{"id":2562,"date":"2018-04-19T13:29:24","date_gmt":"2018-04-19T02:59:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/?p=2562"},"modified":"2018-04-19T13:29:24","modified_gmt":"2018-04-19T02:59:24","slug":"book-extract-peat-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/2018\/04\/book-extract-peat-island\/","title":{"rendered":"Peat Island: Dreaming and desecration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Book Extract<\/h3>\n
\"Peat<\/a>

Cover of the book<\/p><\/div>\n

For just over 100 years an institution for the mentally ill has stood on little Peat Island, in the lower Hawkesbury.<\/p>\n

It was decommissioned in 2010; quite empty now, it remains a locked facility just as it had always been. And eerie.<\/p>\n

The last residents were dispersed into the wider community. In this, they echoed the fate of the Darkinjung people, original custodians of this country\u00a0– their community was scattered just as intentionally, and effectively, if not quite so brutally. It is not one of the New\u00a0South Wales government’s finest accomplishments.<\/p>\n

For all the unhappiness associated with it, Peat Island was home for more than 3000 residents, males only for the first half of its modern history. Over time, it became a happier place, even as the facility itself aged, fell into disrepair, and became a bureaucratic nightmare and a political football.<\/p>\n

This is its sorry story.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Read an extract:<\/h4>\n

With the cessation of hospital care at Milson Island, everything\u00a0devolved to Peat Island; so the hospital became Peat Island Hospital,\u00a0plain and simple. Nothing whatsoever about identifying its purpose,\u00a0nothing about mental care. As though not saying what service it\u00a0performed disguised what in fact it was. Was this another of the\u00a0Peter Pan episodes, breaking away from the shadows, expunging\u00a0them?<\/p>\n

With that closure, plans were drawn up to modernise the\u00a0wards on Peat Island. Which is more public service speak. It meant\u00a0that somehow even more beds had to be fitted in to help with the\u00a0accommodation. Not everyone from Milson stayed on Peat, though,\u00a0not by a long shot. Residents were sent here, there and everywhere. In\u00a0cohesive groups, admittedly, not sprinkled throughout institutions\u00a0all over the state. But in different directions nevertheless.<\/p>\n

One consequence of the dispersal of the patients was that\u00a0those parents who had taken an interest in the Parents and\u00a0Citizens Association followed their sons to wherever their new\u00a0placement was, and as it happened that took away the most active\u00a0and interested members. Their bimonthly journal, News and Views<\/i>,\u00a0ceased. So too did the regular news sheet, The Islander. <\/i>These had\u00a0been making a very real difference to the range and quality of\u00a0experience available to their children, and to the communal spirit\u00a0of those connected with the hospital; but those who had been most\u00a0productive had gone their separate ways.<\/p>\n

A different kind of dispersal was also under way. It did not\u00a0involve large numbers, but the Health Department was intent upon\u00a0returning patients to care in the community \u2013 to their parents if\u00a0that were possible, or to small-scale specialist hostels. That is what\u00a0Dr Lindsay had been foreshadowing to the parent groups. Cottages\u00a0with improved plumbing, and warm showers. At least these residents\u00a0would have their own room, and some privacy. That, it might be\u00a0recalled, was the way it should have been right from the beginning at\u00a0Rabbit Island, for precisely that element had been designed into the\u00a0original arrangement of the wards. But it had never eventuated. The\u00a0powers that be had ridden roughshod over those enlightened plans.\u00a0From day one the authorities had failed their own brief.<\/p>\n

\n

The dispersal of patients back into the community was not a\u00a0triumph of rehabilitation, however. Years later David Richmond was\u00a0quite frank about that. \u2018Contrary to the misconceptions of some,\u00a0a significant exodus from institutional care through bed number\u00a0reductions had already occurred in the 1960s and 1970s, well before\u00a0the report, largely to meet budget pressure on the institutions\u2019.\u00a0Not, it is to be noted, because of an impulse towards humane\u00a0reform. The bottom line was the budget, not the needs of those in\u00a0the government\u2019s care. To him and the other bureaucrats they were\u00a0\u2018beds\u2019, not people. Beans to be counted.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The year 1973 was a pivotal one for many people. Minister Jago,\u00a0for example, forgot to nominate for his own seat, Gordon, in time\u00a0for the state election. He was replaced as minister by John Waddy,\u00a0member for Kirribilli for only the next two years; because Waddy\u00a0resigned when his own constituency denied him preselection.<\/p>\n

Jago had set in place a reform which came into effect in that\u00a0same year, 1973, consequent upon an act passed in parliament\u00a0in the preceding year. A Health Commission would resume\u00a0the responsibilities of the Health Department, the Hospitals\u00a0Commission and the Ambulance Service. Dr Barclay was elevated to\u00a0the role of Commissioner for Personal Health Services, meaning the\u00a0combination of mental health and public health. With this ongoing\u00a0restructuring and renaming, the wonder is that anyone could make sense of what was going on. The endless changes implied instability\u00a0rather than progressive reform. Nobody seemed quite able to make\u00a0up their mind. Head Office indeed.<\/p>\n

\n

Peat Island: Dreaming and desecration<\/em> will launch in Sydney on April 29. For more information about the launch, you can get in touch with us here<\/a>.\u00a0To purchase the book, visit us in our Mile End book shop or find it online<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Book Extract For just over 100 years an institution for the mentally ill has stood on little Peat Island, in the lower Hawkesbury. It was decommissioned in 2010; quite empty now, it remains a locked facility just as it had … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-for-fun"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4v1Of-Fk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2562"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2577,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2562\/revisions\/2577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}