 The recently opened country asylums at Ararat and Beechworth had eased the pressure on Collingwood to accommodate those patients, thus Collingwood became an establishment for the accommodation of the mentally retarded.With the opening of the Kew Asylum in 1872, Collingwood ceased to function as an independent institution, and functioned merely as a ward of Kew.In June 1873 all patients were transferred from Collingwood to Kew, and the building passed to the Education Department.