Vivian and Frederick Kawerau of the Victorian Public Works Office[1][2] to house the growing number of "lunatics", "inebriates", and "idiots" in the Colony of Victoria.

[6] Despite initial grand plans and ideals, Kew Asylum had a difficult and chequered history, contributing to several inquiries[7][8] throughout its 117 years of operation, including a Royal Commission.

[11] Contemporary educated opinion was that lunatic asylums should be built "on a healthy site, freely admitting light and air, and drainage ...[on] a gentle eminence in a fertile and agreeable country".

[12] In a report by the New South Wales' Inspector of Asylums, Frederick Norton Manning stated that "the site chosen is of primary importance.

[14] Vivian described the site as: a section of land, about 400 acres in extent, situated on the River Yarra, about 4 miles from Melbourne, and ½ a mile to the north of the village of Kew ... the site selected is a fine slope, elevated about 100 feet above the level of the river, admitting of proper drainage and admirably adapted for ornamental grounds, the aspect chosen is south-east, and during the summer months the refreshing influence of the sea-breeze will be felt, without being exposed to south west gales.

G. W. Vivian, Report on the Proposed Kew Lunatic Asylum The idea that breezes or wind-swept locations were healthy came from a wider Victorian belief that associated disease with congestion and squalor, and that miasmas of impure air caused epidemics.

[16] 340 acres (1.4 km2; 0.5 sq mi) of land in the County of Bourke, parish of Boroondara, city of Kew were permanently reserved as a "Site for Lunatic Asylum" in the Government Gazette of 1864.

They were derived from plans earlier outlined by Vivian, and were basically identical to Kawerau's designs for Ararat and Beechworth, though Kew was much larger,[19] and more expensive at a cost of £198,334.

[2] Kew's distinctive towers and mansard roofs make it one of the most prominent architectural landmarks in Melbourne and is clearly visible on the eastern skyline.

[27] Many of Kew's ha-ha walls were retained and remain intact,[24] unlike those at Beechworth and Ararat which were partially dismantled or the trenches were filled in.

[28] It has been proposed that the initial plantings on the site were supplied by Baron Ferdinand von Mueller, director of the Botanic Gardens.

Other details requested included names of relatives or friends, the person's religion and occupation and whether others in the family have ever been classified as insane.

Other information recorded, where available, were dates of previous admissions, "form of mental disorder", bodily condition ("satisfactory", "unsatisfactory", "feeble", etc.)

[38] The diagnoses given to patients during Kew's first fifty years were the common ailments found in most lunatic asylums of the pre-Kraepelin era[34] Some of these terms are still in use today, however they may now have different meanings.

For example, from examining the notes on some of Kew's early "dementia" patients, it can be deduced that many were most likely suffering from what we now term severe depression, catatonia or schizophrenia.

Despite initial grand plans and ideals, Kew Asylum had a difficult and chequered history resulting in several inquiries,[1][8] including a Royal Commission.

[8] Another notable inquiry occurred in 1907 after a severe outbreak of Typhoid fever,[2] which at the time was thought to have been virtually eradicated in Melbourne.

[1] Public outcry at the treatment of the insane in the colony's lunatic asylums increased in the 1870s, fueled by articles and woodcuts in magazines and the writings of "The Vagabond" in The Argus.

[60] When opened, Kew's extensive 398 acres (1.6 km2; 0.6 sq mi) of grounds were intended to be used for farming, agriculture and recreation for the inmates.

Construction of Yarra Boulevard during the 1930s led to a section of the asylum's river frontage being acquired by the roads department.

In 1958, 58 acres (0.2 km2; 0.1 sq mi) of the northern section of the asylum grounds were offered under a Crown Grant to the Talbot Colony for Epileptics.

Later known as Royal Talbot (now part of Austin Health), the hospital and training centre continue to operate on the site to this day.

[67] The construction of the Eastern Freeway in the early 1970s also resulted in property loss for both Royal Talbot[65] and Kew Asylum.

Birrell strongly urged the council to propose the closure of Kew Asylum, with the grounds to be subdivided and "...laid out on modern town planning principles with some 700 to 800 homes".

[69] As a result of ongoing mental health reform, the then Labor Government of Victoria commissioned the "Willsmere Project",[70] the purpose of which was to plan for decommissioning the hospital and develop services and facilities in the community.

The remaining grasslands between the Eastern Freeway and the main hospital buildings, including the site of the asylum's cricket field were developed as the Kew Gardens residential estate.

This led to the creation of an interpretive display in a section of the old "Female Paying Patients Ward", development of an archive and resource collection consisting of the few remaining records and artifacts left behind when Central Equity gained control of the site from A.V.

However, the majority of documents dating from 1915 onwards are closed, due to the sensitive nature of the material they contain and the possibility that first degree relatives may still be alive.

[60] A number of photographs of Kew Asylum are kept by the Victorian Mental Health Library at Royal Melbourne Hospital.

[78][79][80] The exception to this is Cheryl Day's unpublished PhD thesis which is an ethnographic description of the first fifty years of Kew's existence.