THE SEACLIFF EXPERIENCE

Dunedin woman Kath McLeod followed her parents’ footsteps, choosing a career as a 
registered nurse at Seacliff Mental Hospital.

She was 18 years old when she started working at Seacliff in 1940 and gained her 
registration in 1942. The work extended far beyond nursing duties.

“During the war years we were short of staff. We had no domestics or kitchen hands 
so we had to do all manner of things. We’d be in the kitchen at half past six in the 
morning to skim the milk to get the cream. We’d take the eyes out of the potatoes 
which were put into steamers and we’d scrub the floors.

“Then we’d worked in the laundry – we were on the mangles and did the ironing – 
they were really big jobs,” Miss McLeod recalls.

The hours of work were very long. It was not unusual for the nurses to start at seven 
o’clock in the morning and finish at eight o’clock at night. Their routine was to work 
four days on with one day off, followed by four days on and two days off.

The wards were segregated with male nurses working on the male wards and women 
nurses on the female wards.

Some of the patients had severe mental problems and were in long term care while 
others were there temporarily because of mental breakdowns.

Kath McLeod says in today’s environment many of the patients would have been out 
in the community. The shortage of nursing staff meant the patients were often called 
on to lend a helping hand.

“We had to do domestic duties such as polishing floors with huge mops. We’d have to 
go up and down with the mop until we’d got the wooden floors shiny and my 
goodness if they weren’t, we’d have to go back and do it again. We relied on the 
patients to help us with this,” she remembers.

Seacliff was more than just a hospital – it was a community and suitable patients were 
expected to help with the chores.

“Some female patients used to work in the hospital’s flower gardens while the male 
patients used to go out in gangs – nine or 10 patients with a male nurse supervising 
them. They worked in the gardens There was a piggery and a slaughterhouse and we 
had many hens.

“We also had what was Truby King’s property at Karitane and the male patients used 
to go fishing there. We used to send the fish from Seacliff up to Hokitika to the 
mental hospital there,” says Kath McLeod.

Some patients were dangerous. For the safety of staff and other patients they were 
locked into single rooms at night    

“There was a fire in a ward in 1942 and there were some very sad cases there. Some 
patients would have gone out in today’s environment but the others would have stayed 
for the rest of their lives,” says Miss McLeod.

The treatment in those days included electrical-convulsive therapy – ECT and insulin 
therapy.

At one stage in her career Miss McLeod worked with senile patients in a ward away 
from the main hospital. She was later sent to Orokonui Hospital and had children as 
well as the old patients.

“I had 73 people in the ward I was in and 14 children. We had a school for the 
children. Many were Downs syndrome children and were very lovable. 

“The youngest child came in when he was 10 weeks old. His mother was from 
Invercargill. When he was born, she took one look at him and wouldn’t have anything 
further to do with him. A nurse from Invercargill brought him up to us. He was born 
with a dome shaped head. But he was a bright little boy and everybody loved him. 
He’s out in the community now.”  

Miss McLeod says there was a regimented structure in place for the nursing staff. 

“If a charge nurse came along when we were juniors we had to stand with our hands 
behind our backs and address her by saying ‘good morning, sister’ or ‘good afternoon, 
sister’.

“The matron would do her rounds with the doctor at 9.30 and if you were in charge of 
the ward you had to follow behind and stand at the end of the bed with your hands 
behind your back.”  

Staff lived in the village: “A lot of us lived just off the wards until we’d been there a 
few weeks, then we got a room in the nurses’ home. 

“As our careers advanced we’d go further down the corridor to better rooms.” 

Miss McLeod says there was a huge downstairs lounge in the nurses’ home for the 
junior nurses with three open fires and they would have excellent suppers there.

The sisters’ quarters were upstairs and junior staff were not allowed there. 

“If you wanted something you’d knock on the door and wait till they opened it. You’d 
tell them what you wanted, they’d say ‘thank you’ and the door would be shut again,” 
Kath McLeod recalls.
After the war, 24 nurses were conscripted from England to ease the workload. They 
were on two-year contracts and Miss McLeod and her colleagues were quick to show 
them around Dunedin.

The nurses were able to socialise away from Seacliff when they were off duty. 

“A driver would take a group of us to Dunedin to the pictures or other entertainment 
then he’d pick us up and take us home.

“When we were juniors we had to be in our rooms except one night a week when we 
could have leave until 11 o’clock.

“You signed in, signed out and signed in – it didn’t hurt us really.” 

The last few years of Miss McLeod’s career were spent at Cherry Farm Hospital. She 
retired from psychiatric nursing in 1986. She says the hours were long, the work was 
hard but it was very rewarding and she made some very good friends during her 46-
year career.
   
Kath McLeod is a volunteer dining room assistant at the Octagon Club.
This item from the Otago Age Concern Publication  Memories are Made of This
is used with permission
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