Ipswich Asylum

The Ipswich Branch of the Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum was opened in 1878 to take patients from the overcrowded Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum at Wacol. The name changed to the Ipswich Hospital for the Insane in 1910. Sandy Gallop asylum, as it was first known, was established in 1878 as a branch asylum of the Goodna asylum. It occupied a 140-acre site on the southern outskirts of Ipswich.

The main building consisted of a single-storey timber and masonry structure which contained three dormitories and two-day rooms.

The asylum received mainly chronic cases from Goodna. By the 1880s, it was accommodating more than 100 patients.

The constant growth in admissions of patients to asylums in Queensland prompted the creation of Sandy Gallop as a separate institution. From 1910 it was known as the Ipswich Hospital for the Insane. A major building program was undertaken between 1908 and 1917 at the instigation of James Hogg, the Inspector of Hospitals for the Insane (1898–1908), and his replacement Henry Byam Ellerton (1909–1937). Buildings erected included two male wards, three female wards, a hospital, an administration building, a laundry, a recreation hall, a kitchen, a boiler house, and a medical superintendent's residence. By 1920 the asylum was accommodating almost 450 patients.

Changes in legislation in 1938 and approaches to the treatment of mental patients saw the institution's name changed to the Ipswich Mental Hospital in 1938. The number of patients continued to grow throughout the 1940s and 1950s, and overcrowding and staff shortages became major problems. Another phase of building activity occurred in the late 1950s and early 1960s but did little to alleviate the difficulties of overcrowding. By the 1960s, more than 600 patients were accommodated in the institution.

As a result of the reorganization of mental health services in 1968, the institution was designated as a training centre for the intellectually disabled. It was renamed Challinor Centre and remodelled. In 1973 the original 1878 building was demolished and replaced by a substantially larger single-storey brick complex. Other new buildings included a canteen (1978), workshops (1979) and a staff development centre (1981). Attention was given to providing recreational facilities for residents and in 1978 a sporting oval was constructed on part of the site of the former farm. It was renamed the Ipswich Hospital for the Insane in 1910.

These building works and improvements were intended to forge a new identity for Challinor and make a distinction from its previous role as a lunatic asylum and mental hospital. This process also involved the demolition of buildings of the previous era where possible.

Almost all evidence of farming activities including sheds and yards had been removed by the late 1970s. In 1973 Allison House (the former No 1 female ward) was demolished and a section of the nurse's quarters was demolished in 1981.

The former medical superintendent's residence was demolished in 1984 after being partially damaged by fire.

Since the 1970s a program of normalization and deinstitutionalisation has seen a steady decline in the numbers in the centre.

Clients have been encouraged and assisted to move into community-based accommodation, and plans are at hand to close the centre totally.

The Challinor Centre closed in 1998.

The site then became the Ipswich campus of the University of Queensland. In 2015, the campus was transferred to the University of Southern Queensland although the University of Queensland will continue to run some courses on the site.

Former names:

Asylum For the Insane, Ipswich

Asylum For the Insane, Sandy Gallop

Asylum For the Insane, Sandy Galop

Hospital For the Insane, Ipswich

Insane Asylum, Sandy Gallop

Insane Asylum, Sandy Galop

Ipswich Branch Asylum

Ipswich Hospital for the Insane

Ipswich Mental Hospital

Lunatic Asylum, Ipswich

Sandy Gallop Asylum for the Insane