'Incoherent and violent if crossed': The admission of older people to the New Norfolk Lunatic Asylum in the nineteenth century

While many older people were admitted to lunatic asylums in nineteenth-century Australia, we know little about this group and the reasons for their admission. To address that gap, this article explores the admission of people aged sixty years and over to the New Norfolk Lunatic Asylum (Tasmania) from 1830-99, through the analysis of the asylum's admission register. Older people comprised 328 (14 percent) of the 2,258 admissions during that period, with the majority being men. Many of the older people admitted to the asylum were single and poor, but a surprising number had families and financial means, suggesting a complexity of circumstances surrounding the admission. Three case studies provide further insight into these admissions and asylum life more generally.