NSW State Archives, via Research Data Australiaresearchdata.edu.au/agy-69-callan-1915-1976/164332
    T1
  8. 08
    Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry in Respect of Certain Matters Relating to Callan Park Mental Hospital, NRS-1585NSW State Archives, via Research Data Australia · 1961researchdata.edu.au/nrs-1585-report-mental-hospital/168922
    T1
  9. 09
    Callan Park (National Trust position paper)National Trust of Australia (NSW) · 2017nationaltrust.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Callan-Park.pdf
    T1
  10. 10
    SCA students unsupported in move to main campusHoni Soit (Claire Ollivain) · 2021honisoit.com/?p=46893
    T2
  11. 11
    Callan Park (Special Provisions) Act 2002 No 139NSW Legislation · 2002legislation.nsw.gov.au/view/whole/html/inforce/current/act-2002-139
    T1
  12. 12
    Letter: Dr F N Manning, Inspector General of the Insane, Lunacy Dept, Hospital for the Insane (Letters Received, Municipal Council of Sydney)City of Sydney Archives · 1880archives.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/nodes/view/1109439
    T1
  13. 13
    The Callan Park Lunatic AsylumIllustrated Sydney News (Trove, National Library of Australia) · 1885nla.gov.au/nla.news-article64036644
    T1
  14. 14
    Callan Park Asylum. The Engine Room.Evening News, Sydney (Trove, National Library of Australia) · 1885nla.gov.au/nla.news-article111015762
    T1
  15. 15
    Callan Park. In an Asylum for a Day.Evening News, Sydney (Trove, National Library of Australia) · 1895nla.gov.au/nla.news-article108091406
    T1
09 BY POST · NO SPAM

Read the full story

Articles when they're published. The history behind a place. The day of a shoot. The work between prints. No marketing, no schedule.

You're subscribed.