Mayday Hills patients and staff produced The Open Door magazine and engaged in all aspects of the magazine’s production. From hand-colouring each front cover to binding and distribution, it was considered a form of occupational therapy. Contents included announcements of social activities such as fortnightly dances, concerts, the Country Women’s Association Christmas party, the Red Cross Library, cricket practice and match results, swimming at Lake Sambell, the Annual Patients’ Picnic, the Reverend Minister’s sermon, and a crossword.
The open-door policy fostered outside involvement in hospital life and supported patients’ access to activities in the Beechworth township. This is intended to narrow the gap between hospital and community and ease the transition of patients back into the wider community (Garton 1987). It promoted social interaction, a sense of belonging, and understanding within the broader community.
In the June 1960 edition, the title was revised to The New Open Door, featuring a cover illustration by commercial artist Norman Collie and a more visually pleasing use of typography and design. The August 1960 edition’s front cover introduced “Our Pledge,” which encouraged readers to combat prejudice and ignorance and to ignite the flame of understanding in the hearts of all its readers. This volume also acknowledged ten patients as colourists, who contributed to the labour-intensive task of hand-colouring each front cover with coloured pencils.
A newspaper article titled New Hope Today At Beechworth ( The Herald, Sept 1953) shows both staff and patients working on The Open Door magazine producing 160 copies for every monthly edition. It describes patient activities that exemplify the Open Door policy in which the magazine is named:
At weekends, patients have walks along the quiet country roads.
On weekends there is sometimes a fancy dress ball as well as concerts, square dances and music recitals. Visitors from the hospital auxiliary run by townspeople come to have afternoon tea with the patients.
The patients themselves can go to the bright auxiliary kiosk and entertain each other at tea.
Patient magazine production was not unique to Mayday Hills, as other mental hospitals also published patient periodicals, including The Window, produced at Mont Park Mental Hospital, Awareness magazine, produced at Sunbury, at Traralgon Psychiatric Hospital it was Insight and at Sandhurst Boy’s Centre in Bendigo it was Guiding Light (Westmore 2012).
A Birthday Gift for Her Majesty
Australia’s enthusiasm for their new monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, was evident in 1952 when the Beechworth Mental Hospital sent her a copy of the birthday issue of their Open Door magazine as one of several gifts. Elizabeth had acceded to the throne in February of that year, at just 25 years old, following the death of her father, King George VI. Although Queen Elizabeth’s actual birthday is on April 21, Australians have traditionally celebrated it on the second Monday of June. In 1952, this marked the first Queen’s Birthday under her reign. The letter accompanying the gifts state:
To Her Majesty
Queen Elizabeth II.,
Your Gracious Majesty,We send you this letter and copy of “The ‘Open Door,” on behalf of the staff, the patients and their friends of the Beechworth Mental Hospital.
Accept these, we beg, as an expression of our loyalty and love to you and the Royal Family, upon the official recognition of Your Majesty’s birthday.
We as Australians, offer our birthday greetings.
Our prayer is that you will always possess the hearts of your people. May your reign be long and prosperous and crown you with everlasting life in the world to come.
Your loving and obedient servants,
The Magazine Staff of “The Open Door.” Beechworth Mental Hospital.
Today, The Open Door magazine provides evidence of the social events and interactions with the local community that dispel ideas that the twentieth-century mental hospital, such as Mayday Hills, was a place of confinement, boredom and misery.
Written by Dr Alison Watts, Adjunct Lecturer at Southern Cross University.
See Alison’s full bio here
Sources:
Garton, Stephen. ‘Changing Minds.’ Chap. 19 in Australians from 1939, edited by Ann & Martin Curthoys, A. W. & Rowse, Tim, Fairfax, Syme & Weldon Associates, Broadway, N.S.W., Australia, 1987.
Westmore, A. (2012) Occupational therapy & Art therapy in Victorian Mental Health Institutions in Museums Victoria Collections https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/articles/11540
”New Hope for Beechworth’, Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 – 1954), Wednesday 9 September 1953, p. 13. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article249250005
”A Birthday Gift for Her Majesty’, Ovens and Murray Advertiser, Saturday 5 July 1952, p 3. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page30151787
See also: Beechworth’s Children: Living in Town and Dax was fun & bought us gifts
Explore the Beechworth Cemetery Virtual Tour
Explore the Mayday Hills (formerly the Beechworth Asylum) Virtual Tour
