Julia Farr Centre

Highgate Park (known as Julia Farr Centre)
Disability SA
Wikimedia | © OpenStreetMap
Geography
Location	Fullarton, South Australia, Australia
Coordinates	34°57′28″S 138°37′07″E / 34.957860°S 138.618495°E / -34.957860; 138.618495Coordinates: 34°57′28″S 138°37′07″E / 34.957860°S 138.618495°E / -34.957860; 138.618495
Organisation
Funding	Charitable trust
Religious affiliation	Non-denominational
History
Former name(s)	Home for Incurables; Julia Farr Centre; Julia Farr Services
Opened	1879
Closed	April 2020
Links
Lists	Hospitals in Australia

Highgate Park, more commonly known by its former name the Julia Farr Centre, was a hospital and care facility for disabled people in Fullarton, South Australia, founded in 1879 as the Home for Incurables. It closed in April 2020.

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, Michelle Lensink, is the sole trustee of the trust that owns Highgate Park,^[7] the Home for the Incurables Trust.^[6] The government agency has been appointed to manage the sale.^[7]

Officers[]

The following people served on the Julia Farr Centre committee:^{[citation needed]}

Chairman, committee of management

• Dr William Gosse
• Dr R. T. Wylde (1820–1903) 1881 to 1895
• Henry Scott 1913) to 1907
• G. F. Claridge 1907 to 1931
• 1931 to ?
• (1860–1953) 1940

Hon. Secretary

• 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

Repurposing the 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]

In August 2021, the building was reopened by the government as a vaccine centre.^[9]

References[]

Further reading[]

• "Department for Communities and Social Inclusion - Disability SA and Disability and Domiciliary Care Services (and predecessor agencies): RDS 2011/27 Version 1" (PDF). State Records Act 1997, Operational Records Disposal Schedule. 26 February 2013. Effective Date: 26 February 2013 to 30 June 2023. Includes a great deal of detail not included in this article.
• Dickey, Brian. 'Farr, Julia Warren (1824–1914)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 2005.
• History of Disability in SA: Home for Incurables
• Kerr, Colin (1979). The Home for Incurables, the first 100 years. Lutheran Publishing House, Adelaide.