Home for Incurables; Julia Farr Centre; Julia Farr Services
Opened
1879
Closed
Hospital, admin buildings and the chapel closed in April 2020. Gosse International Student Residence remains open and operating. The large green space also remains open for all to enjoy.
Founded in 1879 as the Home for Incurables, Highgate Park, which is more commonly known by its previous name - the Julia Farr Centre - is a 2.8 hectare site in Fullarton, South Australia comprising:
A set of buildings, including a 9-storey hospital care facility for the disabled and a chapel, that opened in 1977 and closed in 2020;
Gosse International Student Residence that opened in 1949;
A large green space that includes 29 significant and regulated trees, and
Several small car parks.
Today, the only people who live and work on the Highgate Park site are the 67 tenants, workers and management of Gosse International Student Residence. The large Highgate Park green space is used by community members and vistors alike for a variety of recreational purposes.
On 26 September, 2023, in recognition of its unique and important heritage values, and the seminal contributions made by its founders Julia Farr and Dr William Gosse in caring for the disabled community of South Australia, an application was made to the South Australian Heritage Council nominating Highgate Park for listing and protection as a South Australian Heritage site.
Given the national heritage values and significance of Highgate Park, a National Heritage Nomination application will also be made to the Australian Government for listing and protection of Highgate Park when National Heritage Nominations for the 2024-25 year open in early 2024.
1879: Home for Incurables
The Home for Incurables was proposed as a non-denominational charitable institution by Julia Farr née Ord (1824–1914), wife of George Henry Farr (1819–1904), Anglican priest and headmaster of St. Peter's College. She was concerned at the plight of impoverished patients of the Adelaide Hospital who were discharged as "incurable" due to the nature of their illness or disability, then had no-one to support them and nowhere to go but the Adelaide Destitute Asylum.[1]
Farr, who had previously founded the Home for Orphans, had the support of Dr. William Gosse, who volunteered his services as chairman of a committee to raise funds for the project. An eight-roomed house on a large block of land on Fisher Street Fullarton was purchased for £1,700 and a further £300 expended on refurbishment of the home. In October 1879 ten inmates of the Destitute Asylum, young and old, male and female, were transferred to the Home. It was a condition of entry that the patient was not insane, and that the incurable disease was not contagious, although that stipulation was later occasionally waived for those suffering from tuberculosis.[1]
It soon became apparent that the existing facility was too small, and another building with accommodation for 30 was erected on the property and opened in February 1881. An extension capable of housing another 40 patients was added to this building in 1884 and named the Gosse Memorial Wing.[1]
Over the ensuing hundred years adjacent land was purchased as it became available, and the old buildings demolished to make way for more modern accommodation. The West Block (Fisher Building), built between 1964 and 1967, was made obsolete by the new East Block, and largely vacated in 1978 (their centenary). The number of resident patients rose from 142 in 1928 to 400 in the 1960s to 826 by the end of 1978, the largest institution of its kind in the southern hemisphere.[1]
1981: Julia Farr Centre/Services
In 1981 the Home for Incurables was renamed the Julia Farr Centre.[2] During the early 1980s, the West Wing was vacated owing to asbestos being present in the building.[3]
In 1994 the centre was renamed Julia Farr Services, continuing to provide residential care and assistance for people living with a disability, and also providing aged care services. The property on which the Fisher Building stood was sold by Disability SA to a developer in 2003.[4] In 2006 Julia Farr Services became a part of Disability SA, and after parts of the site were sold, what remained of it was renamed Highgate Park. The former West Wing remained derelict for many years.[3]
2006: Highgate Park
As Highgate Park, the facility continued to provide residential care for people with disabilities from the age of 15, and included an aged care unit managed by the ACH Group, until its closure in 2020.[5] However, from 2014 it stopped accepting new residents,[6] with the last resident moving out in 2020.[7]
2020: Closure
The facility was closed in April 2020, and in July the state government invited suggestions from the public via an online "YourSay" questionnaire whether the property should be sold or repurposed into a new facility. Proceeds from sale of the building has to go towards something which is stipulated by South Australians with disability, as per the terms of the trust.[8]
In April 2021 Highgate Park was put up for sale on the open market, with the proviso that any proceeds would be "used to benefit South Australians living with disability". Minister for Human Services, Nat Cook, is the sole trustee of the trust that owns Highgate Park,[7] the Home for the Incurables Trust.[6] The government agency Renewal SA has been appointed to manage the sale.[7]
Repurposing Old Buildings
Various development proposals for the Fisher Building fell through after its sale in 2003 and the building, which had meanwhile become the target for vandals and graffiti artists, was sold to Living Choice and demolished in 2011 to make way for a five-storey retirement complex.[4]
The Gosse Building, on the corner of Fisher and Highgate Streets, has been operated as a student residence since 1997, known as Gosse International Student Residence. The seven-acre site, which includes a 9-storey hospital building (Highgate Tower), a chapel, an administration building, and four acres of green space and car parks, was advertised for sale in early 2021 by Renewal SA, but as of December 2021[update] the managers and residents of Gosse International Student Residence are fighting to save the building by offering to purchase it separately from the rest of the Highgate Park site.[9]
In July 2021, the Highgate Tower hospital building was temporarily reopened by the SA government as a COVID-19 vaccine centre.[10][11]
Gosse International Student Residence Controversy
After the closures of the 9-storey Highgate Park Tower hospital building, the Round House administration building and the chapel in 2020, the only building that remains open and operating on the 7-acre Highgate Park site is Gosse International Student Residence. The Gosse building opened in 1949 as hospital staff accommodation but was repurposed in 1997 as university student accommodation. The Gosse building now provides affordable rental accommodation ($175/week) for 63 residents, most of whom are international university students.[12]
The Highgate Park site, including the Gosse building, is owned by the private Home for Incurables Trust. The sole trustee and registered proprietor of the Highgate Park site is South Australian Minister for Human Services, Nat Cook. After the closure of the Highgate Park hospital in April, 2020, the South Australian government conducted a YourSAy (sic) public consultation survey in July, 2020, for ideas about the future use of the Highgate Park site. The residents, workers and management of the Gosse building were unaware and were not informed of the YourSAy survey.
After the YourSAy survey was completed the South Australian government commissioned the consultancy Think Human to conduct stakeholder engagement surveys of members of the disabled and local communities and others for ideas on future use of the Highgate Park site. Despite being the only people living and working on the Highgate Park site at the time, the South Australian government chose to exclude all Gosse residents, staff and management from the local community engagement process for ideas on future use of the Highgate Park site. In its 38-page Highgate Park stakeholder consultation report, commissioned by the South Australian government, Think Human forgot to mention there are 67 humans living and working at Gosse International Student Residence on the Highgate Park site. [13]
Gosse residents, facing the prospect of homelessness if the Gosse building is demolished and its land site sold and redeveloped as part of the sale and redevelopment of the Highgate Park site, launched a campaign in December, 2021 to save Gosse International Student Residence. Gosse residents support the commercial proposal of the Gosse Business manager to purchase the Gosse Building and the land upon which it rests as a parcel of land separate to the sale of the remainder of the Highgate Park site to preserve Gosse as affordable student accommodation.[9]
Officers
The following people served on the Julia Farr Centre committee:[citation needed]
A. MacGeorge, perhaps Alexander Macgeorge JP (c. 1826–1908)
G. J. Shirreff Bowyear 1880 to 1888
J. H. Cunningham 1888 to 1909
A. E. H. Evans 1909 to 1948
R. G. Rees 1948 to
Related Research Articles
Carlton is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, three kilometres north of the Melbourne central business district within the City of Melbourne local government area. Carlton recorded a population of 16,055 at the 2021 census.
Westmead is a suburb in Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Westmead is located 26 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of Cumberland Council and is part of the Greater Western Sydney region.
The Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH), colloquially known by its initials or pronounced as "the Rah", is South Australia's largest hospital, owned by the state government as part of Australia's public health care system. The RAH provides tertiary health care services for South Australia and provides secondary care clinical services to residents of Adelaide's central metropolitan area, which includes the inner suburbs.
The Women's and Children's Hospital (WCH) is a hospital dedicated to the care of women and children in Adelaide, South Australia. It was established in March 1989, when the Queen Victoria Hospital and Adelaide Children's Hospital were amalgamated, initially named Adelaide Medical Centre for Women and Children, being renamed to its present name in 1995.
Marble Hill was the Vice-Regal summer residence for the Governor of South Australia for seventy-five years, from 1880 to 1955. It is also the name of a ward of the Adelaide Hills Council, and a suburb, both named after the residence and in which the residence is located. It is about 20 kilometres (12 mi) east of Adelaide between the towns of Ashton and Cherryville, and has expansive views of the Adelaide Hills to the North and East, and the Adelaide Plains to the West.
Glenside is a suburb in the local government area known as the City of Burnside, Adelaide, South Australia. The suburb is 4.9 kilometres south-east of the Adelaide city centre, home to 2,422 people in a total land area of 1.40 km2.
Fullarton is an inner southern suburb of Adelaide, South Australia in the City of Unley.
Highgate Hill is a riverside inner southern suburb of the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the 2016 census, Highgate Hill had a population of 6,194 people.
Larrakeyah is an inner suburb of Darwin, the capital city of Australia's Northern Territory. It is the traditional country and waterways of the Larrakia people. It was one of the first parts of the city to be developed, and borders the Darwin Central Business District.
Old Government House is a historic building located in Belair National Park, South Australia, and was South Australia's first official vice-regal summer residence of the Governor of South Australia from 1860 to 1880, and was used by governors Richard Graves MacDonnell (1855–62), Dominick Daly (1862-68) and William Jervois (1877–80). It was constructed from local sandstone, with the red-brick for the quoins sourced from the Blackwood brickworks, and a native timber shingle roof. The residence's indoor plunge-pool was reportedly the first in the colony.
Minda Incorporated, established in 1898, provides support to children and adults with disability in Adelaide, South Australia and is the largest non-Government disability support organisation in the state.
Glenelg East is a residential suburb 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) south-west of the centre of Adelaide, South Australia. It is characterised by quarter-acre blocks with heritage homes and parks intermingled with contemporary modern homes and low-rise multi-dwelling units.
Oakden is a suburb of Adelaide, South Australia, located to the northeast of the Central Business District. It was established as a housing estate named Regent Gardens in 1992 and is located on former Department of Agriculture land.
Carrington Street is a street in the south-eastern sector of the centre of Adelaide, South Australia. It runs east–west, from East Terrace to King William Street, blocked at Hutt Street and crossing Pulteney Street at Hurtle Square. It is one of the narrow streets of the Adelaide grid, at 1 chain wide.
William Gosse was a medical practitioner in the early days of South Australia.
The Ven. George Henry Farr, M.A., LL.D. was a British born Australian Anglican priest; headmaster of St. Peter's College from 1854 to 1879.
Tomaree Lodge is a heritage-listed former military camp and hospital and until 2015 was residential disability accommodation at Shoalhaven Road, Shoal Bay, Port Stephens Council, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by the NSW Government Architect's Office and built from 1942 by the NSW Department of Public Works for the Commonwealth Government. It was formerly known as the Tomaree Head Army/RAAF Camp. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
Julia Warren Farr née Ord was an English-born South Australian philanthropist.
Tatchbury Mount Hospital is a health facility to the north of Totton, Hampshire, England. It is owned and managed by Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust and acts as the Trust's headquarters. The site was formerly a large psychiatric hospital with the majority of the buildings on the site dedicated to this purpose, however in recent years changes in the management of these patients has resulted in the uses for the site diversifying.
Dickey, Brian. 'Farr, Julia Warren (1824–1914)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 2005.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
