Content warning: This article discusses the use of psychedelics for psychotherapy in Melbourne hospitals from 1955-1975 and contains adult themes.
Introduction
The Good, the Bad and the Forgotten
The early history of Australian clinical research into psychedelic-assisted therapy using psilocybin and LSD has largely faded from memory. With the current resurgence of interest in the therapeutic potential of these substances, it’s surprising that such a pivotal chapter remains obscured in historical accounts and collective memory. This oversight might be due to the passage of time, the radically different societal context of those earlier decades when experimental medical practices were more common and documentation less rigorous, or the complexity of the stories themselves.
This article explores the pioneering work during the late 1950s to 1975, when Melbourne’s Newhaven Private Hospital became a hub for early psychiatric experimentation. Psychiatrists like Dr Lance Howard Whitaker explored the potential of psychedelics to revolutionise mental health treatment. However, these efforts became entangled with the infamous cult, “The Family”, illustrating the ethical challenges and societal backlash of the era.
Within this turbulent landscape, there were narratives of profound personal growth and self-realisation, such as that of Evelyn Harrison, whose story is covered in this article. Harrison, a resilient and courageous young mother, underwent psilocybin-assisted therapy in Melbourne, Australia, during the 1960s. Her journey, set against the sociocultural, medical, and legal contexts of the time, highlights the dual nature of psychedelic use: its transformative potential alongside the tragic consequences of its misuse.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration’s 2023 decision to allow limited access to psilocybin in Australia for treatment-resistant depression underscores the persistent demand for innovative treatment options, bolstered by contemporary research in the field. While only time will reveal whether the benefits outweigh the risks, the reintroduction of psychedelics into the clinical setting offers new hope for patients in need. However, accessibility remains a significant issue that must be addressed to ensure that these treatments are available to all who could benefit from them.
Below is an abridged version of a three-part article series available online, which explores the broader context in more detail and includes additional images, links and historical newspaper clippings. If you enjoy this piece, we encourage you to read the full series via EGA Publishing here.
Australia’s First Wave of Psychedelic Regulation
In Australia, psychedelics were first regulated in Victoria under the Poisons Act of 1964 as Schedule 4 substances, permitting their prescription only by licensed psychiatrists. By 1966, amid the growing cultural backlash against LSD, Sandoz Australia withdrew LSD, psilocybin, and related substances from distribution. A letter from the Sandoz director at the time, Aurelio Cerletti, describes the situation:
“In spite of all precautions, cases of LSD abuse have occurred from time to time in varying circumstances completely beyond the control of SANDOZ. Very recently this danger has increased considerably and in some parts of the world has reached a serious threat to public health…Taking into consideration all the above-mentioned circumstances and the flood of requests for LSD which has now become uncontrollable, the pharmaceutical management of SANDOZ has decided to stop immediately all further production and distribution of LSD. The same policy will apply to all derivatives and analogues of LSD with hallucinogenic properties as well as to Psilocybin, Psilocin and their hallucinogenic congeners (Cerletti, cited in Hofmann, 2009, p. 86)”.
After a short pause in supply, it was clarified that LSD would be available in countries that assumed full responsibility for its use and regulation with strict safeguards.
This development prompted Victorian researchers and clinicians to lobby the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) to adopt much stricter regulation protocols in order to maintain a limited pathway for the therapeutic use of these substances. One of the key individuals behind the amendments to the Poisons Act was Dr Lance Howard Whitaker, who consulted at Newhaven Private Hospital in Kew, Melbourne, and regularly employing LSD and psilocybin in his therapeutic practice at the hospital.
Dr Whitaker was a pioneer in the field of LSD therapy and research in Australia, initiating his work with LSD as early as 1954 by conducting psychedelic-assisted therapy on war veterans returning from Korea. Over the next two decades, Dr Whitaker pursued his mission to explore LSD’s therapeutic potential. In the mid-1960s, he even travelled to Sandoz in Basel to meet Albert Hofmann—the “father of LSD”—in person. While Dr Whitaker was convinced of LSD’s healing powers, his enthusiastic advocacy often bordered on the evangelical. With this same persistence, in 1967, in an effort to ensure medicine remained available to patients, LSD and psilocybin were reclassified to Schedule 7, a category designated for substances with a high potential for harm that require special handling. This successful lobbying extended access to LSD and psilocybin for 19 registered psychiatrists in Melbourne for use with patients only. The new regulation prohibited self-experimentation. Due to Dr Whitaker’s dedicated lobbying for psychedelic access and the resulting changes in law, Sandoz resumed sending psilocybin and LSD to Australia for use by qualified psychiatrists, with the endorsement of the Minister for Health.
In 1971, the ratification of the United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances led to the formation of an international treaty in which signatory countries, including Australia, were required to create more direct and effective policies to fight the “drug problem”. Due to political pressure, LSD and psilocybin’s application as ‘medicines’ was drawing to a close. By 1975, regulations tightened significantly, prohibiting the therapeutic use of LSD in Australia, which aligned with stricter international drug laws. LSD could only be sought for strictly research purposes, which required direct approval from the Minister for Health. Public sentiment, political opinions, and medical establishment views had shifted regarding the use of psychedelic drugs as excessively risky and without medical application. This caused access to psychedelics to drastically reduce and research to fall out of favour for four decades from the mid-1970s.
Reflections on the Formative Years of Psychedelic Therapy in Australia
Reflecting on the early history of psychedelic medical research, this part focuses on the experiences of a patient who underwent psychedelic-assisted therapy in Melbourne from 1964 to 1972. The following testimony was recorded through an interview and email correspondence with Evelyn Harrison, who, at the time, was 91 years old and living in Queensland, Australia. Evelyn’s story is historically important as it presents a largely positive side of the narrative often absent from much of the literature of the formative years of psychedelic-assisted therapy in Australia. Evelyn has no history of recreational drug use, and her experiences with psychedelics occurred in a clinical environment through psychedelic-assisted therapy. To her knowledge, most of her experiences were conducted with psilocybin. She reports only once knowingly having taken LSD, which has a much longer duration and is generally more overwhelming and draining than psilocybin.
Evelyn Harrison
Evelyn was born in Albert Park, Melbourne, in 1932. She married and had a daughter, Kim, in 1958 at The Alfred Hospital in Victoria. Soon after the birth, Evelyn found that she had not recovered well from the pregnancy and was “not herself”. Although she loved her daughter very much, she was unable to bond or care for her as she had hoped. Evelyn suffered from severe depression, which we now recognise as postnatal depression (PND). Observing her struggling and seeing no improvement, her GP suggested she try an emerging experimental treatment. Evelyn describes this time in her life: “I had a doctor who knew about this research, and he said, would I consent to going?”. Evelyn explained that she consented as she wished to “attempt to understand why I was depressed, while having been given the gift of a beautiful daughter I loved dearly”.
Evelyn was included in a new experimental group that began in 1964, consisting of around ten participants. This group was made up of voluntary patients like herself, along with two individuals mandated to participate: one referred by the courts due to offences related to paedophilia and another who was suffering from schizophrenia. The treatment regimen combined new drug therapies with both individual psychiatric consultations and group therapy sessions which were held at Newhaven Private Psychiatric Hospital, Kew, a facility now known for its experimental and controversial practices.
The Psychiatrists
The group was managed by Dr. William Russell Richards, a psychiatrist at Newhaven who incorporated psilocybin and LSD into patient treatments. Several other psychiatrists played significant roles in the program, including Dr. Harry Bethune, Dr. John Mackay, and Dr. Howard Whitaker. Ronald Conway, a consulting psychologist, also occasionally contributed to the sessions at Newhaven Hospital. Evelyn described the diverse makeup of the group and the importance of proper supervision: “Our group of about 10 people included a paedophile bound over by police to attend, homosexuals, both male and female, people with drinking, smoking, and depression issues. Also, schizophrenics—the latter did not respond well to the treatment…This is why treatment always needs to be supervised by responsible, medically-trained professionals”.
The Sessions – Combined Therapy
Evelyn attended approximately two to three sessions per month, which typically included three phases: first, the administration of psilocybin; second, the “trip,” during which Dr. Richards would have some limited, therapy-based interactions but which were largely self-guided; and third, a group-based therapy session after the peak experience. In Evelyn’s words, “We were all singly put in a room… and the doctor came in, gave the injection and stayed for a little while till we got settled and our journey started. And then he went out”. Following the trip session, “We all got together in a common room… And we’d all sit in there… for a couple of hours, we had lunch at the place, and we sat in this room and talked about our experiences. So everybody got to hear why the people were there [seeking treatment]… And I used to write my experiences down.”
This “combined therapy”, implemented by Dr Richards and described by Evelyn, may have drawn on the work of the female Argentine psychoanalyst Luisa G. de Álvarez de Toledo, who pioneered techniques such as LSD-assisted talk therapy in both individual sessions and group settings in the late 1950s. These sessions were often held in more relaxed environments, accompanied by food, drinks, and music. A defining aspect of Álvarez de Toledo’s approach was her emphasis on group therapy, which she believed amplified emotional expression and revealed the collective unconscious more vividly than individual sessions could (Álvarez de Toledo et al. 1957). In Evelyn’s own words, discussing the group therapy that took place with herself and others after the private individual dose session;
“He spoke briefly about the treatment [session] at the end, and then we all went to one room and recounted what had come up under the drug. Lunch was given, and the group went back for more discussion. The [combined therapy] sessions went all day. It was better, our experiences were very fresh, and our reserves down, thanks to the lingering effects of psilocybin. There was no pressure to talk if you didn’t want to, but most were eager to get help presided over by our psychiatrist. The group was close and supportive. We also had one-to-one private sessions along the way with Dr Richards, and he was available in a crisis”.
Evelyn noted several times that there was some variability in the drugs administered across her session and over the years of treatment. In these times, participants were rarely informed beforehand about the substances or dose they would receive, leading to fluctuations in their experiences as the doctors experimented with dosage and interactions to find the optimum results for their patients. According to Evelyn, patients were usually discharged the same day, which is consistent with the clinical/therapeutic use of psilocybin. Other psychedelic research chemicals that are reported to have been used at the time, on their own and in conjunction with psilocybin and LSD, are 4-HO-DET and psilocin, both also associated with Albert Hofmann and Sandoz pharmaceuticals. According to the literature of the time, non-psychedelic compounds that were explored in conjunction with psychedelic-assisted therapy included methylphenidate, sodium amytal, methylamphetamine and nicotinamide. If the patient was emotionally distraught or uncontrollable, the ‘trip’ could be dampened or terminated with the use of chlorpromazine, reserpine or azacyclonol.
Committing to a long-term treatment program, Evelyn volunteered for psychedelic-assisted therapy for eight years. She explained her willingness to continue the treatment over this extended period, citing significant personal issues she aimed to resolve: “I went to group therapy for postnatal depression, determined not to inflict my problems on my daughter. It was a gruelling journey, rather like crawling over broken glass and hard work. I had to deal with a Catholic upbringing, dysfunctional parents and a disturbed marriage”.
Evelyn viewed the experimental therapy group as a very serious and professional affair, where confidentiality was paramount and the selection of participants carefully considered. She said: “these sessions would be designed to help people with real problems… The whole idea was for you to tell them how you felt… I doubt [Dr Richards] would take anybody… He would have vetted his group pretty carefully, I think… So he was very good… and it was conducted very strictly. We weren’t supposed to communicate with each other outside [the sessions]”.
The Therapy
Dr Richards’ approach underscores that the therapeutic objective of psychedelic-assisted therapy at the time focused on accessing the unconscious mind to unearth trauma (often from childhood) and distressing events. The goal was to bring these memories to the forefront, allowing patients to engage with them using their ‘adult mind,’ thereby facilitating a deeper understanding and healing of traumas from any period of their lives.
It was—and remains—a commonly held belief in psychiatry that many adverse events occurring during childhood can remain hidden from the conscious mind and stay unresolved. The aim of psychedelic-assisted therapy was to address these types of trauma, particularly in patients who were treatment resistant. The approach encourages patients to regress or remember formative childhood memories and re-experience negative memories, with the goal of integrating and ultimately resolving these issues.
This process was largely self-directed; the memories or experiences that surfaced during the dose sessions often stemmed from material previously unconscious, now consciously engaged by the patient. Often, the psychiatrist was not present in the room. The setup allowed patients to explore their inner landscapes independently, which was believed to help them work through deep-seated emotional wounds more effectively. This testimony from Evelyn helps us better understand how therapy sessions and psilocybin effects were utilised and experienced:
“The whole thing about it is it gives you total recall – not just what you think you thought at the time. It gives you total recall like a film going in front of your eyes….It’s like crawling over broken glass. But we did. And it really did help; hearing the other people also talk about how they had had a bad time made you suddenly realise that, you know, there’s a lot going on and it just, it just changed your whole attitude”.
Childhood Trauma
Albert Hofmann wrote, “Another significant psychotherapeutic valuable characteristic of LSD inebriation is the tendency of long forgotten or suppressed content of experiences to appear again in consciousness. Traumatic events, which are sought in psychoanalysis, may then become accessible to psychotherapeutic treatment” (Hofmann, 2009, p. 74). Below, Evelyn recounts experiences from one of her dose sessions and describes the therapeutic process used to address the insights and memories that surfaced.
“I was sitting on something, I wouldn’t look at it because it was too painful. So I got an intravenous injection, which took me straight back to it, and I remembered I was seven years old…We were in the botanical gardens in Melbourne, my mother and father walking through the gardens. And I was just playing around, and there was an old stone building at the side, and I ran around, and there was a man there, and he exposed himself and put my hand on his penis. And said, if you tell your parents, I’ll kill you. And I ran back to my parents and I was too scared to say anything. Then for years, even when I was happy… I would think oh something awful is going to happen. And I couldn’t understand why. I always felt this. But when I returned to that incident and saw what had happened, that feeling went completely away. I no longer had any fear of anything going wrong for me, like that. So if that’s how it worked, it took you to look at with an adult brain at what a child was seeing”.
Evelyn thought of this work as self-help:
“What we did was come into the group and we would talk about what came up and Doctor Richards would comment on certain things, but he wouldn’t tell you what to do—you had to do it yourself. It was definitely a self-help thing, and it was very tough because some of the things that came up were very painful, and they’ve been put away, and you never wanted to look at them again”.
Dr David Livingstone summarises the potential of psilocybin and LSD for treating childhood trauma in a paper in the New Zealand Medical Journal from 1966 on the usefulness of LSD, psilocybin and mescaline in psychiatry:
“LSD.25, psilocybin and mescaline all have the power of producing hallucinations and vivid fantasies. When used in the treatment of psychiatric disorders under the careful direction of a therapist, they may bring into consciousness incidents and situations from the individual’s early life, which have long been repressed and held unconscious by fear, guilt, or other factors binding psychological resistance mechanisms…the drug appears to cause a selective undoing of ego functions bringing progressively earlier images and emotional states into consciousness” (1966, p. 1966).
Hard Work And Lasting Outcomes
From Evelyn’s descriptions, it is clear she experienced lasting positive outcomes from her sessions, demonstrating the potential benefits of long-term psychedelic-assisted therapy. Over time, she began to actively engage with the therapy to enhance her results: “I learnt to analyse my past and re-shape it—hard work, but worth every minute. I learnt to direct the drug to look at areas I needed to examine, old thinking that had to go. I had wonderful breakthroughs that lit up my world”. Not only did she recover from her postnatal depression, but more significantly, she says, the therapy allowed her to identify, better understand, and ultimately work up the courage to end her dysfunctional marriage – “It got me out of a destructive marriage and made me realise how little I knew and how much I had to learn… I think the ability to leave my husband, of seeing things, understand what [my husband] was doing, and I think that was a big thing. I was able to just leave. I just walked out”.
Evelyn’s psychedelic-assisted therapy was a regular, long-term commitment. She had great respect and trust for her therapist, Dr Richards, and approached each session with clear intentions. While Evelyn’s outcome from psychedelic-assisted therapy was largely positive, we lack data or stories from other patients in the same group. Evelyn admitted that not everyone in the group benefited as much as she did; there may have been negative outcomes associated with other patients receiving similar treatment under Dr Richards’ care.
Testing The Waters: Australia’s First Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Trial
In the early 1960s, Dr Howard Whitaker embarked on a novel study at Newhaven Hospital to evaluate the efficacy of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) as an adjunct to psychotherapy. He discusses his methods and research in the first of two papers about the study, titled “Lysergic acid diethylamide in psychotherapy. Part i: clinical aspects” in the Medical Journal of Australia on January 4, 1964. His work aimed to determine whether the outcomes of psychotherapy could be significantly enhanced through the controlled use of LSD. This clinical trial involved 100 patients at Newhaven Hospital, suffering from various psychological disorders, including psychoneuroses and personality disorders. Each patient was given an average of three or more sessions of psychedelic-assisted therapy. The patients were compared to a control group that he put together from existing patients who received traditional psychotherapy without LSD.
Dr Whitaker’s approach was informed by the predominantly Freudian psychoanalytic theory of the day, which emphasised the impact of unresolved early childhood experiences on adult neuroses and personality disorders. He hypothesised that LSD could facilitate a deeper understanding and re-evaluation of these early experiences, potentially leading to significant therapeutic breakthroughs. During the trials, LSD was administered in a hospital setting and the experiences of patients were carefully documented and analysed. The patients were encouraged to wear earplugs and a blindfold, to assist them to focus on the drug effects. The sessions focused on enabling patients to revisit their formative experiences, reducing their defensiveness, and enhancing their emotional expression and self-evaluation. The paper gives a sense that one of Dr Whitaker’s motivations for his research was to find new tools for psychotherapy: “The main common feature in the literature is the repeated claim to results which seem spectacular, if not dubious, to anyone familiar with the difficulties and poor results usually associated with psychotherapeutic management of neurosis and character (personality) disorder” (Whitaker, 1974, p. 5).
The mixed results of Dr Whitaker’s study were published in a second paper, “Lysergic acid diethylamide in psychotherapy. Part ii” in the Medical Journal of Australia on January 11, 1964, revealing significant insights. Significant methodological contrasts should be noted between Dr Whitaker’s therapeutic intervention and the now-broadly accepted “standard” approach to psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, which differ particularly in terms of set and setting, preparation and integration, the use of therapist dyads, and group versus individual therapy. Then, as now, not all patients benefited from LSD-assisted therapy—but those who did often experienced profound insights and improvements in their psychological conditions. The success of the treatment was particularly noted in patients who were able to engage deeply with the therapeutic process and establish a strong rapport with the therapist. Dr Whitaker reported that LSD could accelerate and enhance the psychotherapeutic process, but its effectiveness varied greatly among individuals. He concluded: “Psychotherapy with lysergic acid diethylamide has been shown to produce better results more quickly than equivalent psychotherapy without LSD” (1974, p. 41).
Dr Whitaker’s study was groundbreaking for its time and also appears to be the first of its kind in Australia. Dr Whitaker’s research underscores the potential of psychedelics to facilitate deep psychological insights and therapeutic breakthroughs within a controlled and professionally guided clinical environment. It highlights the value of skilled, trained therapists and committed participation by patients in achieving improved treatment outcomes when working with psychedelics.
Dr Whitaker’s study can also be critiqued on several fronts when evaluated by today’s standards. For example, the routine administration of barbiturates and antipsychotics to sedate patients and truncate their “trip”, was an approach that potentially cut them off from possible insights and valuable integration time. Furthermore, the patients treated in these early psychedelic therapy trials were selected within a social framework that largely no longer exists. The methodology of those early trials and the inclusion of patients with conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder would likely not be deemed appropriately safe for equivalent trials today. Safeguards for patients and outcomes are now better regulated, although some loopholes remain.
While Dr. Whitaker conducted his study, he was a prominent figure in medicine, practicing at the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne and lecturing at the University of Melbourne.Shortly before his 1964 publications, he metAnne Hamilton-Byrne – the well known leader of the infamous cult ‘The Family’. Around this time, the utilisation of LSD at Newhaven broadened significantly. Dr Whitaker began experimenting with LSD himself, discovering its profound effects firsthand. His practices soon began to blur the lines between medical use and psycho-spiritual exploration as Anne’s influence led him to utilize LSD in ways that veered into manipulative and cult-like experimentation. This set the stage for more than just a bad trip, leading to a web of brainwashing, control—and in some cases—trauma with long lasting repercussions.
Moving on from Newhaven Hospital
The majority of Evelyn’s therapy did not take place at Newhaven Hospital. She indicated that after about a year, the group moved to private rooms associated with Epworth Hospital in Richmond. This shift is notable, particularly for those familiar with the history of Newhaven Hospital and its controversial use of LSD in both clinical and non-clinical sessions.
Evelyn believes that Dr Richards was actively trying to protect his patients from the questionable activities that began to unfold at Newhaven Hospital around 1965. Following her husband’s death the year before, the hospital’s matron and new owner, Marion Vilimek, fell further under the influence of Anne Hamilton-Byrne. Influential followers of Anne, likely including the cult’s co-founder Raynor Johnson, persuaded Vilimek to restructure the hospital’s ownership to include Hamilton-Byrne. Johnson’s connections to academia and the hospital lent an air of legitimacy to the group’s practices, which attracted professionals such as doctors and lawyers, further expanding the cult’s influence.
It is well-documented that during this period, most of the psychiatric staff at Newhaven, including Dr Whitaker and Dr John Mackay, along with many nurses, also came under the emerging cult leader’s sway. Newhaven began to shift towards a “spiritual” approach to therapeutic care, with LSD being misappropriated for cruel and sinister purposes. Evelyn recounts the changes in her treatment sessions: “That group was up in the hills, and it was a big scandal in Melbourne. [Vilimek] was in that [spiritual] group, and Dr Richards took all his [therapy] group away immediately the next week, and we went somewhere else… in Richmond.”
Dr Whitaker’s Role
Evelyn shared that she was aware of Dr Whitaker’s role as a practising psychiatrist at both Newhaven and Epworth during her treatment., She clarified that she was exclusively under the care of Dr Richards, who provided her LSD therapy only once during her therapy under his supervision. Given the timing and dosage locations, it appears unlikely that her treatment was part of Dr Whitaker’s LSD trials. Nonetheless, it is evident that Dr Richards and Dr Whitaker continued their collaborative work with both psilocybin and LSD, likely up until 1970 when the substances were reclassified under Schedule 9 of the Poisons Act.
Testimony that Dr Whitaker provided to an Australian Department of Health review in 1967 not only indicates that Dr Whitaker and Dr Richards continued to work together but also highlights the scale of their psychedelic-assisted therapy program. The review concluded that neither doctor satisfied the stringent conditions of their permits as outlined at the time under Schedule 7 of the Poisons Act. The Department was concerned that the nineteen psychiatrists who were licensed to prescribe LSD in Victoria were not meeting the Schedule’s requirements and that the drugs could be misused, accessed by non-authorised staff, and could be diverted to the black market. According to the report, the doctors continued to ignore the recommendations for working with LSD and psilocybin from the Department of Health. However, in order for their patients to continue accessing treatment, the Department of Health informed the doctors of the need to improve their storage methods and tighten access to the drugs going forward.
Deborah Snow reported on Newhaven, The Family, and Melbourne’s LSD history in a 1990 episode of Four Corners titled “Acid Test.” Miss Snow provided this summary of Dr Whitaker’s influence at the time: “Whitaker seems to have been a key force in spreading the LSD gospel in Victoria… There was similar interest in LSD’s cousin, the hallucinogenic psilocybin. While some doctors interstate tried the drugs, Victoria earned the reputation as the main hallucinogenic state in the Commonwealth” (Cited in Snow, D, 1990).
From Newhaven to Mayday Hills
In the years leading up to 1969, Dr Whitaker had set up his own practice in Kew on the advice of Hamilton-Byrne. But the venture did not go well and in 1969 he declared bankruptcy (Bankruptcy District of the State of Victoria: Sequestration Orders. Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, 29 May 1969). It seems this was the final blow to a fractured relationship. Around this time, Dr Whitaker extricated himself from Newhaven and The Family, while Hamilton-Byrne consolidated full control of Newhaven Hospital.
Seeking a fresh start, Whitaker accepted a position as Chief Psychiatric Superintendent at Mayday Hills Psychiatric Hospital in Beechworth in 1970. There, he continued his work with LSD and psilocybin, directing one of Australia’s last legal psychedelic therapy programs until at least 1975 (Watts, Clark & Munday, 2026). While no first hand testimony from Whitaker’s Mayday Hills patients has yet emerged, interviews with former staff provide a rare eyewitness account of this work. One medical officer described Whitaker as “a very skilled psychotherapist” and recalled, “I was aware of Whitaker using it with patients at Beechworth. It wasn’t a therapy in itself, it helped people get access to memories that they had difficulty getting access to, so it shortened the treatment of psychotherapy”. Another medical officer, who frequently attended LSD-assisted therapy sessions, recalled: “The patient was blindfolded; it was a towel over their eyes. So, it was aimed at being an inward experience, not like people use it as a street drug. It opens up people’s consciousness to things that have happened in their past.” Reflecting on Whitaker’s approach, the same medical officer also recalled one of his frequent remarks: “No one ever got mentally unwell because they were happy.” (Watts, Clark & Munday, 2026).
After 1975, Whitaker held a variety of roles, including Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Melbourne, before later moving into private practice in Albury, NSW, in 1979. Meanwhile, at Newhaven, Dr Mackay remained an active psychiatrist and supportive member of The Family, likely continuing to supply LSD to the group, further enabling Hamilton-Byrne’s activities.
Regulation To Prohibition
By 1975, LSD, psilocybin, and psilocin were reclassified as Schedule 9 substances under the Australian Government’s Poisons Standard, overseen by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). This prohibited their use as prescription drugs, placing them in the same category as heroin. All clinical applications were cancelled, with no exceptions, or nearly five decades psilocybin was deemed to have no medical valueThe regulatory framework evolved further in Victoria in 1981 with the introduction of the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act, which amalgamated all previous regulations relating to the Poisons Act into a single comprehensive legal structure. This framework continues to govern the control and use of these substances in Victoria.
Underground Communities and the Rise of DIY Psychedelic Culture
As policing and regulation increased, restricting the availability of psychedelics, underground counterculture began to emerge in Australia. This largely grew out of movements against the Vietnam War and various other activist and subcultural groups that began to make their presence known. They included student politics, First Nations land rights, environmental activism, DIY culture, rock music ethos, the wellness movement, citizen science, drug law reform advocates, queer culture, the cooperative movement, intentional communities, Eastern and New Age religious movements, zine culture, permaculture, various back-to-nature philosophies such as deep ecology and communities emerging around the development of the personal computer. A particularly notable example is the township of Nimbin, located in the Northern Rivers region of NSW, which has become a focal point for these intersecting ideas. Nimbin is home to Tuntable Falls, one of the first and longest-running intentional communities in Australia, which was formed after the Aquarius Festival in 1973. The Nimbin community underwent a transformation as a result of the counterculture, becoming a hub for environmental activism, drug law reform and alternative thinking. The town is the home of the Nimbin Hemp Embassy and hosts an annual cannabis festival called “Nimbin MardiGrass”.
In the 1990s, the internet played a critical role in shaping counterculture movements. The underground techno-cultural movement that emerged across the globe was influenced by a diverse array of psychedelic experiences and counterculture movements that preceded it. These were shared at informal gatherings, street parties and “bush doofs” (outdoor dance parties in nature featuring electronic music), and fueled by a DIY mindset and the psychedelic art movement. Everyone was encouraged to be a “participant” and actively contribute to shaping the event or gathering, creating a sense of unity and shared purpose. As Mark Angelo Harrison succinctly put it: “No longer a place to gaze up adoringly at some contrived act strutting about on a pedestal. The dance floor had been reclaimed by the people as a free social space: a place where people felt centred, balanced – together” (Harrison, 2023, p. 26). An academic underground community also emerged in parallel to the party scene, embracing DIY and citizen science philosophies to develop and hone skills related to the cultivation, culture, use and conservation of ethnobotanical plants and fungi. This community has sought a deeper understanding of altered states of mind and the role of entheogens in culture, both ancient and contemporary, with a “grow your own and share your seed” mindset. Focusing on harm reduction practices, the community has worked to create a safe space for those advocating for drug law reform. It serves as a testing ground for topics not permitted in traditional academia, or beyond the scope of legal practice, and has supported the formation of a network of activists and underground researchers dedicated to reigniting psychedelic research in Australia. Also notable are online communities, including Shaman-Australis and Bluelight as well as educational charities such as Entheogenesis Australis (EGA). Following an EGA psychedelic symposium in Melbourne, it was at an EGA workshop in 2010 with Rick Doblin (MAPS) that the organisation Psychedelic Research in Science & Medicine (PRISM) was conceived, which became pivotal in advancing the next chapters of the psychedelic research narrative in Australia.
These movements have fostered a community of like-minded individuals who value both the psycho-spiritual and recreational use of psychedelics. The collective interest and support of grassroots movements and community activism has been crucial in pushing for drug law reform, ethnobotanical conservation and increasing awareness of the therapeutic potential of psychedelics.
The Australian Psychedelic Renaissance
Despite a tumultuous history and false start, the recent re-emergence of research and clinical applications of psychedelic medicines, often referred to as the “psychedelic renaissance”, has taken a turn for the better. In Australia, this is exemplified by a 2020 study led by Dr Margaret Ross (St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne) and Dr Martin Williams (Psychedelic Research in Science & Medicine), who conducted a landmark trial of psilocybin-assisted therapy for anxiety and depression associated with terminal illness. This study has paved the way for a number of new psychedelic clinical trials in Australia.
The shift in the way psychedelics have been viewed by the public, along with growing research supporting their application in medicine over the last 5-10 years, led to a significant change on July 1, 2023, when the TGA reclassified psilocybin as a Schedule 8 Controlled Medicine under the Australian Government’s Poisons Standard, allowing prescription by authorised psychiatrists specifically for treatment-resistant depression. This marks a cautious yet growing mainstream acknowledgement of the potential medical benefits of psychedelics, leading to increased interest and research in the field.
Unveiling Melbourne’s Psychedelic Legacy
The therapeutic potential of psychedelics was initially demonstrated in Australia through the early research conducted by psychiatrists such as Dr Whitaker and Dr Richards. This history is generally overlooked in the current conversation around psychedelic applications in science and medicine in Australia.
A 1991 Sunday Age article titled “How Melbourne became the country’s LSD capital” brought to the public’s attention the early days of psychedelic use in Melbourne. It states that between 1962 and 1970, at least 4000 patients were treated in Melbourne with LSD, with an average of four sessions each. The authors speculate the total number of patients treated with LSD was likely several thousand more than the recorded figure. The article documents troubling stories from patients, including abuse, lack of consent, and suicides linked to the use of LSD and deep sleep therapy (DST) in Melbourne hospitals. It specifically identifies Newhaven as being more experimental and damaging to its patients compared to other hospitals, highlighting the involvement of Dr. Mackay and Dr. Whitaker, as well as their connections to The Family.
The article also features Dr David Barnes, who practised with LSD at Royal Park Hospital (Victoria) and Kahlyn Hospital (South Australia). Dr Barnes championed LSD’s therapeutic potential in 1991 (many years after he finished working with LSD), primarily for treating depression, anxiety, and obsessive neurosis. He described LSD as the “light that went out,” reflecting on its discontinuation as a medical treatment and his belief in its clinical value (cited in Daley and Crawford, 1991, p. 5). The article highlights the complex legacy of psychedelic therapy in Melbourne and the enduring debate over its medical legitimacy and safety.
Toward a Responsible Future for Psychedelic Medicine
Dr Whitaker’s legacy with psychedelics is complex. While his early contributions advanced our understanding of psychedelic-assisted therapy, his later actions involved non-clinical administration and highly dangerous applications of LSD to vulnerable patients. His actions were both damaging and irresponsible. By contrast, Dr Richards’ more professional approach to psychedelic-assisted therapy, at least in Evelyn’s case, seems to have been genuinely positive and productive in the long term.
As Australia enters a new phase of exploring psychedelic research and therapy, it is crucial to proceed with caution. We must learn from the past and ensure that current practices are informed by ethical considerations and supported by robust scientific research and protocols. It is equally important to temper expectations and avoid sensationalist and evangelistic claims that could undermine the progress made in reintegrating psychedelics into clinical settings.
A balanced and careful approach will help safeguard the integrity of this re-emerging field while protecting patient safety. It is necessary to emphasise that the presence of ethical and skilled therapists is key to the success and long-term sustainability of treatment outcomes in the field of psychedelic-assisted medicine.
Decades of dedicated work by many researchers, clinicians, and advocates worldwide have brought us to the point where psychedelics, particularly psilocybin, have been given a second chance in psychiatry. A chance to help those with treatment-resistant mental health conditions. Evelyn Harrison said:
“The result of this treatment has stabilised my life. I take each day as it comes, conscious of the beauty around me. I live a few metres from the sea, I have a wonderful [second] husband, and would not change any of my life, which has been a learning process… hopefully, this will continue. I count myself so lucky to have been in the right place at the right time… I am 92 now and have had a very successful, happy marriage for 40 years. I am not afraid to die. Psilocybin changed my life for the better. I love this planet, its diversity and stunning beauty. Psilocybin was called ‘the doors to perception.’ There are secrets to learn, a cosmos to explore, and maybe an exciting hereafter or universal consciousness. One more big mystery… I think it’s one of the most marvellous things that ever happened to me, quite honestly, and I think I was just so lucky to be in the right place at the right time.”
Evelyn credits her participation in these experimental treatments with profoundly reshaping her life. What began as a struggle with post-natal depression ultimately led her to a place of deep self-awareness and inner peace. Evelyn reflects on her life with gratitude, emphasising how the therapy, particularly the use of psilocybin — helped her confront postnatal depression and completely eradicated her fear of dying.
Image of Evelyn Harrison (Photo courtesy of Evelyn Harrison)
Further Relief and Reciprocity
As we embrace the resurgence of psychedelic medicine in Australia, it is vital to carry forward the wisdom of ancient traditions and recent history, including insights gained from both underground and formal research around psychedelics. Psychoactive substances have been integral to the cultural and spiritual traditions of many First Nations peoples worldwide, serving ceremonial and healing purposes for centuries. The integration of medicinal plants and fungi into Western medicine is deeply rooted in this traditional knowledge. However, the practice of Western pharmacognosy (deriving drugs from natural sources) often occurs within an extractive, colonial framework, frequently lacking in reciprocity for the cultures that first discovered and used these medicines. This historical context highlights the need for a more equitable and respectful approach to the use of these substances.
In addition, the decriminalisation of certain psychedelic substances offers a pathway to reducing the harm associated with their personal use and possession. The most significant damage often stems not from the substances themselves but from the punitive legal measures that disproportionately impact individuals, leading to prolonged suffering, social isolation, criminal records, further trauma, and the separation of families. A shift toward decriminalisation would allow for a more compassionate, cost-effective approach focused on education and supportive care within communities, rather than imprisonment.
The risks associated with psychedelic use, though real, are generally low and can be mitigated by ensuring a safe “set and setting” and proper dosing. By reducing stigma and prioritising knowledge, education, and care over criminalisation, we can effectively minimise the harms linked to these substances. When used responsibly by informed, healthy adults, psychedelics offer profound potential for healing, personal growth, and enhancing our relationships with others and the environment.
As the stigma surrounding psychedelics begins to fade, stories like those of Evelyn Harrison and Dr William Richards can help us better understand, appreciate, and harness the life-changing potential of these pharmacological tools.
The profound therapeutic potential of these substances must be matched with ethical responsibility and respect for their First Nations cultural origins. By learning from past mistakes and ensuring that the future of psychedelic therapy is anchored in compassion, science, equity, and accessibility, we can unlock their true potential as tools for healing and personal growth. Dr Margaret Ross, a leader in the clinical use of psilocybin in Australia, emphasised at the 2022 EGA conference in Melbourne, “Psychedelics should not only be available within the four white walls of a clinic, but as a community and culturally we need to develop wise relationships with these compounds, listening to our global elders and taking these compounds seriously” (Ross M. 2023).
This article was printed in “Entheogenesis Australis Journal 6”, commemorating 21 years of Australian ethnobotanical research and community. The journal is available from the EGA website here.
This article was drawn from an expanded three-part series, with full references, sources and additional historical material available in the original online articles. The first article in the series can be found on the EGA website here.
In addition, Jonathan is a freelance photographer and writer, with work featured in various exhibitions and publications. He works in the arts as an assistant curator and event manager, and is passionate about art, history, and ethnobotanical activism, with a strong focus on social justice and environmental issues.
