Founded in 1872 by the Provincial Government (1), 4 years before Provinces were replaced by Counties, (replaced by District Councils 113 years after that) and only 31 years after the country was declared a Crown Colony separate from New South Wales Australia (2), making it old by a young country’s standards.
At most the hospital housed 549 patients in 1955, 100 in 1996 when many were sent to live in the community, and Seaview closed 3 of its units (3). By its final closure in 2009, there were 22 which were relocated to a new dementia ward at Greymouth Hospital (3).
No high stone-walled, cloud-shrouded prison-hospital, housing the straight-jacketed insane. Nor a remote and isolated island fortress on high cliffs over a titanic, churning sea. Seaview Asylum was just a few broad timber villas, sleepy and comfortable, with wide parched lawns, lots of sun and endless, endless time to relax.
But now- as I find it- an eerie place- old, frail and desperately silent. I prepared- selecting the unit furthest out on the plateau, and furthest from those strange, furtive eyes. It may be the most decayed- long horizontal lines of brittle, white weatherboards- red-brown roofs- peeling paint- broken windows, and trespass challenges- some printed signs, some just spray-painted alongside break-ins. Long thin grass surrounds it, pale green but with vivid yellow flowers, spreading along asphalt cracks and widening to resemble vibrant island chains. Trees encroach unchecked, covering windows. Old hospital beds lie outside.
I entered into what must have been the main lobby, a large high-ceilinged room with a fireplace against one wall and a broad dusty timber floor. Remnant detritus litters the room haphazardly, some old; smashed chairs, toppled cupboards, old boxes and yellowed paper- some new; blackened mattresses of thin crumbling foam, with faded floral covers- evidence of even less savoury local habitation.
I pass through the eternally patient silence- caution and more than caution make my steps noiseless, and I round corners wide and agonisingly slowly, but the ruin is abandoned. I reach the main hall running perpendicular to the lobby- this continues left and right to both wings. Doors hang open down the length of the long shadowy hall, as though the final occupants left swiftly, and recently. But the age is visible, blues and greens and pinks have all faded, as paint decays and is consumed by invaders following the damp.
The patient wings are empty but for rubbish scattered across bare floors, and the long strips of pale light from tall dirty windows- partially obscured by old thin curtains. The bathrooms are gloomy and stale- Men’s in blue, Ladies in pink, but both blackening with malignant mold and slow rot.
With no sound to hide it, I clearly hear the car pull up outside. I freeze, caught in the long hall, all-to-ready to leave, but now desperate. This is the police, the owner, the caretaker- I abandon stealth and flee in a sliding, crashing cacophony to the opposite end, my thought concentrated with an unexpected speed and clarity on certain exit, and in shattering seconds, I’m on the cracked window cill and slipping through a frame of splintered glass to crisp concrete below and then sitting, gasping at the wheel of my car.
It was no authority- no one had known I was there- what I had heard was a now departing shining-red sedan of another keen adventurer, and if they were trailing in my footsteps, themselves marvelling at this world unknown, they did not know it. But I was done, tired- body and nerve- but once again exhilarated.
This small adventure- in early 2012- marked my first true ‘exploration’ of the world beyond the tidy, well lit cities of a comfortable society, a fringe world- more dirty, more dangerous, and infinitely more interesting.
See entire photostream here 'Seaview Lunatic Asylum'
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1 “Seaview Asylum.” Accessed March 2, 2013. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaview_Asylum
2 “Provinces of New Zealand.” Accessed March 2, 2013. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provinces_of_New_Zealand
3 “Greymouth unit open.” Accessed March 2, 2013. http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/128975/Greymouth-unit-open
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