A thigh-bone found on the grounds of a former psychiatric hospital is from an animal, most likely a dog, police say.
Police were called to Truby King Reserve, located at the small coastal Otago community of Seacliff, about 30 minutes north of Dunedin, on Thursday, Sergeant Matthew Lee said.
Members of the public contacted police after they discovered what they believed to be an ‘unmarked grave under a tree’.
Those people believe they located a human femur – a thighbone – and a ‘patient tag’, used to identify patients, Lee said.
But further investigations on Friday confirmed it was most likely from a dog with a metal tag.
Seacliff housed what was once the largest building commissioned in New Zealand – a 500-bed psychiatric hospital.
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The former psychiatric hospital, at Seacliff.
It was infamous over a fire, which killed 37 women, locked inside Ward Five, on the night of December 8, 1942.
Only two patients were able to escape because the window shutters in their cells were unlocked.
The fire was caused by electrical wires shorting, attributed to the ground under the building subsiding.
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Seacliff, about a 30 minute scenic drive north of Dunedin.
The last building on the site, which is now known as Truby King Recreational Reserve, was demolished in the early 1990s, and in 2012 it was listed by Heritage New Zealand as a category one heritage area.
“The outstanding power of the place is in its absence but in its ability to evoke the history of the Seacliff Asylum, and all the forgotten inmates,” the assessment criteria said.
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The Truby King Reserve, Seacliff
The 16ha reserve was named after Seacliff medical superintendent Sir Frederic Truby King, who went on to found Plunket.
Among King’s recommendations were for patients to grow their own food grown in the substantial gardens.
The reserve’s “enchanted forest” has hundreds of specimen trees planted by King, a botany enthusiast.
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The reserve includes a walnut grove, an orchard, a dilapidated tennis court, and a cricket ground.
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The remains of the former Seacliff Mental Asylum in Dunedin.
The Dunedin City Council has plans to improve the area.
One of the asylum’s former patients was noted writer Janet Frame, who was subjected to electroconvulsive treatment more than 200 times between 1947 and 1955.
Frame was also scheduled for a lobotomy at the asylum, but the plan was cancelled after she made national headlines for winning a major literary prize.
A plaque commemorating Frame lies under a magnolia tree in the Enchanted Forest.
