The First Fleet arrived at Port Jackson in January 1788, carrying convicts, marines, sailors and officers who formed the first British settlement in New South Wales. The Fellowship of First Fleeters preserves the history and family connections of people associated with that voyage and the early colony.
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Thursday, December 17, 2015
Convicts and Crew of the First Fleet – Fellowship of First Fleeters – Cathedral Street
Convicts And Crew Of The First Fleet 1788 -
SHIPS THAT MADE UP THE FIRST FLEET
Ships That Made Up The First Fleet In 1788 -
Pictures Taken Of The Window Of The Fellowship Of The First Fleeters - Cathedral Street - Woolloomooloo
Saturday, November 21, 2015
The Lunatic Reception House – Cnr Forbes Street & Burton Street – Darlinghurst
The Lunatic Reception House - Cnr Forbes Street & Burton Street - Darlinghurst
On the corner of Forbes and Burton Streets, immediately behind the old Darlinghurst Gaol, sat a building whose job was to keep people out of the cells. The Lunatic Reception House opened on 24 July 1868 as a purpose-built observation ward for people thought to be mentally ill. The point was a hospital pathway that did not begin in the criminal justice system — a metropolitan portal into Sydney’s psychiatric hospitals that was meant to reduce the stigma of gaol admission for assessment.
It operated until 1961 (in its last years also known as the Darlinghurst Admissions Centre). The site then passed into mental-health care associated with St Vincent’s Hospital as the Caritas Centre from 1962. Fabric on the block includes the remodelled Reception House building known as Caritas House (origins 1867–68, significantly altered about 1935) and Caritas Cottage (c.1910).
The historic title “Lunatic Reception House” is the institution’s nineteenth-century legal name; modern writing may prefer “Darlinghurst Reception House” while retaining the historic form in the post title. Photographs here show the corner site and surviving related buildings.
























