Irish immigrant Isabella Lewin's tragic life has been explored as part of research into the first five years of operations at Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum, now 'The Park' in Brisbane.

Ninteen-year-old Isabella appears to have been one of the many 'social admissions' to Woogaroo and may not have been mentally ill at all. She was probably exhibiting signs of delirium due to sickness and dehydration.

Julie Bradshaw with a photo of Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum

As well as attempting a few escapes, she was accused of having an affair with the chief warder and spent most of the rest of her life in chains, before dying at the ripe young age of only 32.

CQUniversity Nursing lecturer Julie Bradshaw has been researching Woogaroo for her PhD study, and recently related Isabella's tale during a Nursing History Breakfast hosted in Brisbane by the Queensland chapter of the Royal College of Nursing Australia.

Julie says Woogaroo is now a much smaller facility called 'The Park' run by Queensland Health, but in the early days it was often overcrowded with poor living conditions for the inmates.

People committed by courts along the Queensland coast often had to wait in jail alongside criminals, before steamships were available to take them to Woogaroo. Often they were not mentally ill, but could be alcoholics, lonely or frail rural women, exhausted farmhands, victims or perpetrators of domestic abuse, or even foreigners who had trouble making themselves understood.

LINK for a larger image

"It was a punitive environment and in fact the original patients and staff were transferred from the prison. Men had to work outside while women did the laundry and made clothes," Julie says.

She says there's no hard evidence that Isabella had an actual affair but those sacked included the chief warder, the matron and even the poor warder who reported the matter (due to not reporting it swiftly enough).

Julie says her 'social snapshot' of early life at Woogaroo has been a fascinating journey back in time.