Peat Island
Coordinates: 33°31′46″S 151°11′39″E / 33.52939167°S 151.1941917°E Peat Island is a small island of approximately eight hectares in the Hawkesbury River, just north of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It forms part of the suburb called Mooney Mooney, and is located just upstream from the Sydney – Newcastle Freeway bridge. Other islands in the Hawkesbury River include Dangar Island, Spectacle Island, Milson Island, Long Island and Lion Island.
Peat Island was originally known as Rabbit Island, presumably due to the fact that rabbits were being kept there as reported in 1841: "That to the east is termed Goat Island, having many of those animals grazing thereon, the other Rabbit Island, which is numerously stocked as a Rabbit Warren." It was only renamed to Peat Island in 1936, due to its proximity to Peat’s Ferry, which at the time was operating between Mooney Mooney and Kangaroo Point on the Hawkesbury. George Peat was an early settler and boat builder who established the first ferry across the Hawkesbury in this vicinity in 1844.
During the 1890s, the N.S.W. government decided to establish an asylum for inebriates (alcoholics) where they could be treated in isolation from the general prison and hospital population. Relevant legislation was passed in 1900, and Dr J. M. Creed, a member of the N.S.W. Legislative Council from 1885 to 1930, selected Peat, and nearby Milson Island, as the site for the female and male asylums respectively.
...
Wikipedia