A Noble Example of Victorian Liberality
The cyclorama pauses on an image of a woman, “Rosa”. Some of the script has faded but I can still read it:
…often as I sit and think in this my last earthly refuge, the present becomes dreamlike, the past alone seems real. I close my eyes and all comes back. Again I hear the rushing waves, I feel the strong wind, the spray dashing in my face, again I see the blue water bounded by clouds; again I hear my Ellie’s merry laugh. I turn, and behold–not my child beaming with youth and beauty, but old and decrepit creatures, with faces full of pain and age…1
Decrepit? Haven’t come across that before. Oh well. No need to update the AAMSO lexicon. Here’s another text. And this one is in excellent condition:
During the early colonial period in Australian, a system of care was informed by British attitudes and shaped by a concern that limited resources should not be given to able bodied or ‘underserving’ [But] the harsh realities of a remote colony meant that, in practice, the needs of the population as a whole needed to be taken into consideration…2
I suspect this script has been conserved by our 21st century time-fugitive.
Another frame. A researcher tells us: “Some 14,783 people either resided on the ten-acre block in North and West Melbourne or were provided for by the Victorian Benevolent Society during the 60-year period.” 3
*
Tickertape text along the bottom of the screen:
leaking roofs inadequate drainage poor accessibility for elderly callous treatment disturbing the peace, angry locals over-crowded understaffed several inquiries several extensions but “no over scandals that wracked other government institutions” 4
*
“Miss Padley” appears on the screen.
What’s in her hand?5
Zooming in:
1. Rosa Lewis, 187-? How I drifted into the Benevolent asylum: an inmate’s story. Mason, Firth and McCutcheon. State Library of Victoria
2. Australian Heritage Council, 2016 A thematic heritage study on Australia’s benevolent and other care institutions
3. Mary Keogh, The Benevolent Asylum, 1998, pg 34
4. Michael Carron, 1993, Melbourne After the Gold Rush, Loch Haven Books
5. Testimonial given by the Committee of Management of the Melbourne Benevolent Asylum Bazaar to Miss Padley 1870, State Library of Victoria
Unquiet Voices 