The abandoned Regis Aged Care Facility in Perth, is situated in a remarkably interesting location. Dating back to 1905, the large site, bordered by Smyth/Monash/Karella and William Streets, was first acquired by the Salvation Army. Over the next century, it grew into an entire village of buildings that chopped and changed over time, which consisted of an orphanage, correctional facility, school, dementia hospital, residential cottages, and of course, an aged care facility.
The abandoned area that I explored and photographed, was the trio of Wyvern Units, which was part of the Regis Hollywood Senior Citizen’s Village. At the other end of the site, facing Monash St, Regis is currently operating an active aged care facility.
After exploring this vast area and the units themselves, I did some research online and discovered Regis is currently under major investigations for neglect, abuse and assault allegations raised by resident family members and a group of interns who worked there for a brief period of time recently.
The History of the Regis Hollywood Senior Village
905 – 1918: The Salvation Army began negotiations to acquire the land bordered by Smyth/Monash/Karella and William Streets, for the construction of a Prison Gate Farm to house men who had been discharged from prison. This project was called the Karrakatta Prison Gate Farm and was opened in 1906.
1918: The Prison Gate Farm is transferred to the Salvation Army property on the comer of Stirling Highway and Vincent Street, Nedlands (known today as “The Rose Garden”, where accommodation was provided for a number of socially disadvantaged men.
The Smyth/Monash/Karella and William Streets site now becomes the Nedland’s Boys Home which began with the admission of probationary boys.
1920: A school begins operating alongside the Home.
1960: A modem Eventide Home is built beside the Nedland’ Boys Home to house the overflow from the Karrakatta Prison Gate Farm.
1962: After the completion of the Eventide Home in 1960 and the establishment of a hospital onsite in 1962, there was still a lot of unutilised land left over. The decision was made to erect a building to accommodate women over 60 and men over 65. The plan was to provide a well ventilated central area and this was achieved by the central courtyard located between the adjoining wings. Because the building design with its four wings resembles a Maltese Cross, it was decided that the building should be known as ‘Crossleigh’.
1965: The now “Hollywood Children’s Village” is expanding rapidly. The dormitory-style accommodation for the Boys Home is being replaced by a cottage parent model and is described in the “Bringing Them Home Report” (1997) as an institution that housed Indigenous children removed from their families. Brand House is one of these cottages that opens in 1965.
1966: The Pied Piper Cottage opens as does the Crossleigh building. Although each self-contained unit had its own kitchen, provision was made from 5 October 1966, to supply a hot midday meal from the Eventide Men’s Home Kitchen at a cost of 45 cents.
1969: The Buckingham Cottage is opened.
1970: Withnell Cottage opens as does a 47 bed ‘C’ class hospital situated on the Monash Avenue side of the site. At this stage, the six-storey Wyvern Units are being built. When complete, they would consist of 151 single and 18 double units.
These are the abandoned buildings that Abandoned World Photography explored in-depth and full photo album can be found a the end of this timeline.
1971: A swimming pool is opened, presumably much to everyone’s delight.
1972: ‘Elloura’ (an aboriginal name for ‘a resting place’) ‘Frail Aged’ accommodation is officially opened.
1981 saw the opening of the new upper floor of the Village Hospital and on the same day the opening of the Centennial Close flats. At the same time, the Hollywood Children’s Village went through a transition period with the introduction of the Crossroads West programme.
1996: The Children’s Village in Hollywood closes and the Brand, Pied Piper and Buckingham cottages are demolished. Withnell Cottage is the only remaining building of the Nedlands Boys Home at this time.
1997: The Warrina Dementia Centre is constructed where the three cottages were demolished.
1998: The site is taken over by Australian Resident Aged Care. This is what the site looks like at this point.
2001: A 20-year masterplan, worked on by the Salvation Army themselves, is drafted with the intent of planning out a whole new village of buildings, but this time, all aimed at providing the best facilities for the elderly who needed care.
2005: Regis Group, one of Australia’s biggest publicly listed aged care providers, buys the land from the Salvation Army and establishes Regis Park Lodge (under the name “Residential Aged Care”). The lodge offered residents amenities such as onsite hairdressing, a cafe, pharmacy, day therapy centre, tropical gardens with water features, and a specialist dementia garden with sensory plants – all of which were in what was then called “Regis Hollywood Village”.
2011: Regis drafts up a masterplan for the Nedlands site. Also, in 2011, a group of residents make a formal complaint that Regis has systematically ignored their pleas over the past four years to retain and improve the services they were promised when they moved in.
2016: The Regis Park Lodge closes.
2018: Regis opens up a new facility within the Nedlands site facing Monash Street – a 141-bed state-of-the-art aged care residence, built to meet the rising demand for services in the local area. By this stage, the Wyvern Units are completely abandoned and have been left rotting for almost 10 years.
2021: Proposed year of demolition for the Wyvern Units. Lots of urbexers visit the building to enjoy the history and abundance of stuff left behind.
- Police investigate two residents deaths at the Monash St Regis centre.
- Five allegations of abuse at the centre are brought to light within 5 days of each other.
- Regis begins its own internal investigations of the allegations.
- ABC begins its own investigation of Regis Nedlands.
As always, I hope you enjoy the research that went into this article and the photographs below of the abandoned Regis Aged Care Facility in Nedlands, Perth, West Australia.
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1 Comment
Jan payne
Oh no this is such a shame and disgrace on Regis for allowing this to get to such a state what an eye sore so much else could’ve been done pulled down made into a park or even opened up for the homeless I feel very very sad it’s got to this