Baillie Henderson Hospital

Baillie Henderson Hospital is a heritage-listed psychiatric hospital at 1 Hogg Street, Cranley, Toowoomba, Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1888 to 1919. It is also known as Toowoomba Hospital for the Insane, Toowoomba Lunatic Asylum, and Toowoomba Mental Hospital. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 27 September 1999.HistoryBaillie Henderson Hospital is situated on the northwestern outskirts of Toowoomba. It was established as a lunatic asylum in 1890 and continues to provide psychiatric care with more than 400 patients and is the most intact nineteenth century asylum in Queensland.The treatment of lunacy or madness underwent a reformation in the first half of the nineteenth century in America, France and Britain from physical restraint and bizarre procedures to management through the provision of a pleasant environment and work opportunities. The new approach was based on reforming an individual by placing them in a suitable environment and by the 1860s, asylums were accepted as the most appropriate place for the treatment of insanity.Prior to Queensland becoming a separate colony in 1859, residents who were classified as lunatics or insane and required control were simply placed in the local gaol or sent south to an asylum at Sydney. Within thirty years of self-government, three asylums were operating in Queensland.Queensland's first asylum was the Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum opened in 1865. Within a decade overcrowding was a chronic problem and a Royal Commission in 1877 recommended the establishment of asylums at Toowoomba and Rockhampton. An asylum was established at Sandy Gallop (the Challinor Centre at Ipswich) in 1878 and operated as an annexe of Goodna until 1910 when it became a separate institution. The Rockhampton asylum did not proceed and plans for the Toowoomba institution were prepared by the colonial architect John James Clark in 1885. These plans provided for a large complex with two rows of pavilion wards separated by service buildings.