Adelaide Destitute Asylum
The Destitute Asylum was a government-funded institution in Adelaide in the colony of South Australia, designed to support those of its citizens who had no means of financial support, especially new arrivals and mothers with children. It was first established around 1839 as a Native School (also knowns as the Native School Establishment, and the location as the Native Location), with boarding facilities, for teaching local Aboriginal children, and functioned for some years in this capacity. As the school was not fully supported and therefore under-utilised, it started being used for young women arriving in the colony on their own, sometimes as orphans, and around 1850 became the Destitute Asylum. By 1855 it was holding both males and females, many of whom had been transferred for convalescence from the Adelaide Hospital.
The Destitute Asylum was housed in several buildings, some of which were altered over time. Part of the old asylum now houses the Migration Museum in Kintore Avenue. The asylum was eventually closed in 1912.
Governance[edit]
The Destitute Board[edit]
The South Australian approach to destitute relief was highly centralised, contrary to that of Britain.[11]
Membership of the first Destitute Board (1850–1859) changed frequently and consisted almost exclusively of ministers of religion, notably Dean James Farrell, the Catholic Fr Michael Ryan (c. 1808 – 24 August 1865) (not to be confused with his nephew, Msgr Michael Joseph Ryan (29 July 1847 – 30 January 1922)), and Rev. Rev. Robert Haining of the Church of Scotland.
Under a new Act — the Destitute Persons Relief Bill, passed on 29 December 1866 — the Board was dissolved and the first meeting of the new Destitute Board, whose responsibilities now also included the Children's Apprenticeship Board, was held at the Destitute Asylum buildings on 15 February 1867.
Edward Holthouse (1813–1890) was Secretary of the Board 1850–1867 and Superintendent of the Asylum, a Civil Service position. On 3 February 1867 T. S. Reed, brother-in-law of Chief Justice Hanson, was appointed Chairman, and senior to Holthouse, whose salary was reduced by £80. When Holthouse protested, he was accused of lack of respect and dismissed.[12]
Emily Clark and Catherine Helen Spence, fearful for the deleterious effect unhealthy and dispirited adults would have on unwanted and orphaned children, sought to remove such children from the Asylum and into respectable homes. Initial trials of their "boarding-out" scheme proved encouraging,[13] and was adopted by Reed, not only as a humanitarian move but for its potential for saving money. By 1873 organisation of the scheme had been put on a firm foundation.[14]
Reed left for England in March 1876 for a year's leave with pay at the end of which time he resigned. Judah Moss Solomon, his replacement, died in August 1880 and Reed, by now back in Adelaide, was reappointed as chairman.
In 1886 the State Children's Council was formed to take over that part of the Destitution Board's responsibilities,[15] then in 1888 a Commission charged with streamlining government recommended abolition of Reed's position.[16] The five board members (Adamson, Bower, Dempsey, Smith, Gilbert) resigned in protest at not being consulted.[17]
In the meantime their work was done by Superintendent Arthur Lindsay (1828–1909) and members of the Destitute Department under control of the Chief Secretary. In January 1889 the post of Chairman was added to his responsibilities and £15 p.a. to his salary. G. W. Hawkes, Henry Kelly, J.P., Joshua Gurr, Charles Clark, J.P., and A. A. Fox, J.P. were appointed to the new Board.[18]
Lindsay retired in 1905 and was succeeded by T. H. Atkinson (1859–1933), his longtime deputy.[19]
Destitute Commission[edit]
In 1883 parliament appointed a commission to enquire into the operation of the Destitute Act. Chairman was the Chief Justice, (Samuel Way), and members included C. H. Goode; Maurice Salom; W. Haines, W. Bundey (mayor); Henry W. Thompson; C. Proud acted as secretary. Chief subjects examined were the boys' reformatories at Magill and the hulk Fitzjames at Largs Bay; the girls' reformatory and the evils of the barrack system compared with the boarding-out plan. Goode and Thompson subsequently became members of the State Children's Council.
Inmates by gender[edit]
Most of the occupants of the laying-in department were unmarried girls. Their best hopes of subsequent solvency, if they had no family to return to, lay in marriage or domestic service, otherwise they were destined for prostitution or the Asylum.
It was notorious that many women and children became destitute when their husbands and fathers left without trace, into the country or interstate, out of reach of the authorities and any but the most determined and resourceful of wives.[52][53]
Catherine Helen Spence observed in 1906 that the Destitute Board was so fearful of supporting healthy men who could not find work that it refused sustenance to his wife and children, compelling the man to desert them, a major cause of broken families.[54]
Given these facts, it would be expected that most of the Asylum's inmates would be female but that was far from the case. Males outnumbered females two to one.[9][55]
"The Commonwéalth old age pension system came into operation in 1909, and there was a drop in the ratio per thousand of population of persons assisted by the State Government from 9.43 in 1908–09 to 9.31 in 1909–10."[19]
General conditions[edit]
Of course conditions for the inmates changed over time, but in the 1890s there was one nurse to attend the male inmates during the day and a (male) night attendant, also a wardsman selected from within their ranks to assist and keep order.
The inmates included blind men; there was as yet no separate institution for the blind.
There was a separate section for consumptives, but their building had no indoor lavatory, so commodes were used.
Dr. Clindening, who found the inmates obnoxious, visited each of the tubercular patients once a week.
There were three nurses for the female section: two during the day and one at night, all supervised by the matron.
The men were allowed out of the compound for an hour once a week, but were obliged to wear an institution jumper (which Rev. Bryant C. Stephenson, visiting chaplain for much of that decade, deplored) rather than their own clothes.
Meals were mostly meat (boiled or roast mutton principally) and potatoes, with bread and lard or butter. A "sick diet" consisted largely of oatmeal, soup and gruel and wine.[26]
" It ceased to be an asylum in 1931, The Adelaide Destitute Asylum housed women and children in dire poverty. The number of inmates increased significantly when husbands deserted their families during the Victorian gold rush. Destitute Asylum which was erected in 1854."[61]
"By 1856 a quadrangle of buildings in Kintore Avenue off North Terrace known as the Destitute Asylum was providing indoor relief to many women, men and children in the new colony. Welfare provisions introduced at the turn of the century reduced the demand for the home and it was finally closed in 1918."[62]
"The Old Destitute Asylum was founded in 1856. It housed 65 women, 30 men and 43 children. It provided government assistance to vulnerable immigrants who had no relatives in the colony."[63]
"Buildings were added over the years to accommodate the poor, infirm and orphans. Some of these buildings included a nursery, wash-house, stables and a morgue. The Destitute Asylum operated until 1926 providing financial assistance and temporary accommodation to the needy."[64]
"This stone building, with its Dutch gables and slate roof, was originally part of the Police Barracks and was granted to the Destitute Board in April 1851."[65]
"Destitute Asylum situated in Kintore Avenue was built of bluestone in 1877-78. Buildings were added over the years to accommodate the poor, infirm and orphans. Some of these buildings included a nursery, wash-house, stables and a morgue. The Destitute Asylum operated until 1926 providing financial assistance and temporary accommodation to the needy."[66]
"The Mounted Police barracks, with a brick archway leading to a quadrangle, was built between 1851 and 1855, and served until 1917, when a new facility was built on the Port Road near the Adelaide Gaol. One of the buildings was used by Adelaide Teachers College from 1921, after they had been evicted by the University, pending erection of a new building on Kintore Avenue.[67]
"Destitute Asylum situated in Kintore Avenue was built of bluestone in 1877-78. The two storey building depicted is part of the women's general quarters and not on Kintore Avenue. It is part of quadrangle C, buildings 26 and 20. Arches feature along the walls of both storeys providing shelter from the elements.[68]"
It was decided to remove the institution from the city, and in 1912 a site was settled on at Magill, west of the Reformatory.[70] Having such a prime location on North Terrace, various Government departments found uses for parts of the old Destitute Asylum and the adjacent Police barracks (which had been relocated to the Thebarton Police Barracks on Port Road, on a section of the Park Lands):[71]
The Asylum was subject to the following Acts of the South Australian Parliament