Lara Inebriate Retreat (1907-37)

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This guide contains information that some people may find distressing. If you experienced abuse as a child or young person in an institution mentioned in this guide, it may be a difficult reading experience. Guides may also contain references to previous views, policies and practices that are regrettable and do not reflect the current views, policies or practices of the department or the State of Victoria. If you find this content distressing, please consult with a support person either from the Department of Health and Human Services or another agency. For more information on the history of child welfare in Australia, See Find & Connect.

Register of Patients (1907-37)

Volume; Permanent VPRS Number 7479 / P0001

Content: Each volume of these registers contains an index by patient name, with reference to page numbers where the patient's entry is located.

Register of Patients

From at least 1845 and the proclamation of An Act for the Regulation of the Care and Treatment of Lunatics (8 & 9 Vic c.100), public asylums and licensed houses were required to maintain a Register of Patients. Initially the register maintained by licensed houses was officially known as the Book of Admissions. In some institutions the register was also known as an Admissions Register or Admission and Discharge Register, and these terms were sometimes stamped on the volumes.
Immediately upon a person’s admission to an asylum, the clerk of the asylum was required to make an entry in the Register of Patients, including:

• patient's name
• date of admission
• admission number
• date of last previous admission
• age
• marital status
• occupation
• previous place of abode
• religion,
• (once examined by a medical officer), the form of mental disorder and state of physical health.

Further details were entered in the register on the death, transfer or discharge of a patient. Institutions were also required to maintain a separate Register of Discharges, Removals and Deaths, usually known as a Discharge Register.

The format of the Register of Patients was specified in a schedule to the Lunacy Statute and succeeding legislation, and changed little until the 1962 proclamation of the Mental Health Act 1959.

The record then became officially known as the Register of Patients and Discharge Register and included information about the types of admission. The following five types of admission were specified under sections 41 to 49 of the Mental Health Act 1959.

- Voluntary Boarders (V) were those who entered the hospital at their own request or, if under the age of 16 at the request of a parent or guardian and on the opinion of a medical practitioner.

- Recommended (R) and Approved (A) Patients. A person could be admitted upon the recommendation set out in a prescribed form, of a medical practitioner who had examined the person. As soon as possible after admission the superintendent of the hospital was required to examine the patient and either approve the recommended admission or discharge the patient.

- Judicial Admissions (J). Upon information provided on oath before a justice that a mentally ill person was not receiving proper care, or could not support himself/herself or had committed an offence, and after examination by two medical practitioners, an order could be made for the person to be admitted to or detained in a mental hospital.

- Security Patients (S) were those who had been detained in a gaol but were transferred to a mental hospital upon being determined mentally ill.

The post 1962 Registers of Patients also included information previously recorded in a separate Discharge Register, e.g. institution to which the patient was transferred; assigned cause of death where applicable. However some institutions continued to maintain a separate Discharge Register.

Volumes are arranged chronologically.

Entries within volumes are arranged chronologically by admission date, each entry allocated a sequential admission number.

Inspector-General's and Visitors' Book (1907-37)

Volume; Permanent VPRS Number 14305 / P0001

Content: The Inebriates Act 1904 (Act No. 1940), governed the care, treatment, and control of Inebriates and directed the Inspector-General and other officials to inspect the premises housing Inebriates. This was carried out in accordance with the instructions governing the Inspector-General's duties in the Lunacy Act 1903 (Act No. 1873) and later Acts.

The Inspector-General and Official Visitors (appointed by Governor-in-Council) were to visit every asylum once every 3 months. They were to inspect: every part of the building and grounds; every patient (inquiring whether any patient was under restraint or in seclusion and if so, why); the registers of patients, and the order and certificates for the reception of every patient who had been admitted since the last visit. On inspection they were to enter in the "Inspector-General's and Visitors Book" a memo of the patients’ and hospital’s condition, patient numbers under restraint or seclusion and reasons, and any irregularities in any order or certificates.

Under the provisions of the Lunacy Act 1915 (Act No. 2687) the Governor-in-Council was to appoint not less than two Justices to be Official Visitors to visit the metropolitan hospitals and not less than two Justices to be Official Visitors for each of the country hospitals. The Official Visitors were to be accompanied by the Inspector-General of the Insane.

A copy of the Inebriates Act 1904 is located at the front of this volume.

Recordkeeping System

The unit covers the time period from the month after the opening of Lara Inebriate Retreat (VA 2849) until its September 1937closure. Reports are in chronological order, dated, and signed by the Inspector-General (primarily W. Ernest Jones), or Official Visitor.

Although the Inspector-General worked for the Lunacy Department (VA 2864) and wrote the reports in the Inspector-General's and Visitors' Book, the Lunacy Act 1903 (Act No. 1873) and Lunacy Act 1915 (Act No. 2687) instructed that the books be kept by the various hospitals rather than in the custody of the Inspector-General or the Lunacy Department.

Correspondence Files (c.1912-29)

File; Permanent VPRS Number 7535 / P0001

Content: Inward correspondence to the Inebriate Retreats of Lara, a government institution for males, and Brightside, for females, run by the Salvation Army.

The series contains correspondence from hospitals and other licensed homes such as Mount Ida, Glenholme, Merton, Sunnyside and includes reports on:

• the condition of patients,
• admissions,
• case histories,
• death,
• discharge or removal reports,
• complaints,
• staffing,
• employment applications, and
• menus.

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