| Kingseat Hospital | |
| Spookers | |
|---|---|
| The site of the former Kingseat Hospital in 2008. | |
| Geography | |
| Location | New Zealand |
| History | |
| Founded | 1932 |
| Closed | 1999 |
| Links | |
| Lists | Hospitals in New Zealand |
Kingseat Hospital is a former psychiatric hospital that is considered to be one of New Zealand's notorious haunted locations. It is located in Karaka, New Zealand, south of Auckland and since 2005 has been used as a site for Spookers; a New Zealand attraction [1] that is believed to be Australasia's only haunted attraction scream park as of 2011,[2] and "the number 1 Haunted Attraction in the Southern Hemisphere".[3] According to stuff.co.nz, Kingseat Hospital is the number one haunted spot in New Zealand.[4]
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The construction of the Kingseat Hospital began in 1929 when twenty patients from a nearby mental institution came to the site along with twelve wheelbarrows and ten shovels. Kingseat Hospital was named after a hospital in Aberdeenshire, Scotland following Dr. Gray (the Director-General of the Mental Health Division of the Health Department at the time) returning from an overseas trip, who felt it appropriate to have a sister hospital with the same name in New Zealand.[5]
Flower gardens, shrubs and trees were grown in the grounds of the Kingseat Hospital such as surplus plants from the Ellerslie Racecourse and Norfolk Island pines originally seeds from Sir George Grey's garden on Kawau Island.[5]
Kingseat Hospital was in operation from 1932 [6] and grew throughout the 1930s and 1940s to such an extent that by the beginning of 1947, there were over eight hundred patients. From 1964, nursing staff at Kingseat were given name tags to wear on their uniforms. [5] In 1968, certain nurses at Kingseat Hospital went on strike, which forced the administration to invite unemployed people and volunteers to assist within the hospital grounds with domestic chores. [6] In 1973, a therapeutic pool was opened by the then-Mayoress of Auckland, Mrs. Barbara Goodman, four years before the main swimming pool was added to the hospital in 1977. The site celebrated it's 50th anniversary jubilee in 1982.[5] Kingseat Hospital closed in July 1999, when the final patients were re-located off the complex to a mental health unit in Otara.[7]
By 2004, more than two-hundred people had come forward to file complaints against the national government for claims of mistreatment and abuse of patients at New Zealand’s psychiatric institutions (including Kingseat Hospital) during the 1960s and 1970s.[6] In 2005, a television episode of Ghost Hunt featured the site of the former hospital. [8] That same year, the haunted attraction Spookers opened in the area of the former hospital [1] in the former nurse hostel. Spookers hold annual O'Scares Awards at the old Kingseat Hospital.[9]
In 2009, the owning company of the former hospital claimed it would proceed with plans to disconnect the water supply of residents within the local region, leaving many to either pay large fees for a different supply or to install new water tanks.[10]
In 2010, New Zealand filmmaker Dale Stewart shot his horror film Compound at the former hospital property after receiving permission from Spookers, the current owners. [11] Spookers were finalists of the year's Tourism Industry Awards.[12] Spookers also won the Contribution to the Community Award for its staff's contribution to raising money for Ronald McDonald House at the 2010 Westpac Manukau Business Excellence Awards.[13]
In 2011, ideas were proposed to grow the area in the Kingseat suburb tenfold for the area's equine industry. This involved propositions of rezoning to residential a majority of the land around Kingseat Hospital although certain buildings, structures and plantlife on the former hospital site were protected due to historic and cultural value.[14]