The cover of Callan Park, Hospital for the Insane

Annotated Callan Park cover

1. A view of Ward 5 (or the Male Hospital Ward) from 1903. The ward consisted of an airing court [3] and day room on the ground floor, with dormitories above. Patients were sent here for treatment beyond what they received in the ordinary wards.
2. The chimney stack, which sat over the engine room. The engine room was a popular place of work for the male patients, and worked to warm the water used throughout the hospital. The chimney stack is supported today, in the twenty-first century, by a metal brace.
3. The airing court, fenced by a chain railing, could be exited through the ward or these steps which now no longer exist.
4. A group of staff and patients. Visible seem to be quite an array of people, based on their clothing: outdoor attendants, a doctor, a nurse, and possibly some of the administrative staff. The man in the foreground to the right of the birdcage is an attendant, and the man to his right is a patient.
5. A birdcage containing one of the hospital’s pets. Florence Nightingale argued that caged birds had a positive and cheering influence on the bed-ridden in hospitals. Callan Park, like its sister institutions (Gladesville, Parramatta, Rydalmere, Newcastle and Kenmore), was home to many animals from fish to flying squirrels, emus and wallabies – the care of which was a major aspect of the rehabilitation of patients.

 

Ward 5: Before and After