Harald Reischel (1930 – 2015) became a central figure in the education of mental health nurses in Victoria, working at the Mont Park Hospital campus for about 25 years.
His Early Days
In 1951 Harald came to Australia from Thalseifen in Europe. This was a German speaking region on the border of Czechoslovakia, Poland and Slovakia. Harald’s father was a forestry worker and Harald had one brother. As a young teenager he lived through WWII, learning to speak several languages including English. He maintained these linguistic skills.
In Australia Harald worked at first as a labourer before taking up employment at Mont Park Hospital as a ward assistant. He became interested in studying medicine but as he could not afford that, and encouraged by Dr Cunningham Dax Dr Eric Cunningham Dax | Mont Park to Springthorpe, Harald studied psychiatric nursing at Larundel then general nursing at St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne. He also obtained a Diploma in Nursing Education from the College of Nursing Australia in 1965.
Graduation – Harald the only man in this year
Harald married Elisabeth (Betty) Radosevich (1928 -2011) in 1958. Her family was from Kalgoorlie and she had trained in tuberculosis nursing in WA and came to work at the Gresswell Sanatorium Gresswell and Tuberculosis | Mont Park to Springthorpe
Harald and Betty had two children John and Christine, and Chris also trained as a nurse.  Harald had built the family weatherboard house in Reservoir, using the wood working skills he had learned from his family in Europe.
The Reichel’s first house In Reservoir
Work with Muriel Yarrington
In the 1960s, with the pioneering nurse Muriel Yarrington (1915 – 1968), Harald Reischel developed a specialised education program for psychiatric nursing, and it became an acknowledged, registered branch of nursing. Muriel was the Nursing Advisor to the Mental Hygiene Branch of the Victorian Health Department Muriel Yarrington – Pioneer in Mental Health Nursing | Mont Park to Springthorpe
A Nursing School had been set up on Plenty Road near the Larundel Hospital and another one near the Recreation Hall at Mont Park. After Muriel’s passing in 1968, Harald became the Senior Nursing Education Officer. Harald took on Muriel’s roles including Nursing Advisor to the State Government. His office was in the ground floor of the Nurses Hostel on Main Drive in Mont Park.
Harald and the family moved into Health Department staff housing in Gresswell Rd at Mont Park where the children enjoyed the rambling undeveloped surroundings. They went to school on the buses into Ivanhoe. Outside of their work, Harald and Betty enjoyed reading and music. Harald played guitar, piano accordion and violin, and was the Church organist for the  Kingsbury Catholic Parish.
Early days of Mental Health Nursing in Victoria
There were only six trained mental health nurses in Victoria in 1902, and WWI led to changed patient needs and a severe shortage of trained nurses. Overcrowding in asylums and poor funding were still evident during and after WWII.
From the 1950s gradual improvements were seen in mental health facilities such as Mont Park, Larundel and the Bundoora Repatriation Hospitals. After WWII migrant workers became available for staffing. Nurses Hostels were set up close to the Hospitals and training improved. Nurses were able to be registered. Drug treatment of patients became available in the 1960s which changed the nature of clinical practice.
Nurses Hostel on Main Drive Mont Park (Public Record Office Victoria)
Nurse Training at the Yarrington School of Psychiatric Nursing
Nurses had formerly been trained like apprentices, on the job, but Muriel Yarrington and Harald Reischel’s efforts in the 1960s led to the establishment of a dedicated School where the study of psychiatric nursing was undertaken jointly with practical training.
In 1969/1970 Harald Reischel was seconded from his position as Director of the School of Psychiatric Nursing at Larundel, to develop a completely new syllabus for psychiatric nurses. He produced this by October 1970 as the ‘Subject Content for a Basic Course in Psychiatric Nursing’.
By 1974 there was a waiting list for applicants to be accepted to undertake psychiatric nursing training, with hundreds enrolled in the three-year course. Sixty-five Mental Health Authority nurses graduated in 1973.
At this time there were about 100 qualified nurses at Larundel (about half of whom were male and half were female), and about 30 male and 30 female student nurses.
Mont Park had about 80 nurses, 20 student nurses and about 200 unqualified patient care staff (Report of the Mental Health Authority, for year ended December 31st 1974).    Nursing staff were now receiving fairer wages and had a future promotional pathway.
New curricula were being developed for introduction in 1976. Harald Reischel was at the forefront of these changes publishing a paper – ‘Nurse education in mental health, Victoria past, present and future’. ‘UNA’ – Nursing Journal. He wrote the syllabus for RMIT and Deakin University psychiatric nursing as well. Patient care involved emphasis on calm therapeutic communication and intervention, to facilitate return to family and community.
Nurses were proud to have studied at the innovative Muriel Yarrington School of Psychiatric Nursing – re-named from 1984.
Life in Retirement
Harald retired in 1987 at just 57 years of age, and he and Betty moved to East Warburton in the Yarra Valley where he enjoyed the hills and forest. He had been building their house there, complete with a garage and shed and extensive gardens. Harald always enjoyed working with amateur ‘ham radio’, a skill he had developed as a teenager in WWII to listen to BBC radio and monitor military activity. In the Warburton hills this was useful to the community in times of bush fires, accidents and wild weather events.
When they aged, the distance from Melbourne and their family became a drawback and the Reischels bought their final home in Mill Park, close to Bundoora again.
At age 71 years in 2001, Harald Reischel published an important book which went on to a second edition by 2003. It was called ’The Care that Was’. This vital work described the long history of psychiatric nursing and outlined the modern philosophy and practical aspects of specialised mental health care training for nurses. It is still very relevant today #mentalhealthnursing #nursing #australia #mentalhealth #history | Scott Miller

Harald Reischel was a remarkable man – he was serious, intellectual, dedicated to his work and became very well respected across Victoria.
– Compiled by Kathy Andrewartha (2026)
Many thanks to Chris and John Reischel for invaluable help in preparing this work.
Resources:
Harald J. Reischel (1970) Proposed Subject-Content for a Basic Course in Psychiatric Nursing, for the State of Victoria. a Report written for the Psychiatric Nurse Training Advisory Committee of the Victorian Nursing Council
Harald J. Reischel (1974). Nurse education in mental health, Victoria past, present and future. ‘UNA’ – Nursing Journal March/April.pp. 14 – 17
Harald Reischel (2001) ’The Care that Was’. Poseidon, Australia
Helen Kelly (2014) ‘Who was Muriel Yarrington and where is she now?’ Poster, Australian College of Mental Health Nurses 40th International Conference
Report of the Mental Health Authority, for the year ended December 31st 1974  (1976)
Sands, Natisha Marina (2009) ‘Round the Bend: A Brief History of Mental Health Nursing in Victoria, Australia 1848 to 1950’s’, Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 30:6, 364 — 371
Scott Miller (2024) #mentalhealthnursing #nursing #australia #mentalhealth #history | Scott Miller

As the psychiatric hospitals were a long way from transport and housing, Mont Park and Larundel hospitals provided housing accommodation, electricity and supplies from the Mont Park farm to the families and staff who worked there. There were several areas for staff housing across the site. – Wattle Avenue, now called Main Drive, the East and West side of Plenty Road, the West side of Waiora Road, both sides of Gresswell Road and one house in Cherry Street where  Dr. Terry Pearce, the Superintendant of Mont Park Mental Hospital lived- the driveway to the house is below the Avenue of Honour.
Dr  (Horace) Wellesley Hannah, his wife Barbara and their 5 boys lived in Wattle Avenue. Dr. Hannah had a varied career; having been a missionary in Tanganyika / Tanzania from 1940-1961 and then becoming a Member of the Legislative Council there in his last three years as Tanzania headed for independence from Britain.
https://www.montparktospringthorpe.com/dr-horace-wellesley-hannah/
In the 1960s and 1970s, there were 5 or 6 staff houses on the west side of Waiora Rd. The first house closest to Mont Park was the house of a Hungarian doctor, Zoltan Bozan. (Dr. Bozan had to work as an elevator operator until his medical qualifications were recognised.) The Hannah family had moved into the second house. The houses all backed onto the Latrobe University grounds; the houses on the eastern side of Waiora Rd were privately owned.
Laurie Reid, Mont Park Manager lived in Wattle Avenue also.
https://www.montparktospringthorpe.com/profile-laurie-reid/
All those hospital houses were pulled down more than 30 years ago. Prior to that, several of the houses had been used for a transitional rehabilitation service, enabling patients to be better prepared to return to living in the community.
 
Tim and Andy Hannah memories:
‘Behind the Wattle Avenue houses was a dirt road where free firewood was dropped; there were pine trees which the children of the staff used to climb, and a cow paddock. Beyond that was the beginnings of Bundoora – roads, but no houses.
One day in 1962 or 1963, Tim who was about 15 was playing in the back yard when he noticed smoke coming from the roof of the house on the west side of Mr Guppy’s house, two houses down Wattle Avenue from the Hannah’s house. He ran through Mr Guppy’s back yard to the other house, entered through the back door and found the kitchen on fire. Tim knew there was a fire alarm on the other side of the road close to the hospital and did something he had always wanted to do. He smashed the glass on the fire alarm with his shoe and pressed the button. The nearest fire station, which was in Upper Heidelberg Road in Ivanhoe was a good five kms away so the Fire Brigade would take at least 10 minutes to get there. In the meantime, Tim unravelled the huge canvas fire hose which was stored in a box in Wattle Avenue in front of the houses. Unfortunately, it didn’t reach to the back of the house where the kitchen was. The fire was still burning well but confined to the kitchen. Tim couldn’t find a bucket or hose to put out the fire – there were still no adults around. The occupants of the house were down at the Mont Park Golf Course 200 yards away and were completely unaware of what was happening. They came running when they heard the fire engine. The firemen put the fire out; apparently the oven had been left on.
https://www.montparktospringthorpe.com/ernest-henry-gup…-1960s-and-1970s/
Lister, the eldest brother had finished school and was wondering what to do. Mr Guppy, the Mont Park Hospital Secretary offered him a job in the office building of the hospital. A chandelier hung from the roof of the entrance hall to the offices. Lister was a keen AFL football player and in a fit of exuberance jumped up and pretended to ‘mark’ the chandelier. Unfortunately, instinct took over and he dragged the chandelier to the floor. Lister did not last long at that job but eventually trained as a secondary school teacher and soon became a headmaster and served in several countries all over the world.
Directly north of Mont Park was endless farmland. One night two of the brothers decided to put up a tent in the paddock directly behind the row of houses. In the middle of the night cows started licking the guy ropes to their tent which gave them a bit of a fright. The cows spent several hours licking salt from the tent, despite the boys banging their noses through the canvas. The cows were from the Mont Park farm and dairy (Where the La Trobe Hospital is now)
Part of the Mont Park Farm in the mid 1900’s prior to the La Trobe University being built with River Red Gums in the distance providing shade and shelter for livestock. Image courtesy of the La Trobe University Library.
In 1966 the Hannah family moved into a nice house on the West side of Waiora Road, Macleod, right next to Mont Park Hospital. Behind them to the west were endless paddocks. They were lovely for cross country runs but were slowly being turned into La Trobe University which opened in 1967. David and Andy both enrolled in that first year. Being the closest house to the university it was very convenient for them to attend university lectures and invite friends back for lunch.
There was a lovely view over Waiora Rd to the Dandenong’s and a large front lawn on which the boys played mini golf with a hole in all four corners of the lawn. Milk was still delivered by a horse and cart about 2am. The dairy was at Bulleen near Burke Rd, and the horses were kept in paddocks nearby. They loved hearing the clip clop of the horses’ hooves in the night and the milkman shouting orders for the horse to move on. (Waiora*spelling was named by R. W. Kennedy a financier, who did a lot of land development in the area and built the Ravenswood Mansion in East Ivanhoe. He named it after Wairoa in New Zealand where he spent his honeymoon. The spelling has changed a little over time.)
At end of 1962 David Oldmeadow (son of Dr Oldmeadow), Lister Hannah, and Malcolm Douglas went on a long road trip up to Cairns. (In 1968, David and Malcolm did a road trip across the Northern Territory, which they filmed and called “Across the Top”).
https://www.montparktospringthorpe.com/dr-donald-oldmeadow-larundel-psychaitric-hospital/
The family belonged to St Andrew’s Church of England, Rosanna, churchhistories.net.au/church-catalog/rosanna-vic-st-andrews-anglican which had been started by Wellesley’s father Horris John Hannah, who was a lay preacher. In 1962 Eric Constable was the vicar. A small offshoot of St Andrew’s was started at what is now Baptist Care Strathalan Aged Care https://www.baptcare.org.au community. Occasionally the Hannah boys went there for church, walking from home down the old Mont Park rail line or the small road alongside, and then up Leith Walk. Graeme Sells was in charge. Lister, who was our Sunday School teacher, Graeme Guppy, and Andy would walk there for Sunday School.
https://montparktospringthorpe.com/the-mont-park-rail-line-and-platform/
The families received ‘home help’ from some of the patients. Mr. Wells came daily and tended to the Hannah garden. When the family lived in Waiora road, Miss Margots helped Mrs Hannah in the house and Les Youlton was the gardener there. He was always served a mid-morning cup of tea in a 1-pint cup! Les was a hoarder – his little hut was full of all sorts of odds and ends.
One of the patient blocks close to what became La Trobe University was heavily fortified and we were told it was for the ‘criminally insane’. The high security area of Mont Park included Garry Webb.
 
Dr. Donald Hossak, the senior surgeon who worked in theatre at Mont Park also lectured at Melbourne university on Forensic Medicine. He had a Rolls Royce and nurse Jenny Foreman asked him to take her for a ride, which he did. He did over 1000 autopsies on people who were involved in car accidents and was awarded the OAM and the Public Service medal for his groundbreaking research on the impact of drugs and alcohol and their contribution to motor accidents. He lectured internationally, promoting road safety.
https://about.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/file/0022/15880/hossack.pdf
It was he who told us of the patient who suffered from ‘intractable unbearable self-concern’ (anxiety) resistant to all treatments, who was eventually given a frontal lobotomy.
The yellow bus https://www.montparktospringthorpe.com/history-of-the-mont-park-and-gresswell-bus-service/ had its terminal at the top end of Wattle Avenue. Andrew used to take it to Ivanhoe for piano lessons and often took it as far as Cotham Road (its other terminal) and then visited cousins in Surrey Hills.
Some of the buses had long seats running the length of either side of the bus. One day, returning home there was a large lady (almost certainly a patient) sitting opposite: “And what’s your name?”     “Andrew”.      “Andrew. That’s a nice name.” I was very embarrassed. Fortunately, there were only a few others on the bus.
The 9-hole public golf course was nearly lost to La Trobe Uni and housing development a few years back but was saved by an extensive ‘save’ campaign run by locals. It was named after the Strathallan Estate which was what that area was called when it was first sold to our European Farmers in the 1800s.
https://www.montparktospringthorpe.com/the-strathallan-golf-club/
One of the Strathallan Golf Trophies is named after Ernie Guppy; the E.H Guppy Knock-Out Trophy Event. Stories are told of some of the trees/bushes which were mysteriously removed where Mr Guppy would find his ball obstructed for his next shot.
 
Compiled from information provided by Andy, Tim and Paul Hannah.
 

(Horace) Wellesley Hannah was born to John Hannah and Catherine (Kitty) on 29/3/1913. The family Lived in “LLanellan” on top of Heidelberg Hill. His bachelor uncle Bill lived next door and owned all the land where the Austin Hospital is now situated.
Wellesley studied at Scotch College and then did Medicine at Melbourne University. At school and University, he excelled in running, winning the school championship and the Australian Intervarsity Mile Event 3 years in a row. He worked briefly in Tasmania before marrying Marjorie Moulton and they went to Tanganyika on 21/11/1940 where he joined Paul White at Myumi. Wellesley and Marjorie had one child, Lister in Myumi where unfortunately Marjory died of dysentery on 12/6/1944.
Wellesley married Barbara Metcalf in 1946 and they had 4 more children Timothy, David, Andrew and Paul.
The family lived in Melbourne in 1947, returning to Africa in 1948 for a second tour of Africa, returning to Melbourne in 1952 where they lived in LLanellan with his sister Valerie and her family. The family then moved to Mr and Mrs Coomb’s house in Eaglemont, then Station Street, Ivanhoe next to the Methodist Church. During this time Wellesley worked in the psychiatric ward at Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital, returning to Tanganyika in December 1954 for a third tour.
Dr Julius Nyerere had gained his doctorate in Edinburgh and had become a teacher back in Tanganyika. In 1954 he helped to form the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) and agitated towards Independence. The British governor had been Edward Twining (as in the tea). His successor, Richard Turnbull was given the task of guiding Tanganyika to independence and in the first organised elections, each electorate was to have one European, one Asian (Indian or Arab), and one African. The idea being that Europeans and Asians would be in the majority.
Dr Wellesley Hannah – Church Missionary Society 1960
To counter this, TANU (which had been Africans only) invited Europeans and Asians to join them and contest the seats. Wellesley Hannah was invited to join TANU and contest the Dodoma seat. TANU’s candidates all won, except for a local chief who immediately joined TANU. Wellesley became a member of the Legislative Council (Leg Co pronounced ‘ledge’). Tanganyika gained ‘Responsible Government’ on 9th December 1960, with Julius Nyerere as ‘First Minister’ and complete independence on 9th December 1961. The family returned to Australia in December 1961.
In 1962 aged 49, Dr Hannah worked at Larundel and Mont Park, studying for a Diploma in Psychiatric Medicine, and he then worked at Mont Park until 1963.
Hannah family in 1962 – at the back of their Wattle Avenue house in Macleod
Dr Hannah operated in Theatre at Mont Park. Nurse Jenny Foreman said he was ‘not good at putting needles into veins’ because nurses had always done that for him in Tanganyika/Tanzania; he always called on Jenny to help him when he was operating at Mont Park.
He then worked at Ballarat Mental Hospital 1964-1965, Larundel for most of 1966 then back to Mont Park, living on the west side of Waiora Rd from 1967-1971. They then moved to Warrnambool where he became Superintendent of the Brierly Psychiatric Hospital from 1972-1975.
In the 10 years from 1975-1984 he returned to Tanzania, this time as a psychiatrist, and he worked for five years at Moshi then 5 years at Dodoma in Tanzania. Returning to Macleod in 1984, aged 71, after his third decade in Tanzania, Dr Hannah worked in geriatric psychiatry at Plenty Hospital in Bundoora for a couple more years and then retired.
 
Compiled from information provided by Andrew (Andy), Tim and Paul Hannah, and Jenny Foreman
There are two books about Dr Hannah’s work in Africa: ‘Doctor of Tanganyika’ and ‘Jungle Doctor’s Progress’ both books by Paul White (1962)