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
