“An optimistic approach to the care of the mentally ill was found in Otago from the early days. In the 1850’s the mentally ill were placed in the gaol with debtors, vagrants, drunks and convicts, or they were accommodated in overcrowded conditions in the small general hospital that stood in the Octagon. But the provincial surgeon, Dr Edward Hulme, had received training at the Saltpetriere, and as early as 23rd January 1860 he suggested ‘the advisability of building a properly constructed place, apart from the hospital, for the keeping and cure of lunatics’. That year there were already thirty hospital patients requiring psychiatric care which could not be given. 

After a period of indecision, during which the gold rush changed Dunedin from a quiet village into a bustling rapidly-growing town, the Provincial Council finally voted money on 19 December 1862 to begin carrying out Hulme’s suggestion. The contract was won by H. Daniels to build a ‘Temporary Lunatic Asylum’ for 2888.15.0 pounds on the present site of Otago Boys’ High School. Building operations began on 13 January 1863.

There were some delays caused by problems with fencing. A seven foot high structure was rejected by Dr Hulme as providing no security for male patients, which would oblige staff ‘to use hobbles and handcuffs, which we are anxious to avoid’. But eventually on 5 September the Dunedin Lunatic Asylum opened its doors. It consisted mainly of long one-storeyed buildings of wood, enclosing rectangular exercise yards.

By this time there were 18 males from the gaol and six from the hospital to be accommodated, making four more than originally planned. The buildings were already too small, but they were regarded as temporary facilities to be used for about two years until a permanent institution could be established.

On 5th April 1864 a Select Committee of the Otago Provincial Council, presented a report which stressed the need for better accommodation. The commissioners suggested a new asylum should be built immediately on a two and a quarter acre site at Lookout Point, with room for exercise, gardening and farming. But this was not done. For many years problems of security, overcrowding, and difficulty in classifying and separating different groups of patients would continue.”

Dr Hulme was the medical officer of the Dunedin Lunatic Asylum from its beginning in 1863 – 1876.

‘Several patients escaped initially, and the lack of a proper fence also meant that the public annoyingly peered in through the windows. Hulme said the patients’ rooms were not escape-proof either – one had to be barricaded in because his door was not working properly. In the first months, because of lack of staff, police had to help watch patients at night. Escapes were not a major problem, but the shoddy workmanship of the construction aroused Dr Hulme’s criticism. He complained that much was unfinished when the asylum opened, and that “the whole building is fitted up in the most flimsy style, and not adapted for Lunatics.’

Worst of all was the chronic lack of accommodation which constantly frustrated efforts to try to cure patients. Already in 1864 the male quarters were full, and some patients had to be admitted to gaol, others to the hospital. By August there were thirty-two men housed in buildings originally designed for twenty one patients.

Within months of the asylum opening, staff and patients were helping build extensions. In 1865 two new wards were added, and building continued in 1866 and 1867.
After this, violent patients could be housed in single rooms, and excitable patients separated from the quiet and convalescent. There was breathing space in providing extra accommodation. Efforts were put into providing a laundry, a home for the Hulme family (with room to take paying patients), and levelling land for gardens and a cricket ground for the patients.
Soon, however, more space was needed and in the early 1870’s building continued steadily with extra with extra wards, dayrooms, airing courts, bathrooms, attendants’ rooms and a new kitchen being added. Then the asylum seems to have run out of land, and extensions stopped.

By now the asylum, which had been originally planned for twenty-one patients, was housing 228.

Water and drainage were constant problems as growing demands were made by increasing numbers of patients. In 1872, most of the problems were solved at last when a plentiful supply was laid on by connecting up with the Dunedin Water Works. It is revealing to learn, however, that nearly all the work of installing connections was done by Asylum staff and patients. The Town Council did not seem eager to foot the labour costs for the institution.
Much information about the inmates of the Asylum as been preserved in the Patients’ Register 1863 -1868. Some 909 people passed through the asylum between 1863-1876.
Otago seemed to have a high amount of insanity compared to Great Britain. Dr E.W. Alexander, the medical officer for Otago, attributed this to ‘the practice that prevails of shipping lunatics to this Province from the United Kingdom and Principally from Scotland.’

By the mid-1870’s there was serious overcrowding and more frequent disturbances resulted in the use of more restraints. Although the authorities continued to sing the praises of non-restraint, seclusion and restraint were creeping in more and more throughout New Zealand.

In 1876 the Dunedin Lunatic Asylum passed into the hands of the Central Government. Change was in the air. The Lookout Point site, originally designated for a permanent asylum, was given to the industrial school. Moves began to establish the Seacliff Asylum on the Brin’s Point site. Dr Edward Hulme died in September to be succeeded as medical officer by Dr E.W. Alexander. James Hume’s time as superintendant was also limited – the government decided that the major asylums should have doctors as superintendants, and he left in 1882. Closer medical involvement began, but in the more isolated asylum the pattern of keeping the insane separate from other ill people was confirmed and custodial approaches continued."