Eerie overgrown ruins of abandoned Orange 'mental asylum' revealed

Bloomfield Hospital opened in 1925, and was home to thousands over much of the 20th century.

Once a symbol of modernity in Orange, the site off Forrest Road pioneered radical new treatment methods and a novel layout aimed at improving patient wellbeing.

Today, a tabby cat is the last remaining inhabitant.

Vines grow into broken windows and climb the damp walls.

A light rustle of wind through nearby trees and the distant rumble of cars are the only sounds.

The new photos come as a potential overhaul of the historic site is floated. Orange City Council is consulting with residents on a potential redevelopment until March, 2024.

"What are the things about the Bloomfield precinct that you would be willing to change or let go, to allow for the future development of the site?" an online YourSay survey asks.

The heritage-listed buildings are owned by the NSW Department of Health. Much of the surrounding area is property of the Aboriginal Lands Council.

A Statement of Heritage Impact filing by the OESC Country Club last years traced the hospital back to its roots in 1898, when initial plans for an 'asylum' on the 640-acre block were drafted.

The original Reverside Centre and hospital buildings were designed by renowned government architects Walter Liberty Vernon and George McRae, with the experience of patients in mind.

Onset of WWI delayed construction, but official approval was granted in 1922. The first bricks were laid the following year by patients from the controversial and now-allegedly-haunted Gladesville 'lunatic asylum' in Sydney.

Bloomfield was officially opened in 1925 by Dr W. A. Couttie, NSW's unfortunately-titled 'Acting Inspector for the Insane.' About 270 patients lived on site at the time.

A review of the hospital's operations in 1989 recommended the two-storey ward blocks be decommissioned, and the number of patients living on site slowly dwindled.

Bloomfield was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register in 2006 on account of its "high historic, associative, and aesthetic significance."

"[The hospital] is of historic significance to the development of NSW as it was one of only three dedicated mental hospitals built in rural NSW," the listing says.

"It has been continuously used as a mental hospital and its design demonstrates the evolution of mental health treatment overtime.

"Its design and setting clearly demonstrate the 'enlightened' Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century theories on the treatment of the mentally ill."