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Sunset Hospital Dalkeith
Sunset Hospital was established in 1906 as the Claremont Old Men’s Home, to house destitute elderly men away from the city. Built on an elevated A‑class reserve overlooking the Swan River and Birdwood Parade Reserve in Dalkeith, it replaced the earlier Mount Eliza depot for aged care. The site was chosen for its isolation and scenic views and construction used local limestone quarried from nearby cliffs.
The original design followed a military-model layout, comprising three large buildings of L-shaped dormitories with inner quadrangles, a central dining hall, infirmary, laundry and staff quarters. It originally accommodated around 400 men but by the early 1930s, numbers had increased to 750 residents due to the Great Depression.
The institution was renamed Sunset Hospital in 1943, continuing to serve the same purpose but with improvements to its facilities. Women were admitted in 1964 for the first time.
Closure & Heritage Listing
After operating for nearly nine decades, the hospital closed in December 1995 and most of its buildings have remained vacant since.
In 1997, the site was formally added to both the State Register of Heritage Places and the Australian National Heritage List, recognised for its cultural, architectural and ecological significance.
Cultural Precinct Vision
In 2013, the State Government unveiled a vision to transform the 8.5‑hectare site into a multipurpose arts, cultural and community hub. Funding of $275,000 for the restoration master plan was to come from selling 1,500 m² of land near the river, which was expected to raise up to $10 million.
An ambitious $20 million proposal from the Minderoo Foundation (2014) promised a philanthropic arts precinct with a sculpture park, adventure playground, community and arts spaces housed in heritage buildings but this was ultimately rejected.
In 2015, the State Government sold the former matron’s house to the Sultan of Johor for AU$8.5 million. Proceeds were used for site infrastructure upgrades: restoring utilities, converting a chapel into an events pavilion, adding landscaping and a nature playground.
An Expression of Interest (EOI) process in 2019 led by the Department of Culture and the Arts, sought partners to renovate and activate the precinct under the Sunset Transformation Strategy, requiring proposals to align with heritage conservation, promote arts and community use.
The State Government was reportedly in negotiations in 2022 with a confidential “reserve proponent”, later believed to be Be Our Guest Holdings, a company experienced in heritage hospitality projects. Meanwhile, tenants like Pictures in Motion Museum of Film and Television were asked to vacate by November 2024, signalling imminent redevelopment.
July 2022
Getting government to care about something can be incredibly difficult, especially when there’s no obvious benefit or urgency for them. While many local representatives are willing to listen and genuinely seem to want to help, that interest doesn’t always extend beyond one person and it rarely leads to wider action.
Over several years, I've tried to obtain lawful permission to access and photograph Sunset Hospital through various government bodies and representatives. In every case, access was refused, mostly due to concerns about asbestos, lead contamination or unsafe structures. While these risks are real, they can be managed safely with proper protective equipment and formal liability agreements.
I've found that even in environments where these risks are minimal or atleast manageable, as they are in this case, the same reasons are almost always given. It raises a simple question: what is the cost of history? When places are not photographed as they continue to deteriorate, we risk losing more than buildings. We lose the spaces that shaped people’s lives and memories. These shared experiences form part of our history.
Eventually, I was able to gain access to one building for a single morning through someone who was willing to help. That access came with a condition: the photographs could not be shared for twelve months, which I have respected (almost two years in fact!). What’s shown here is only a small sample from the photographs taken that day, just a portion of the 350,000 images that I'm still to sort out from documenting historical and abandoned sites over the years.
I wish I could photograph the remaining buildings and I haven’t given up hope that this might still happen one day. In the meantime, these images at least ensure that part of the site has been recorded for the public record.
February 2024
