Aradale Mental Hospital

Ararat Lunatic Asylum
Façade of the Ararat Lunatic Asylum in 2011.
Geography
Location	Ararat,, Victoria, Australia
Coordinates	37°17′S 142°56′E / 37.28°S 142.93°E / -37.28; 142.93Coordinates: 37°17′S 142°56′E / 37.28°S 142.93°E / -37.28; 142.93
Organisation
Hospital type	Specialist
Services
Emergency department	Not Applicable
Beds	900+
Speciality	Psychiatric
History
Founded	1865
Closed	1998
Links
Website	www.aradale.com.au
Lists	Hospitals in Australia
Other links	List of Australian psychiatric institutions

Aradale Mental Hospital was an Australian psychiatric hospital, located in Ararat, a rural city in Victoria, Australia. Originally known as Ararat Lunatic Asylum, Aradale and its two sister asylums at Kew and Beechworth were commissioned to accommodate the growing number of 'lunatics' in the colony of Victoria. Construction began in 1864, and the guardhouses are listed as being built in 1866 though the list of patients extends as far back as the year before (1865). It was closed as an asylum in 1998 and in 2001 became a campus of the Melbourne Polytechnic (Previously known as NMIT) administered Melbourne Polytechnic's Ararat Training Centre.

The asylum was designed by G. W. Vivian and J.J. Clark (at this time Vivian's assistant), adapting Vivian's initial designs for a similar buildings in Kew and Beechworth. Building commenced at Kew (Kew Lunatic Asylum), Ararat and Beechworth (Beechworth Asylum) at roughly the same time, however Ararat was completed first. The building of Ararat was contracted to O'Grady, Glynn and O'Callaghan and not patients (or "inmates" as they were called) as many erroneously believe. The asylum was built as a town within a town with its own market gardens, orchard, vineyards, piggery and other stock kept on the grounds. At its height it had over 500 staff and as it stands today the complex is made up of 63 buildings ranging in age from the original wings built in the 1860s to the modern forensic unit which was built in 1991 - only two years before the facility closed. Despite being closed as an asylum the facility continued to house female prisoners during the building/renovation of Dame Phyllis Frost Centre right up until its current management took over in 2001.

The asylum complex is an example of the E-plan barracks type lunatic asylums based on the model 1850s asylum in Colney Hatch, England. Ararat is very similar in design to its sister asylums at Kew and Beechworth, however Ararat's use of linking bridges with an arcade on an arched gateways is unique. Kew is considered to be an example of Second Empire design, whereas Ararat and Beechworth are considered more typically Italianate, though both styles have similar characteristics. The buildings are constructed from oversize bricks, which were then rendered with cement. Two storeyed ward wings extend to each side, one for each sex. The ward wings were surrounded by courtyards lined with iron columned verandas,