My uniform pressed, smile on my face. I was excited to start my new nursing position at a Psychiatric Hospital just across the river from where I lived.

The sea eagles were stirring; high in their nests. Huge trees, their homes along the water front. I loved living on the mighty river that passed our door. My career; only six weeks of psychiatric nursing to add to my CV and I could nurse anywhere I wished.

I hopped in my little car and made my way across the bridge that spanned the Hawkesbury River in Sydney. My husband had built our home facing the river where we spent many hours, many happy days contentedly fishing.

It was winter, I was rugged up against the cold and the sun hadn't made it's appearance yet. My starting time was 6 a.m.

I turned off the bridge and approached the high iron gates to the hospital. Guards stamped their feet against the cold wind from the river. Showing my ID I was ushered through, finding the car park for employees, I parked my little Mini car.

As I walked up the hill to the offices, my stomach was doing flips. I heard screaming and looked for the source.

To my right, naked men were lined up inside a large farm vehicle shed that had been converted for the male inmates. They were being hosed down with fire hoses. In the middle of winter? How barbaric, no warm showers for them.

One of the guards approached me and said, "Everything alright?"
I looked at him and decided not to say what was on my mind, to keep walking towards the Supervisor's Office.

As the sun rose that winter's day, I realised I was in for the ride of my life. Peat Island was one hell of a scary place. The concrete buildings and cages between them reminded me of a Concentration Camp.

I was with a senior nurse the first day, we were making a coffee in the kitchen. Suddenly, a naked body hit the wire - reinforced window. Monkey-like naked man clinging to the wire that protected us. Outside temperature was 10c.

"Ah, don't worry about Monkey, he's harmless as long as you smoke." She laughed.

"Pardon me?" I just stared at her.

"He eats cigarette butts," she mumbled with a mouth full of biscuits.
"He's naked, where's his clothes?" I replied.
"Oh, we bathe him, dress him and put him out in the quadrangle. He then strips all the clothes off and sits on the concrete."

I was agog, he was after all, a human being. Between every concrete building that protected staff; concrete quadrangles for inmates.

Peat Island was situated on the river, it was winter and creepy with the fog rising off the surface of the fast moving dark waves.

I had to make a trip upstairs to re-fill the medicine cabinets in the nurses station. This station was secure, it had to be to keep the staff safe from inmates. I had forgotten to lock the door.

A growling noise emanated from under one of the pathetic beds. This place was not fit for humans, maybe animals, not humans. I looked over my shoulder to find the source of the growling.

He came flying down the corridor between the beds and he had a weapon in his hand.
Quickly, I slammed the door in his face. I will never forget that face, his teeth had been filed to wicked points.

I picked up the station phone and with shaking hands, called for a male nurse to help me.

"He must have been hiding under the bed, miss. He won't hurt you though," Came the voice not offering me help and I could sense sniggering in his voice, after all, I was a newbie.

"You get yourself up here and get me out of this ward. He is trying to break the glass!"

The male nurse arrived fairly quickly and was able to talk the inmate down. He followed us down to the outside quadrangle. All the men stood together, mumbling to themselves or being sexually deviant towards staff members.

Once a month, the women from the psychiatric institution in the nearest town visited Peat Island. I was disgusted when told why.

"Oh, we just let them go, they get with the men and have a great time. The women have been fixed so as they don't have kids, just fun." These words of wisdom came from the cleaner.

Fortunately, I never worked a Sunday shift, they didn't roster female staff for the inmates 'fun day.' I think way back in the seventies, this was acceptable. Or, in a way, normal behaviour between sexes. Most men need an outlet, especially the insane. Far better than knifing someone.

On my third week I was becoming bored. I got on well with the Supervisor and asked him could I spend some time in the Hospital Annexe?

"Of course you can," he smiled benignly.

Talk about a mix of maladies. The hospital annexe housed poor souls that were not so much insane as pitiful sights that needed high-care nursing.

At least the danger that I had been faced with during my stay in the main building, wasn't present amongst these poor young people.

My personal doctor came across to check on them regularly. He was surprised to see me working at the annexe.

We looked after four young people. One lad was a compulsive eater, there was a large lock on the fridge. He was fed salad daily.

He was cunning enough to call some friends to slip goodies through the bars to him - sweets for the sweet.

The most pitiful sight was the little man who was never off a bedpan. Apparently, his parents were downs-syndrome and of course the boy was intellectually impaired.

They put him in a cage in the back yard of their home, fed him on chook food (chicken pellets.) Because he was so cramped, he couldn't stand up. The chicken food ruined his bowel and the consequences - he couldn't keep any food in his body to nourish him.
He was eighteen, the size of a six-year old, blind and always sat on a bedpan after each meal, usually rice - orientated to slow down his bowl movements. The smell was dreadful.

There were two other young men in the annexe, they were both intellectually challenged. What sort of place was this? They should have been looked after in a nursing home not an asylum. After all, there is a big difference between mentally insane and intellectually challenged.

My last night on the Island and I was waiting for a guard to accompany me to my car. He hadn't showed up. I tried to concentrate on the lapping of the waves against the oyster-clad rocks that surrounded the island. I just wanted to go home and forget this place.

I decided to walk to my car by myself - bad move.

Suddenly, I heard a deep, menacing voice behind me. It was so dark one couldn't see their hand in front of their face.

"I have a present for you, nurse," he was dancing from one foot to the other.

Turning around I was face to face with an inmate with a hessian sack which looked very heavy. He had a oyster knife in one hand.

"Get away from her," the guard had finally arrived.

"I have oysters for nurse," the inmate grinned.

"Back away now!" The guard was dead serious, he had seen the knife.

He dropped the hessian bag and oysters clattered on the concrete. I thanked him for all the work he had done to give me a bag of oysters. Obviously, he had been shucking oysters all day. I felt sorry for him. And so I put the bag in the trunk of my car.

Suddenly, he lunged with the oyster knife. The guard was faster and pulled the inmate's arm up his back until he dropped the small, sharp knife.

I was never so glad to pull into my driveway and to be finished with Peat Island. Today, it is closed and I think many ghosts walk the empty corridors. Tourists revel in the history of the place. I will never forget "man's inhumanity to man." So many suicides occurred at that place, drowning's and beatings.

Today, things are better, some can't be cured, at least the intellectually challenged are not housed with the mentally insane. As I mentioned before - I was in for a wild ride!

PS: Shorty, the little blind man eventually wore sandals and learned to walk with the help of the occupational therapist. A ray of sunshine amongst the grime of Peat Island.