Wolston Park Mental Hospital was a place of experimentation of psychotic drugs and electric shock treatment in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. Patients like my brother Randall Carrington were given electric shock treatment, drugged, caged, abused and sexually assaulted.
It’s time for a truth commission into Wolston Park. The terms of reference for such an inquiry should include,:
- the passage of 1000s of people, many without any mental illness placed at Wolston Park
- Children and adults with disabilities,
- Young female state wards sent from orphanages and ‘foster homes’,
- Wives placed in Wolston Park as involuntary patients by their husbands.
- Mothers admitted for post-natal depression.
- Homosexual men punished at Wolston Park at a time when homosexuality was defined as a mental illness and criminal offence
There have been at least 2300 deaths, three cemeteries and a morgue. Yet no names, and no attempt to cross check patient inmate records with patient discharge files or death certificates. This also needs to be included in the terms of reference of such an inquiry.
The unmarked graves need to be given dignity and humanity. They need to be named.
The 100 year embargo of state archives and a multitude of Qld government departments records, that keep these files hidden till no-one living has any memory of anyone abused by Wolston Park has to be amended.
“Qld government owes it to people abused in #Wolston Park Mental Hospital to investigate what happened there and why. Who allowed wards of the State, people with disability, gay people, to be incarcerated and forceably treated?” Says former Mental Health Commissioner, Lesley van Schoubroeck in this podcast series. Listen to the podcast and make up your own mind.
In 2017 Betty Taylor was commissioned by the then Minister of Health Cameron Dick to undertake an investigation on the harms experienced by a number of women, who as children were admitted, against the law, to locked adult mental wards at Wolston Park Mental Hospital. She also urges an inquiry into Wolston Park’s dirty secrets.
Three inquiries, the Forde Inquiry, the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse and the Queensland Child Protection Commission of Inquiry took evidence from the Goodna Girls that Wolston Park had detained and abused them and violated their human rights repeatedly. While they received a belated apology and some compensation, none of these inquiries would make the evidence public or use their powers to subpoena files, records, or former staff. Is this a co-incidence? Or a cover-up? The curator of Remembering Goodna, at Brisbane Museum, Jo Besley says ‘there’s a lot to cover up’.
TAKE ACTION NOW!
If you have a story, break the silence, and contact me, respond to the post.
Will you give your public support for a truth commission into Wolston Park? Leave a message. Share the blog. Write to your Qld MP.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF ORIGINAL ART WORK
Randall painted by the artist Deborah Mason
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