Z Ward

Question 1

History

Answer

Built between 1884 and 1885 and opened in 1888 as part of the Parkside Lunatic Asylum, Z Ward was purpose-built to house men considered criminal, dangerous or in need of secure confinement. Designed by South Australia’s Architect in Chief, E.J. Woods, the building is renowned for its striking polychromatic brickwork and the remarkable ha-ha wall that surrounds it, the last complete example of its kind in Australia. Hidden behind these walls were people who had become mentally unwell while in prison, were considered too dangerous for the general asylum population, or had been acquitted of crimes on the grounds of insanity and detained “at the Governor’s Pleasure”.

Z Ward tells the story of society’s changing understanding of mental illness. In the nineteenth century, there was growing recognition that people who committed offences while mentally ill should be treated as patients rather than criminals, yet concerns about safety meant that care and containment often existed side by side. Over the decades, treatment evolved from the structured routines and moral therapies of the Victorian asylum era to twentieth-century interventions including insulin shock therapy, electroconvulsive therapy and, later, modern psychiatric medications. Today, Z Ward stands as a powerful reminder of the complex balance between hope and fear, treatment and control, and the thousands of lives shaped by the history of mental health care in South Australia.