Images for ‘Madness and Marvels’ (1)

C. Y. O’Connor and Dr Henry Calvert Barnett

I thought it would be good to share some of the photos and images that I collected while researching and writing ‘Madness and Marvels:‘. Rather than putting them all on one page, I’ll spread them over several posts. Clicking on an image will take you to the webpage where I found it.

C. Y. O'Connor c 1890
C. Y. O’Connor c 1890
C. Y. O'Connor c 1897
C. Y. O’Connor c1897
Sketch of Dr Henry Barnett in 1888 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/24930948
Dr Henry Barnett 1888 (sketch)
Dr Henry Barnett 1897 from https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-30465831/image?WID=720
Dr Henry Barnett 1897
James Goatcher 'Park Bungalow' https://parliament.wa.gov.au/parliament/artcollect.nsf/WebPP/190FCB12726A086E48256D260022DE49?opendocument

Park Bungalow, in Quarry Street, Fremantle, was an important link between C. Y. O’Connor and Henry Barnett. Doctor Barnett built it as a family home in the 1880’s, and rented it to the O’Connor family in 1891 when he went on leave. The O’Connors rented it again from 1896 until 1900. It was considered one of the finest houses in Fremantle.

The house, on two levels, included a library, music room, breakfast room, numerous bedrooms, sevants’ quarters and a wine cellar. It also had stables, a significant consideration for O’Connor, who loved riding. It was set back from the road and overlooked both the harbour and the asylum.

This painting (by artist James Goatcher) is part of the Parliament House art collection. It was likely completed in the 1940’s, long after both men’s deaths. But given Dr Barnett’s love of flowers, the house and garden probably looked much the same in his day. Sadly, the house had fallen into ruin by the 1960s and was demolished.

‘Madness and Marvels’ ebook now available

Cover of Madness and Marvels: the lives and times of C. Y. O'Connor and Dr Henry Barnett

It’s done! Madness and Marvels, the book I’ve been working on for the last four years, is now available as an ebook. I decided to self-publish it, for two reasons. First, so that those who have been eagerly waiting for it can read it. And second, to make the research that went in to it available. for anyone who might find it useful.

You can download it from all the main ebook distributors (Apple, Kindle, Kobo, Barnes and Noble etc). Or you can borrow it from Overdrive (through the Libby app), Borrow Box or Hoopla, though you might need to request it through your library first. If ebooks aren’t your thing, I plan to produce a paperback version soon.

Though set in the same place, and in much the same era, as The Edward Street Baby Farm, Madness and Marvels is a different sort of book. There are no court-room dramas, no wicked women or dead babies.* It’s essentially a dual biography of two professional men, the engineer C. Y. O’Connor and Dr Henry Barnett, the Superintendent of the Fremantle Lunatic Asylum.

The lives of these two Irish men crossed in Fremantle in the 1890s. The West Australian parliament, under John Forrest’s leadership, was just getting to grips with self-government. Fremantle Harbour was being constructed, after much debate. Then the gold rush happened. The book looks at how these events affected O’Connor and Barnett, and the colonial society in which they lived.

* Actualy, there is one death of a child mentioned, that of C. Y. O’Connor’s son in infancy.