The Inebriates Asylum at Beaconsfield

Between 1889 and 1892 there was an Asylum for Inebriates operating at Beaconsfield, and even though the Asylum was short lived, it gave its name to the surrounding area and even as late as 1925 a report in The Argus called the area Inebriates Hill (1).  The area is now known as Guys Hill.

The Inebriates Act of 1890, defined Inebriates as persons who habitually used alcoholic liquors and they could be committed to an Inebriate Asylum for detention and curative treatment for up to three months (2).  Around 1881, Dr Charles McCarthy had opened the first Melbourne Inebriate Retreat at Northcote and this was compulsorily taken over by the Government in 1890, though he was appointed the Medical Superintendent of the establishment (3). More of Charles McCarthy later. Previously inebriates were committed to the Lunatic Asylum. 

We can trace the early history of the Asylum through the Victoria Government Gazettes (4). On September 30, 1889 the Governor in Council ordered that the buildings and premises situate at Beaconsfield and hitherto known as Craik’s Boarding House shall be an Asylum for Inebriates.

The start of the Inebriates Asylum

Victoria Government Gazette, October 4 1889, p. 3320.  https://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/images/1889/V/general/103.pdf

A week later, the  Government Gazette noted the appointment of the Superintendent of the  Asylum, Thomas Elmes and the Secretary, Charles Williams. Thomas Elmes was a Doctor with a practice at Berwick (5). Charles William was the Superintendent of the Belair Inebriates Retreat in Adelaide, upon which the Beaconsfield facility was modelled. Belair had opened in June 1877 (6). 

Appointment of the Superintendent and Secretary of the Beaconsfield Asylum.

Victoria Government Gazette, October 11 1889, p. 3377  https://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/images/1889/V/general/107.pdf

On November 4, 1889 the Governor in Council ordered that The buildings and premises belonging to Mrs M.H.Blair, situate at Beaconsfield, and known as Walnut Grove, shall be an Asylum for Inebriates, to be used for the care and treatment of female patients only.

Facilities for female at Beaconsfield

Victoria Government Gazette, November 8, 1889, p.3834. https://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/images/1889/V/general/118.pdf

The Victoria Government Gazette of December 20, 1899 (7) published the Regulations relating to the discipline and conduct to be observed by patients in asylums for inebriates. This covered such things as meal times - Breakfast at 8.00am, Dinner at 1.00pm and Tea sat 6.00pm; Bed-times - 10.00pm and to rise at 6.00am in the summer and 7.00am in the winter; there was to be no gambling and patients were not to receive any articles from visitors without permission of the superintendent. 

The same issue also published the Regulations for the Management, Supervision, Inspection , and Regulation of Asylums for Inebriates. The Regulations covered the amount of food allowed to each inmate; intoxicating liquor was banned; inmates were banned from having money or stamps and all letters were opened before being handed to inmates. Regulations also covered what to do if an inmate became insane (they were sent to a Lunatic Asylum) or died (a letter was sent to the local Coroner and to the ‘person who shall have made the last payment on account of such patient'). The Fees were also set out - £2 per week for patients on the ‘lower scale’ and £5 per week for those on the ‘higher scale.'

The daily rations for each inmate.

Victoria Government Gazette, December 20, 1899, p 4450-4451 https://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/images/1889/V/general/135.pdf 

I found the following descriptions in the newspapers of the Asylum at Beaconsfield -
A report from July 1891 noted - There was only accommodation for 10 male and seven female inmates, and these were kept in buildings two miles apart from each other (8). From January 1892 - The [male] asylum consists of two blocks of wooden buildings a slight distance apart, one of which was on the land when it was leased by the Government; the other has been since erected (9).  A later report from July 1892, described the male complex - Government had purchased a large area of property and built a number of houses, as well as a caretaker's private residence of considerable dimensions (10).

There were two tragic stories connected to the Asylum. The first concerns Thomas Bissell, of South Melbourne,  who on Tuesday April 28, 1891 escaped through a window, wearing only a nightshirt, drawers and socks. The grounds and surrounding area were searched and there was a reported sighting on the Thursday morning. The Aboriginal trackers were called in and started work on Friday morning but could not pick up the trail (11). On the Saturday morning - 

about 60 horsemen and 30 or 40 people on foot assembled at the retreat. The horsemen were divided into parties under Constables Roberts and Falkiner, and Messrs. Fuller and Williams, who scoured the bush right through to Gembrook. The footmen, under Messrs. W. Paternoster and Gardiner, searched the Cardinia Creek for about four miles, dragging all the water holes, but when the daylight drew in the party had to give up without finding any trace (12).

Thomas Bissell missing

Victoria Government Gazette, May 15 1891, p.2021. https://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/images/1891/V/general/65.pdf

On July 17 two young men were out shooting in the Gembrook Ranges, about 12 miles from the Asylum, and discovered a human skeleton at the bottom of a gully. The news was sent to Berwick, and Constable Roberts proceeded to the place indicated, where the remains were identified, by means of the little clothing on them, as those of Thomas Bissell, the escaped inebriate. They were conveyed to Berwick, and the usual course in such matters taken. It is satisfactory to know that the mystery surrounding the sad affair will be cleared up (13).

The second sad story concerns Francis Key, a cordial manufacturer of Seymour (14).  He was found in his room on January 3, 1892 having shot himself, the bullet having  entered the head at the chin, and blew the face and fore part of his head to atoms (15) as the local paper graphically reported. He had been living separately from his wife  and at the time of his admission he was suffering from alcoholism and was in a weak state. Under medical treatment, however, he rapidly improved, and appeared cheerful and contented until a few days before his death, when he expressed a wish to obtain his release (16).

Another report notes that -
On the 30th ult. his wife visited him at the asylum, when she noticed that he had a gun in his bedroom, and on her return home the following day she wrote to Mr. Williams, the secretary of the Asylum, cautioning him, "On no consideration to allow her husband to have firearms in his possession, as he was very cunning and had suicidal tendency." The letter was received by the secretary on the 2nd inst., but beyond submitting it to the visiting medical superintendent, no action was taken with regard to it, and on the following morning the deceased shot himself. Two letters the deceased had written to his wife, but had not posted, showed that the act was premeditated. (17).

It may seem extraordinary that inmates at an Inebriates Asylum should have access to guns but as The Age reported, Mr Key had obtained the gun -

from Seymour about a fortnight previously for the purpose of joining the other patients in shooting parties, which occasionally take place under the charge of the secretary, Mr. C. Williams, who resides on the premises. Although patients on their entry into the asylum are deprived for a time of any instrument with which they could injure themselves as soon as they have quite recovered from the effects of alcohol they are treated like residents of an ordinary country boarding house, the only difference being that they are not allowed to leave the asylum grounds except in charge of an attendant. To relieve the monotony of detention, shooting, fishing, &c., are occasionally indulged in, and this accounts for the presence of a gun in the room of the deceased. (18).

The Jury at the Inquest found  -

"That the deceased, Francis Key, came to his death through a gunshot wound, inflicted by himself, during a fit of alcoholic mania," and added a rider, " That we also think sufficient precaution was not exercised by the officials, after the letter of warning from deceased's wife, received on the day before his death, intimating his tendency to commit suicide." (19)

Both Beaconsfield and Northcote were closed in 1892. Dr Charles McCarthy, who established the Northcote Facility as a private concern in 1881, wrote to The Age in July 1892 on this subject, accusing the Government of having ulterior motives and being financially extravagant -

Sir, — I saw from The Age that the Government intends to shut up the Northcote Inebriates Retreat, as well as that at Beaconsfield, on the 30th September, for three reasons, viz. : — 1st. that there is no demand, on account of the smallness of the number of patients ; 2nd, the expensiveness of the staffs ; 3rd, that the matter had better be left to private establishments. Sir, I have supplied every member of Parliament with printed matter, proving that there is not the slightest foundation for the above three pleas being the cause of this determination. First, in May, 1890, when I had male and female patients, I got the option from the Government either to be removed from the Retreat or to accept office under the Government for one year, and with the condition that I should discharge all my patients and admit none but " female paupers." For 18 years not three female paupers applied in any one year. This showed me at once that it was intended to shut up the Retreat. As such, therefore, I had only from one to four patients, with 16 bedrooms empty. During that year a very large number of pay patients, male and female, applied for admission, begging and urging me to receive them up to the day that I was leaving, and on that day also, but I was not permitted to do so. Yea, and up to last week here in Hawthorn. Second plea, of expense : For the previous 14 years the Retreat did not cost the Government 1s. When I saw that for one patient I had four servants, and when I complained to the head of my department that these servants were allowed by him to be out at night, his remedy for that was to promise to appoint two additional female servants, a clerk at £3 per week, who had nothing to do, with 18 books from Kew Asylum, some of them immense ledgers for lunatics. I protested against this extravagance in vain, I saw the object of it, namely, an excuse to shut it up. I begged to be allowed to receive the females from Beaconsfleld This would not be allowed till after my removal. 3rd. That the cure of inebriates had better be left to private institutions. The Lunacy Commission got the Parliament to pass an act forbidding private retreats, and making Northcote retreat a Government institution, and now, when the property has been secured to the Government, it is only private retreats that must be depended on! Very much was said about the poor by the commission. Though I offered the Government to admit the poor, but not as "paupers," this was repeatedly refused, hence it was never intended to have a permanent inebriate retreat, as the above proves. It was only intended to get my property, to prevent patients entering, and to make the expenditure appear disproportionate to the number of patients. Of this there is not a shadow of doubt. Under these circumstances I am entitled to compensation for my compulsory removal.

— Yours, &c., CHARLES M'CARTHY, M.D. 16th July. (20)

The closure of the Asylum at Beaconsfield was of concern to the local community. The Argus reported in July 1892 

- that during the past day or two residents of this locality have been much concerned as to the notion taken by the Government in closing the local inebriate asylum....[The Government] have decided to dispense with the services of the men numbering about twenty and abandon the place which has cost a great deal of money. It is the intention of the residents to send a deputation to the Government on the matter. Notices have been issued to the men that their services will not be required after the 30th September next and the residents are anxious that some definite settlement should be arrived at before that time (21).

However, they concerns of the Beaconsfield community fell on deaf ears and the Asylum was closed. On August 31, 1894, the empty building  caught fire as reported in South Bourke and Mornington Journal by the journalist using the pen name Todea Africana (22) - 

On Friday last an old land mark of Beaconsfield disappeared. I don't know how long Mrs Craik's old boarding house has been in existence. It was certainly flourishing when I first became acquainted with this famous health resort. Situate on the foothills, as it were, of these ranges and looking across the valley, the position was a very, pleasant and healthful one if not so picturesque nor commanding such a grand view as its successor on the Hills, Kincraik. 

As Upper Beaconsfield was growing more and more in favor, it was decided by the proprietor to build a more extensive establishment, and a site was chosen which is certainly second to none on the hills, near the post office. After remaining unoccupied for a period the old premises were let to the Government as an inebriate retreat, and under the efficient management of Mr Charles Williams, formerly of Adelaide. 

The report continues that after the Asylum was closed down  It was next occupied as a dairy farm, but in this character had a short lived existence, and latterly has been let to a lady who was sent to Beaconsfield for her health, as so many are, but alas, at too late a stage of her disease. Her death occurred but recently, and it was whilst the house was being cleaned out that the fire occurred. As in the case of all wooden buildings in the country, once the fire fiend had got a grip, he did not let go until the tenement was purified out of existence, and nothing but a heap of ashes and charcoal with a few dozen tortured and twisted shoots of iron corrugated with agony, remained to tell the tale. It was insured for £700 (23).

As I mentioned at the start of this post the last reference I can find to Inebriates Hill is this sad account of the death of Mr Jack McNaughton of Beaconsfield who was killed instantly in an accident on December 21,  1925 -

As a bullock team driven by Mr. Jack McNaughton, of Beaconsfield, was being driven down Inebriates' Hill, two miles from Beaconsfield, on the Upper Beaconsfield road, the team became out of control and bolted. McNaughton attempted for a time to regain control of the bullocks, which were harnessed to a heavy jinker. He was unsuccessful, and when the jinker passed over a rut he was thrown to the roadway.  One wheel of the jinker passed over his body, killing him instantly (24). 

Jack was 44 years old, the son of Archibald and Mary (nee McDonald) McNaughton, of Beaconsfield.

Trove list - I have created a list of articles connected to the Beaconsfield Inebriates Asylum on Trove, access it here.

Footnotes
(1) The Argus, December 22, 1925, see here. 
(2) Inebriates Act of 1890 https://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/hist_act/ia1890113.pdf
(3) The Argus, February 10, 1881, see here; The Age, November 29, 1890, see here. Also Public Records Office of Victoria  https://prov.vic.gov.au/about-us/our-blog/inebriate-retreats
(4) https://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/

(5) Thomas Elmes entry in Residents of Upper Beaconsfield by Marianne Rocke   https://www.upperbeaconsfieldhistory.org.au/g0/p163.htm#i4874 

(6) Charles William and Belair Inebriates  Asylum -  South Australian Register, June 8, 1877, see here; South Australian Advertiser, June 21, 1877, see here; The Argus, September 2, 1889, see here. Also see an account of the Belair Asylum https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~dicummings/genealogy/SA-InebriatesRetreat.htm

(7) Victoria Government Gazette, December 20, 1899, p 4450-4451, see here.  

(8) The Argus, July 1, 1891, see here.

(9) The Age, January 5, 1892, see here. 

(10) The Argus, July 6, 1892, see here. 

(11) Reports of Thomas Bissell - The Argus, May 4, 1891, see here; The Leader, May 9, 1891, see here; South Bourke and Mornington Journal, July 22, 1891, see here; 

(12) The Leader, May 9, 1891, see here

(13) South Bourke and Mornington Journal, July 22, 1891, see here

(14) Reports of Francis Key - The Age, January 5, 1892, see here; The Argus, January 6, 1892, see here; South Bourke and Mornington Journal, January 6, 1892, see here; Weekly Times, May 28, 1892, see here.

(15) South Bourke and Mornington Journal, January 6, 1892, see here

(16) Ibid

(17) Ibid

(18) The Age, January 5, 1892, see here

(19) South Bourke and Mornington Journal, January 6, 1892, see here

(20) The Age, July 26, 1892, see here. 

(21) South Bourke and Mornington Journal, September 5, 1894, see here. 

(22) Todea Africana / Thomas Cole Mackley  see  Residents of Upper Beaconsfield by Marianne Rocke https://upperbeaconsfieldhistory.au/g0/p234.htm#i7000 and https://upperbeaconsfieldhistory.au/g0/p46.htm#i1360

(23) South Bourke and Mornington Journal, September 5 1894, see here. 

(24) The Argus, December 22, 1925, see here.

A version of this post, which I first wrote and researched in 2010, appears on my work blog, Casey Cardinia Links to our Past. This is an updated and expanded version.