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Information

  • 1906-1939: Werarora Boys Training Farm, New Zealand's principal institution for juvenile delinquents.

  • 1939-44: The RNZAF Station Levin was operational for pilot training.

  • 27 July, 1944: 42 young men and three male escorts arrived from Templeton to Levin Farm and Mental Deficiency Colony

  • 1957: Gazetted as a hospital, Levin Hospital and Training School.

  • 1961: Psychopaedic Nursing School set up on site.

  • 1961: Education Department set up special school on site.

  • 1967: National Training School for Training Officers

  • 1972: 660 residents, 400 under the age of 18, transferred under control of Palmerston North Hospital Board.

  • 1977: Renamed Kimberley Hospital.

  • 1988: Renamed Kimberley Centre.

  • 1991: Final nursing graduation.

  • 2006: Closure.

 

 

 

    The Kimberley Centre.

Another solo N.Z explore... A bit strange at times as the site is huge and some of the outer structures are lived in !

Oh and I also got trapped in a building by a cow for a while.... Anyway, on with the details....

DNR Urbex -The Kimberley Centre - New Zealand.

Timeline.

The last residents of the Kimberley Centre moved to their new community homes in October, 2006 and brought an end to an era of large scale residential institutions for people with an intellectual disability in New Zealand.

 

( the full article on the resettlement of the site can be found here )

 

 

 

The Kimberley centre ended it's existence as a hospital for the intellectually disabled ( it's final purpose ) in 2006.

 

For some patients, Kimberley had a somewhat grim reputation. It began as a home for delinquents, then was used as an air force training centre during WWII.

 

In the 1940s it become a farm and "mental deficiency colony" for intellectually handicapped boys and was renamed Kimberley Hospital in the 1970s.

 

At its peak it housed 700 patients, but at the time of its closure there were just 250.

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