Abstract
Objective: To give an overview of the development of psychiatric services in South Australia from the 1870s to the 1970s, to describe some of the milestones in their progress, and to demonstrate that many of the guiding principles of contemporary services can be found to have their roots in this period.
Conclusions: Psychiatric services in South Australia progressed in fits and starts, but not for want of commitment and concern by those responsible for the care of the mentally ill. While in broad outline the development of services followed the course taken in other states, it is clear that the individual efforts of staff of the hospitals and a number of members of the public played an important role in improving the conditions and treatment of those with a mental illness, and laying the foundations for the movement of psychiatric services from their early isolationist position into the general health arena.