Why Melbourne’s first lunatic asylum was a ‘den of horrors’

When Dr Robert Bowie took charge of Melbourne’s first lunatic asylum, he was accused of hanging bodies from trees, restraining patients in bags and keeping brains in a cup.

Dr Robert Bowie was the medical superintendent of Yarra Bend Asylum in Melbourne in the 1850s and 1860s.

When a doctor was put in command of Melbourne’s first lunatic asylum, it should have heralded an era of better treatment for inmates.

Instead, the gruesome reign of Robert Bowie was plagued by allegations of bodies hanging from trees, patients restrained in body bags and brains left in a cup.

Bowie is the subject of today’s new episode of the free In Black and White podcast on Australia’s forgotten characters:

He was the first superintendent of the Yarra Bend Asylum with any medical experience, yet his long stint there was notable for his cruel treatment of its residents.

Bowie is the great-great-great-great-grandfather of Aurora Llywelyn, a tour guide from the Old Melbourne Gaol and regular guest on the In Black and White podcast.

Mr Llywelyn says Bowie invented his own cruel restraint called “the bag”, similar to a straitjacket (which was also used), and inmates were strapped inside for up to a week at a time.

An illustration of ‘the bag’, a restraint used on patients for up to a week at a time at the Yarra Bend Asylum in the 1800s.

Old Melbourne Gaol tour guide Aurora Llywelyn

“The patient would be laced into the bag with only their head exposed,” he says.

“Bowie was very proud of it … despite the fact that to a modern ear, and to people at the time, this is an absolutely insane way of restraining somebody, to literally just tie them up into a bag and just leave them there.”

Bowie became embroiled in a bitter court battle over his despicable methods after one of his patients, a former asylum doctor, turned whistleblower.

The asylum was dubbed the “den of horrors” by The Argus newspaper, and one of the macabre allegations published was that Bowie displayed the skulls of dead patients on his desk.

Yarra Bend Asylum, Victoria’s first lunatic asylum, about 1861. Picture: State Library Victoria

Bowie, a Scotsman, migrated to Melbourne in his latter years and was Victoria’s oldest practising GP as a 64-year-old in 1852, before being given command of the asylum.

Initially, Bowie introduced positive reforms, giving patients jobs as groundskeepers, cooks and maids, and holding festive balls where they could mingle with the public.

But it wasn’t long before he began resorting to harsh treatments.

One gardener at Yarra Bend gave testimony about appalling conditions, widespread filth, vermin, maggots and lice.

“He said the conditions were so bad that he attempted to get a cup of water and he found there was an inmate’s brains that had been left in the cup after an autopsy,” Mr Llywelyn says.

“He’s telling us not only are there brains lying round in cups, but there are deceased patients hanging from the trees, and bits of bone and skull scattered around the grounds.”

To learn more, listen to the interview in the In Black and White podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or web.

See In Black & White in the Herald Sun newspaper Monday to Friday for more stories and photos from Victoria’s past.