[4] The first institution in Western Australia to care for the mentally ill was the Fremantle Lunatic Asylum, which opened in 1865 with the transfer of ten convicts.

Colonial architect George Temple-Poole gave evidence to an 1891 Select Committee inquiry and strongly urged the construction of a new and much larger hospital in "an airy situation, as far from the town as convenient".

Each "pavilion" was designed for a separate group of patients – quiet and industrious, violent and noisy, epileptic, sick and infirm, or convalescent.

On 23 April 1895 the West Australian newspaper reported that the government had decided to build in what is now John Forrest National Park near Midland.

Both show a pavilion-style hospital with classification of patients and the wards (male and female sides) radiating in two crescents from a central administration block.

A new committee – Sir James Lee-Steere, George Shenton, and Drs Alfred Waylen, Thomas Lovegrove and Henry Barnett – was formed in the latter half of 1896 to co-ordinate the development of the new asylum, and they visited twenty different potential sites over three months.

This committee eventually chose the Whitby Falls site at Mundijong, in the face of vehement opposition from Dr Henry Barnett, Surgeon Superintendent of Fremantle Lunatic Asylum, who died later that year.

On 26 May 1897 John Harry Grainger was appointed Principal Architect of the Public Works Department; he visited the Whitby site in July 1897 and pronounced it suitable for building a new asylum.

Government Reserve H8636 at Claremont was set aside for the new asylum on 27 February 1903, consisting of 394.5 acres (159.6 ha) of land, including an artesian water supply.

The layout of the site is almost identical to that of George Temple-Poole's 1896 designs for the Point Walter Lunatic Asylum, which may indicate that Grainger reused Poole's plans.

The central area contained the administration block, main store, kitchen, attendants' quarters, and the dining and recreation hall.

There were separate wards for different categories of patients, which included "quiet and chronic", "recent and acute", "sick and infirm", "epileptic" and "violent and noisy", which were located furthest from the centre.

The main administrative buildings were located on the highest point of the site, at its eastern end, and included a portico constructed from Donnybrook stone.

The block was placed in an isolated position, adjacent to the dairy farm, and approximately 800m to the east of the main Claremont Hospital for the Insane site.

X Block was completed by 1910–11 at a cost of £24,789 and accommodated 150 patients, who worked in the adjoining farm, associated gardens and orchards located on the hospital site.

[1] In 1939 a new physical treatment block was planned and built at Claremont Mental Hospital by the Public Works Department under the direction of the Principal Architect, Albert Ernest (Paddy) Clare.

Incoming Inspector General of the Insane Dr Digby Moynagh then had Montrose House renovated, and on 17 April 1959 the building was re-opened as Australia's first psychiatric day hospital.

The Graylands Day Hospital continued to operate on the site until it moved to Shenton Park in the 1960s, and the building was resumed for ward purposes and renamed "Riverton House" in 1967.

This was later renovated for use as an early treatment and admissions centre, outpatients clinic and infirmary, which became part of the original Graylands Hospital complex in 1972 and was called "Victoria House".

Following the appointment of Dr Harry Blackmore in 1967 as the hospital's psychiatrist superintendent, a major reorganisation and increased discharges of patients took place, and wards were redecorated and named after Perth suburbs (Ardross, Belmont, etc.

[8] However, bed numbers continued to fall, and in 1979 Director of Mental Health Services Fred Bell produced a detailed report on Swanbourne and its shortcomings for the State government, recommending the hospital's replacement.

Thirty two hectares of land, comprising the hospital's old sports oval, the former Graylands admissions centre, and the 1954 "senile ward" known as Manning House, were transferred for the development of John XXIII College and the bulk of the remainder subdivided for residential purposes.

The hall is constructed of brick and limestone with a roof of clay Marseilles tiles replacing the original slate and still bearing the decorative turrets which are a feature of the old buildings.