Thursday, May 27, 2021

Glenside, an Adelaide institution

SA Film Corp

Glenside Park on the corner of Fullarton and Greenhill Roads was opened on May 9 and will be handed over to Burnside Council early next month.

Cedar Woods estate was sold by the former state government in December 2016, and now 300 new Burnside residents call it 'Home'. I look forward to Glenside Park becoming a much loved and environmentally sustainable recreation park for all Burnside.

Many of you will already know that from 1846 until the mid-1970s most of this site was used as an asylum [see more]. During the 1950s numbers of patients peaked at nearly 2,000. Much of the land was used for farming, with the main treatment of patients being bedrest and isolation in the early days.

Parkside Mental Hospital, ca. 1925 (South Australian Government Photo)

The estate had olives, vines, mulberries, oranges and almonds growing, encouraged by well known Burnside and Adelaide residents Sir Samuel Davenport, Dr WL Cleland and Dr Schomburgk.

By World War II, these orchards were reduced significantly, and the need for a mental institution of its type declined over the next 30 years, leading to subdivision of the land in the 1970s. Today there are still some mental health care facilities on the site, and they are newer and more appropriate for today's practice.

The South Australian Film Corporation was established in this Glenside Cultural Precinct in 2011 and the current box-office hit Mortal Kombat was filmed out of there last year. The Adelaide Central School of Art relocated there from Norwood in 2013.

 by Anne Monceaux, Mayor, City of Burnside

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