Tour Gladesville Mental Hospital on May 11 and 18

History buffs, and those who don’t mind a macabre look into the past, can head to Gladesville Mental Hospital for a tour.

A bay of beds at Gladesville Mental Hospital.

• Prescription for poll success
• Skatepark ready to roll

History buffs, and those who don’t mind a macabre look into the past, can head to Gladesville for an enthralling insight into how mental patients were treated.

The tour at Gladesville Mental Hospital — Australia’s first purpose-built mental health facility — ran yesterday but will return on May 11 and May 18.

An eerie sight at the hospital.

Gladesville Mental Hospital was formerly known as Tarban Creek Asylum.

Formerly known as Tarban Creek Asylum for the Insane, the facility accepted patients in 1838 and transferred its last patients in 1997.

Many of the earliest patients were buried in one of the almost 1300 unmarked graves on the site.

Several were treated for conditions that were not even mental problems — those with diabetes, epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease were some forced into the facility.

Gladesville Mental Hospital superintendent's residence. Picture: Hpeterswald

In the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, it was believed such conditions were untreatable and hereditary.

Sydney History Tours principal Daniel Phillips said it was time society appreciated how Australians had tried to cope with mental illness.

Many patients were buried with unmarked graves.

“To understand how far we have come – you first have to understand where you have been,” he said.

“The story of the patients who lived here, the many who died here and the compassionate, heroic efforts of the hospital staff who treated them, deserves to be told – and remembered.”

Book at sydneyhistorytour.com