Treatment of Western Australia’s mentally ill during the early colonial period, 1826–1865

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This paper describes the early settlement of Western Australia and colonial strategies implemented to manage the mentally ill. Western Australian Colonial treatment of the mentally ill began in 1829 with the first mentally ill patient, Dr Nicholas Were Langley. Building commenced to house the mentally ill with the use of a prison, 'The Round House', and later the temporary shelter 'Scott's Warehouse'. Both convicts and the mentally ill were initially housed together, but evidence exists of attempts to provide therapeutic diversions at Scott's Warehouse.