Ballarat and its benevolent asylum: a nineteenth-century model of Christian duty, civic progress and social reform.

Abstract

This study of Ballarat and its Asylum covers the period between the 1850s and the early 1900s when an old-age pension was introduced in Victoria. It predates events leading up to the Asylum's consolidation as a geriatric centre in 1956, and with the centre's amalgamation with local hospitals and its expansion into Ballarat Health Services but shows the basis from which those events emerged. It is essentially a case study. It argues that Ballarat's Asylum progressively developed and expanded upon a model of organised poor relief practiced among the industrial classes in England, in consequence of the perceived need for rapid capital expansion in Australia, and knowledge of the dangers associated with mining, building construction, and other manual work. The introduction of a secular education system in Victoria, together with enthusiasm among producers for technological innovation and skill development, led to changes in the nature and conditions of paid work, as well as to a push among workers and their sympathizers for greater appreciation of past contributions by older workers and the needs of the ill and/​or incapacitated. This push was only partially addressed by the Victorian government in 1901 when it introduced the old-age pension."