Edith Cowan University Research Online ECU Publications Pre. 2011 1996 Under blue skies : the social construction of intellectual disability in Western Australia Errol Cocks (Ed.) Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ecuworks Part of the Medicine and Health Sciences Commons Cocks, E., Fox, C., Brogan, M., & Lee, M. (Eds.). (1996). Under blue skies : the social construction of intellectual disability in Western Australia. Joondalup, Australia: Centre for Disability Research and Development, Faculty of Health and Human Services, Edith Cowan University. This Book is posted at Research Online. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ecuworks/7114 Edith Cowan University Copyright Warning You may print or download ONE copy of this document for the purpose of your own research or study. The University does not authorize you to copy, communicate or otherwise make available electronically to any other person any copyright material contained on this site. 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Under Blue Skies The social construction of intellectual disability in Western Australia Edited by Errol Cocks, Charlie Fox, Mark Brogan and Michael Lee EDITH LIBRARY Published by the Centre for Disability Research and Develop­ ment, Faculty of Health and Human Sciences, Edith Cowan University ©Errol Cocks, Charlie Fox, Mark Brogan and Michael Lee 1996 This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without the written permission of the editors. National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data: Under blue skies: the social construction of intellectual disability in Western Australia. Includes index. ISBN 0 7298 0289 2. 1. Mentally handicapped- Western Australia- History. 2. Men­ tally handicapped- Services for- Western Australia- History. i. Cocks, E. (Errol). ii. Edith Cowan University. Centre for Disability Research and Development. 305.9082609941 Cover design by fifi.com Printed by Optima Press Contents List of Plates iv Contributors v Foreword viii Introduction Mark Burton 1 1 Living in Fremantle Asylum: The Colonial Experience of Intellectual Disability 1829-1900 Nonnan Megahey 13 2 'Once a Defective, always a Defective': Public Sector Residential Care 1900-1965 Christina Gillgren 53 3 Normalisation and Beyond: Public Sector Residential Care 1965-1990 Leonie Stella 92 4 The Response of the Law to Intellectual Disability in Western Australia 1829-1993 Moira Rayner and Judith Cockram 137 5 Crime and Punishment: Justice Administration and People with Intellectual Disabilities 1900-1989 Guy Hall and lillian Bavin-Mizzi 166 6 Doctors, Psychologists and Educators: The Professions and Intellectual Disability Kylie Carman-Brown and Charlie Fox 205 7 Making a New Profession: Social Trainers and Intellectual Disability Norman Megalzey 248 8 Discourses of Disability Errol Cocks and Matthew Allen 282 Index 319 List of Plates Plate 1 Fremantle Asylum showing inmates and warders, 1897. Plate 2 J Ward, 'where the children go', Claremont Hospital for the Insane, circa 1950s. Plate 3 Pyrton Training Centre, opened 1966. Plate 4 Living in the community, circa 1985. Plate 5 Male Dormitory, Claremont Hospital for the Insane, 1912. Plate 6 Male Dormitory, Swanboume Hospital, 1977. Plate 7 Attendant, Claremont Hospital for the Insane, circa 1920. Plate 8 Opening the Slow Learning Children's Group Minbalup Occupation Centre, 1954. Plate 9 The Stoneman empire in prospect, 1928. Plate 10 Announcing Hawkevale Farm Colony for Mentally Re­ tarded Children, 1957. Plate 11 Demonstrating at Tresillian, 1976. Contributors MATTHEW ALLEN PhD lectures in critical thinking and cultural theory at the School of Social Sciences and Asian Languages, Curtin University. He is currently working on various aspects of subjectivity and cultural construction of identities and representations. JILLIAN BA VIN-MIZZI PhD is a history lecturer at Murdoch Univer­ sity. She is the author of Ravished: Sexual Violence in Australia. She is the mother of two daughters. MARK BROGAN is a lecturer in Information Studies at Edith Cowan University. He has published on a variety of public policy issues ranging from information and communications policy to the account­ ability of government. From 1986 to 1992 he was University Archivist at Edith Cowan University. MARK BURTON PhD is the director of the Joint Learning Disability Service, Mancunian Community Health NHS Trust, and City Of Man­ chester Social Services Department. KYLIE CARMAN-BROWN is an Honours graduate from the History Programme at Murdoch University. She was formerly the executive officer of the Royal Western Australian Historical Association. Her current research interests are in environmental and planning history. JUDITH COCKRAM is a researcher at the Centre for Disability Re­ search and Development at Edith Cowan University. She has pub­ lished in the area of people with intellectual disabilities and the criminal justice system, and is currently completing her PhD on people with intellectual disabilities who offend. Her other research interest is women with disabilities. vi Under Blue Skies. Tlte Social Construction of Intellectual Disability in Western Australia ERROL COCKS PhD is Director of the Centre for Disability Research and Development in the Faculty of Health and Human Sciences at Edith Cowan University. Prior to his academic position, he was Director of the Mental Retardation Division in the Victorian Health Commission and Deputy Superintendent of the WA Division for the Intellectually Handicapped. He has published widely in the disability field. CHARLIE FOX teaches in the History Department at the University of Western Australia. He is the author of Working Australia, joint author of Australia at Work, editor of Historical Refractions, and for many years was the editor of Papers in Labour Histon;. He lives in Mt Pleasant with his partner and three daughters. CHRISTINA GILLGREN teaches history at Edith Cowan and Murdoch universities. She is writing a PhD thesis in the History Programme at Murdoch University on Australian immigration policies and settle­ ment outcomes. GUY HALL is a lecturer in Justice Studies at Edith Cowan University and a former Director in the Department of Corrective Services. He is a qualified clinical psychologist and has worked in the justice system with adult offenders. MICHAEL LEE is the Associate Dean of the Faculty of Health and Human Sciences at Edith Cowan University. He has a long involve­ ment in the intellectual disability field in Western Australia in a variety of academic and community roles. His present interests are in transi­ tion education and intellectual disability. NORMAN MEGAHEY worked in the field of intellectual disability for a number of years. He is currently teaching in the History Programme at Murdoch University and writing a PhD thesis on the history of Fremantle Prison. MOIRA RAYNER is a lawyer and author specialising in human rights and discrimination. She is a consultant to the law firm Dunhill, Maddem, Butler and a Commissioner of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. Contributors vii LEONIE STELLA was formerly a teacher in history and sociology at Murdoch University and a professional historian and consultant. At present, she is working on a PhD thesis in sociology at Murdoch University on women in the fishing industry. Foreword Research into the history of people with intellectual disabilities in Western Australia has been a sporadic undertaking. Scholarship to date has been mainly institutional in character and often undertaken as an adjunct to the study of mental illness. The people themselves have remained mostly invisible. In 1989, the Editors conceived of a social history research project in which, for the first time, an attempt would be made to document the lives of people with intellectual disabilities in Western Australia The project would also aim to describe the institu­ tional, social, political and professional history we identify with main­ stream historical scholarship. The Editorial Committee's decision to embark on a social history acknowledged an important weakness in existing scholarship: the way in which 'progress' is measured in the proliferation of institutions and programmes over time. A better barometer exists in the lives of the people themselves, and Under Blue Skies is founded in the value of case study in historical method. As the work of the project developed, the Committee and the contributors became aware of the pervasive influ­ ence of ideology and professional self-interest on all aspects of manage­ ment, and these are also important themes which underlie