About this item
- Title
- Fire at Seacliff hospital
- Content partner
- Manatū Taonga, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage
- Collection
- Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand
- Description
A disastrous fire on 8 December 1942 at Seacliff Mental Hospital, north of Dunedin, killed 37 women patients. They had been locked in, and because of staff shortages, the ward was visited only once an hour. By the time the fire was discovered, it had taken hold and the hospital fire brigade could do little. The subsequent inquiry condemned the practice of leaving patients locked up without supervision, and recommended that future institutional buildings be constructed of fire-proof materials,...
- Format
- Image
- Date created
- 21 March 2012
- Contributing partner
- New Zealand Herald
- URL
- https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/33422/fire-at-seacliff-hospital
What can I do with this item?
Check copyright status and what you can do with this item
Check informationReport this item
If you believe this item breaches our terms of use please report this item
Report this itemDigitalNZ brings together more than 30 million items from institutions so that they are easy to find and use. This information is the best information we could find on this item. This item was added on 30 April 2013, and updated 28 November 2025.
Learn more about how we work.
Share
What is the copyright status of this item?
Share, Modify
See below for specifics about how you may use this item.

More Information
Manatū Taonga, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage has this to say about the rights status of this item:
http://www.teara.govt.nz/copyright, Crown Copyright administered through the New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatu Taonga. All text licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 New Zealand Licence unless otherwise stated. Commercial re-use may be allowed on request. All non-text content is subject to specific conditions. New Zealand Herald Permission of the New Zealand Herald must be obtained before any re-use of this image.
What can I do with this item?
You must always check with Manatū Taonga, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage to confirm the specific terms of use, but this is our understanding:

Non-infringing use
NZ Copyright law does not prevent every use of a copyright work. You should consider what you can and cannot do with a copyright work.

Share it
This item is suitable for copying and sharing with others, without further permission.

Modify it
This item is suitable for modifying, remixing and building upon, without further permission.

No commercial use
You may not use this item commercially.
What can I do with this item?
Check copyright status and what you can do with this item
Check informationReport this item
If you believe this item breaches our terms of use please report this item
Report this itemDigitalNZ brings together more than 30 million items from institutions so that they are easy to find and use. This information is the best information we could find on this item. This item was added on 30 April 2013, and updated 28 November 2025.
Learn more about how we work.
Share
Related items
Loading...