The Grounds of a Vanished Hospital
At Seacliff, off Coast Road between Warrington and Waikouaiti about 30 km north of Dunedin, the Truby King Reserve occupies the site of one of the most significant, and most tragic, institutions in New Zealand's medical history. Entered from Russell Road, the reserve is now a network of easy grass walking tracks through regenerating bush and a remarkable collection of heritage trees. But the paths also wind past remnant foundations, a bluestone wall and the scattered remnants of what was once the largest building in New Zealand.
Seacliff Lunatic Asylum
Seacliff Lunatic Asylum opened here in 1884, designed in an extravagant Scottish Baronial style by architect Robert Lawson to house up to 500 patients. It was troubled from the start. Built on unstable ground, the main building suffered structural failures within a few years of completion, a public embarrassment that drove Lawson to leave the country.
Despite its problems, Seacliff, later renamed Seacliff Mental Hospital, operated for close to a century. Truby King served as medical superintendent here from the 1890s, developing progressive ideas about diet, fresh air and routine that he later carried into infant health with the Plunket Society, which he founded in 1907. His interest in infant welfare grew from his work at his home on the Huriawa Peninsula in Karitane.
The 1942 Fire
On the night of 8 December 1942, fire broke out in Ward 5, a wooden two-storey building added to the original stone asylum in the 1890s and used to house female patients. Wartime staff shortages meant no nurse was on duty in the ward overnight, and most windows and doors were locked from the outside. Thirty-seven women died in the blaze, the worst loss of life in a New Zealand fire until the Ballantyne's fire in Christchurch five years later.
The novelist Janet Frame was a patient at Seacliff in the years that followed, and a magnolia tree in the reserve, planted during her time there, carries a plaque with lines from one of her poems.
Walking the Reserve Today
The hospital closed in stages through the mid-20th century. The last building was demolished in the early 1990s, and the grounds were passed to Dunedin City as a public reserve. Locally it's known as the Enchanted Forest, a name that fits: paths wind beneath more than a century of tree plantings, from specimens dating to the 1890s through to plantings from the 1960s, alongside surviving remnants of the original native coastal forest. The main loop, signposted from the Russell Road entrance, takes about an hour to walk. There are toilets and picnic areas, but note that parking on Russell Road itself is limited.
How to Get There
Truby King Reserve is on Russell Road, Seacliff. From Dunedin, follow State Highway 1 north to Blueskin Bay, then turn off onto Coast Road to Warrington. Continue on Coast Road to Seacliff, where you will find the turnoff to Russel Road. The reserve is almost immediately on your left. The drive from Dunedin is 30 km and takes 30 minutes.
Nearby places to visit include Karitane and the Huriawa Peninsula, a short drive further north, and Doctors Point on the south side of Blueskin Bay.
