Top price for Troubled Asylum

The book and hospital keys.

AN autographed first edition copy of Ralph Gowlland's landmark book on the history of the Royal Derwent Hospital sold for $255 in an online auction last week.

The hardback copy of Troubled Asylum and three antique keys from the hospital were offered for sale on eBay by a New South Wales man who had relatives working in the hospital from the 1930s through to the 1980s. The buyer is believed to live locally.

First published in 1981, Troubled Aslyum was one of a number of books written by the late Mr Gowlland, who lived at Lawitta for many years. A reprint in paperback was issued in 1996.

Some of Mr Gowlland's other titles included Some Van Diemens Land Affairs; Trampled Wilderness: the history of south-west Tasmania; Adamsfield: the town that lived and died; and Darke of the peaks: a short history of surveyor-explorer John Charles Darke in Van Diemens Land, Victoria and South Australia 1806-1844.