The open fronted 10 bed wards, orientated north and east, were designed to maximize patient fresh air and sunlight.
[8] The cemetery contains graves of people from many parts of Western Australia who were brought to the Woorolooo Sanitorium on account of their illness and in particular tuberculosis between 1915 and 1970.
The names found in Wooroloo Cemetery are quite broad in their ethnic mix, such as English, Irish, Scottish, German, Yugoslavian, Chinese, Japanese and Aboriginal.
The majority of the graves associated with the Sanatorium are mounds identified simply by a cast iron marker bearing the plot number as most were far from family and friends.
In addition, the large number of burials at the site between 1915 and 1925 provide a valuable insight into the social and economic circumstances of WA during that time.”[5] By the 1960s, the sanatorium was no longer required and the institution was operated as a geriatric and a district hospital.
[2] The Wooroloo Sanatorium was subsequently converted to a minimum-security prison farm after the Department of Corrective Services officially acquired the site in June 1970.