Female Wards 1 & 2

Built-in 1866 additions and modifications were added over the following years

1868, 1870, 1875, 1905, 1906, 1923, 1937, 1951

In 1866, a ward for fee-paying patients was erected on an adjacent ridge about 400 metres to the northeast of the main buildings.

The building was constructed from local sandstone extracted from a nearby quarry located near the former Male Division which was owned by Joshua Jeays who later became Lord Mayor of Brisbane, who also supplied stone for the construction of Old Government House (1862, and Parliament House 1865).  The superintendent, Dr Cannan, claimed responsibility for the building's design, based on principles recommended in the standard treatise on asylum construction at this time. However, the Woogaroo Asylum was not in a position to receive fee-paying patients, and the building remained unoccupied for two years until alterations were made so female inmates could be transferred to this block.  A partial second storey was added, constructed to the design of Charles Tiffin in 1875, and other substantial alterations and additions were made to the building in 1905-6, 1923, 1937 and 1951. This building accommodated female inmates for over 100 years and was the first of several in the separate ‘female area’. Female Wards 1 & 2 is a highly intact large building of different construction phases standing on a slope near the top of a ridge toward the southern end of the Female Patients Area. Its surrounding land falls steeply away to the west down to the Brisbane River and gently down to the south, which was its former fenced yard.  This affords the building visual prominence from Ellerton Drive and extensive panoramic views out to the Brisbane River and surrounds from the southwest to north. Originally built (but never used) as a ward for fee-paying patients, the building has been extended and adapted for use as a general ward for female patients.  In 2020 it is vacant, and its interior has been stripped of floorboards, some floor structure, fixtures, ceilings, and fittings. The building has a complex layering of significant fabric from different periods of construction, and significant alterations of earlier fabric.

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Features of the Female Wards 1 & 2 of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• Setting: surrounding open lawns allow views to and from the building and ample access to natural light and ventilation of the interiors

• Scale: two-storey and partial three-storey via enclosures to understorey

• Form, materials, and evidence of extensions in fabric–sandstone and face brick building comprising: o core: two-storey symmetrical long narrow sandstone wing (ground floor 1866- 8, first floor 1906) with the central front entrance on the northern side, ground floor verandahs on its southern side (1866-8) with later lantern roofs and enclosures, and hipped roofs (1906); projecting from the centre of the south elevation is a wide, two-storey sandstone and face brick bay (ground floor 1866-8, first floor 1875) with a pediment-like gable and hip roof (1875) featuring a round sandstone oculus

• Western wing extension: two-storey sandstone (ground floor 1905, first floor 1906), extending this wing’s hip roof and making it asymmetrical.

• bathhouse pavilions: symmetrically flanking the central bay on the south side are one-storey face brick pavilions (communal bathhouses, 1923) with hipped roofs with raised roof lanterns; these are elevated from the sloping terrain on concrete piers to be at ground floor level and have face brick enclosures of the understorey (1923 west pavilion, c1951 east pavilion) for boiler rooms.

• wide two-storey timber verandahs (1937, replacing earlier verandahs in these locations): the south face of the central bay; north elevation; and returning along east and west elevations; including face brick understorey piers, arched timber valance and timber posts at ground level, timber shutters at first-floor level, sections at the west and east ends enclosed with weatherboards (ground and first floors, c1951); and skillion roofs.

• Symmetrical three-storey face brick extensions (ablutions, 1951) at the east and west end of the building with small roof lanterns

• Original and early partitions and layout (pre-1952) and interior cast iron columns

• Timber-framed floors and roofs, concrete floors in bathhouse pavilions, terrazzo floors in ablutions blocks.

• Measures for abundant natural light and ventilation of the interiors including operable windows; ventilated eaves; metal roof ridge ventilators.

• Original and early joinery (pre-1952) including narrow, multi-paned windows (vertical pivot, double-hung, awning, fixed); panelled and glazed doors; multi-paned fanlights.

• Measures for the security and confinement of patients including metal window grilles, metal verandah mesh panels.

• Rendered brick and face brick chimneys • corrugated metal sheet roof cladding.