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Story: Waikato region

Tokanui Hospital

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Tokanui Hospital

An aerial photograph from 1990 shows the extent of Tokanui Hospital, near Te Awamutu, which by the 1960s was one of the largest psychiatric institutions in New Zealand. It opened in 1912 with a few patients transferred from Porirua Hospital near Wellington, and closed in 1997.

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Waikato District Health Board

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How to cite this page

Nancy Swarbrick, Waikato region – Education and health, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/27156/tokanui-hospital (accessed 3 June 2026).

Story by Nancy Swarbrick, published 26 May 2010, updated 1 July 2015.