13 January 2009

Canberra history - The first Canberra Hospital

| johnboy
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Riot reader Old Canberran is in the process of scanning in the photos he took back in 1948 and is sending some highlights in for us to gawp at.

This is a more recent photo to kick off the series but of interest for pub trivia purposes coming with the following information:

    “It is the original Canberra Hospital in Balmain Circuit, Acton. Now part of the ANU as the School of Earth Sciences. I was born there at the hands of our next door neighbour, Dr John James after whom the hospital is named.”

We’ll get into the old photos next week.

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Holden Caulfield11:22 am 20 Jan 09

Awesome contribution, thank you!

GardeningGirl11:07 pm 14 Jan 09

I had a feeling there was another building near the old library. So it was the patents office?
One of my earliest memories is of being driven out to gawk at the new Scrivener Dam.

Wow! I never realised that the lake was so new when we arrived in ’69.

old canberran5:28 pm 14 Jan 09

Hi wishuwell, you may be thinking of the Westlake Settlement which was a bunch of workers cottages and a tennis court around about where the yacht club now is. Whatever it is that your Mum was talking about must have been way back because the Hospital in my photo was built in 1914.
She could even be referring to “Springbank” which consisted of 3 houses on the flats near the old Acton racecourse. The Kay family lived in one of the cottages and they had dairy cattle there. Someone living there may have been a midwife. They all went under water in 1964.
There were also some workers cottages in Acton not far from the hospital.
Apart from that I can’t help any further.

old canberran the hospital I was refering to was in all possibility not called Canberra Hospital I only mention it because my grandmother and my mother (who was born in a tent at Fyshwick) would talk about it. It was among a number of Westlakes early sites now under water.

old canberran8:48 am 14 Jan 09

I was staggered when I heard they knocked down Cameron Offices. I was working at the NCDC when they were built back in the 70’s. Exposed concrete does get a bit grotty after a while though and they did look grotty. A good clean would have done wonders.

I think I’ve got a pic of the old Library somewhere. I know I’ve got one of the old Patents Office which was next door.

GardeningGirl11:54 pm 13 Jan 09

I liked the old library where the silo buildings are now (any pics of that?)
I wonder what Glebe House looked like. It might have made a lovely restaurant or function centre in Glebe Park. At least they kept the parkland, and did it up very nicely. I believe at one time it was intended for more office buildings.
Cameron Offices weren’t that old but they’ve been pulled down, unsightly and not functioning well or something. In 20-30 years will they be thinking of pulling down the museum because it’s considered unsightly by the standards of that era and it’s run out of space? Oh wait, didn’t they say it’s run out of space already?

old canberran said :

Hi Gardening Girl

Quote: Am I right in thinking that the old maternity and paediatric wing was originally the main building of the hospital?

As far as I can remember the new Nurses quarters on the East end of the main building eventually became the Maternity ward and paediatric wing, prior to that the maternity ward was in the main building. My 3 kids were all born there in the 60’s and the lake almost filled while my wife was in there with our 2nd child in January 1964. My mother passed away in that hospital as did my grandmother so it had memories for me as well. It was a very peaceful place sitting out on the verandah looking over the lake to Commonwealth Bridge. God knows why they blew the place up, I’ll never understand it.

We need another hospital because ours are always so full… I guess the government decided it would be better to build the museum to show canberra off! dont get me wrong the museum’s alright but they shoud NEVER have blown it up, but i guess the big kingstion for shore wouldn’t look as lardi f*cking dardi dar if the good old hospital was still there I have read the government notes on this, the reason why they tore it down was because it was so called unsightly… I guess we can all blame that freak kate carnell or whatever the bltches name was it was that mutts idea. I 100% believe she was the worst thing that ever happened to Canberra… what kinda people would vote for a drunken thing like her anyways? not that the people we have in power these days are much better anyways lol….

old canberran9:54 pm 13 Jan 09

Hi Gardening Girl

Quote: Am I right in thinking that the old maternity and paediatric wing was originally the main building of the hospital?

As far as I can remember the new Nurses quarters on the East end of the main building eventually became the Maternity ward and paediatric wing, prior to that the maternity ward was in the main building. My 3 kids were all born there in the 60’s and the lake almost filled while my wife was in there with our 2nd child in January 1964. My mother passed away in that hospital as did my grandmother so it had memories for me as well. It was a very peaceful place sitting out on the verandah looking over the lake to Commonwealth Bridge. God knows why they blew the place up, I’ll never understand it.

I figure that little hospital wasn’t on teh banks of the lake, cos there was no lake when they built it! My father used to ride his bike across from ainslie to Manuka to go to the pictures, and just had to cross a smallish river/creek then.

I’m still bothered by what they did to the Royal Canberra Hospital. Thousands of us were born there, thousands of us died there. I can never understand why they cannot work with buildings they already have. There’s walls, floors, roofs. I cannot fathom why it’s “cheaper” to destroy a standing building rather than work with it.

Granny said :

I will never get over them blowing up my hospital. I wasn’t born there, but some of my children were. It was a special place for me as well. There are other ‘good’ hospitals, but nothing like the Royal Canberra.

I was born there, and it still rankles. A friend of mine was standing behind Katie Bender. Now that’s a haunted place. Imagine how the poor woman who won the ‘prize’ of pressing the demolishing firing button must still feel. Was she quietly compensated by Kate Carnell’s bureaucratic coven? Annabelle Pegrum, can you tell us?

I will never get over them blowing up my hospital. I wasn’t born there, but some of my children were. It was a special place for me as well. There are other ‘good’ hospitals, but nothing like the Royal Canberra.

GardeningGirl8:59 pm 13 Jan 09

Hi Old Canberran! I’m really looking forward to seeing the old pics. It’s hard to imagine the hospital not being on the banks of the lake, it looked to me like the two fit perfectly.
Am I right in thinking that the old maternity and paediatric wing was originally the main building of the hospital?
Ant, I always felt they didn’t do enough to acknowledge the significance that site holds for some Canberrans. I also feel that they missed a wonderful opportunity to incorporate a museum of Canberra on the site by keeping the old maternity building. Canberra is such a young city and too many of our relatively older buildings have been pulled down. I must admit though the new building has kinda grown on me (except for that orange handle thingy!).

old canberran4:59 pm 13 Jan 09

The original Canberra hospital is the one above in the photo It is not underwater and is part of the ANU as the School of Earth Sciences. The original site for the Royal Canberra Hospital which is near the old Lennox Crossing is also not under water, it is now the Museum of Australia.
I was born in 1937, shiny flu, and I took the photo in 1997, 70 years later. My Mum used to be a member of the Hospital Auxiliary and every weekend there used to be tennis matches on the courts adjacent to the front of the hospital. There was a “tuck shop” just to the right of the main entrance and the ladies served tea and cakes through the window.
There’s a lot of history in that part of Acton. In fact just across the road in Balmain Cres is the house of Charlie Daly who was the first Administrator of the Federal Capital Commission. He had a black original Holden with the number plate ACT 1.
This was not the only hospital in Canberra at that time. There was a small private one in Forrest which catered mainly for the embassy people. It was/is somewhere near the Lodge if I remember correctly.

I don’t know how to edit comments either. But here’s the link again:
http://www.tams.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/13149/392.pdf

wot said fred11:20 am 13 Jan 09

meant to add if i knew how i would but I don’t so i wont!

wot said fred11:17 am 13 Jan 09

emd, you need to edit that address above to renove the riotact bit as per below.:

http://the-riotact.com/www.tams.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/13149/392.pdf

The first maternity hospital was located in Ainslie, at 8 & 10 Higgin Street. PDF Link here. It was built in 1928 and had only 6 beds, but was turned into housing in 1929.

I believe the original hospital site is now under water around abouts the Lennox Crossing area.

I lived at Acton as a child in the mid 70’s. I’m not sure what type of accommodation it was. We then moved to Gowrie which is now an ANU residence. I believe Gowrie used to be accommodation for newly arrived public service families.

Vic Bitterman10:16 am 13 Jan 09

Wow!

Looking forward to the other photos, and of course the stories to go along with them!

Awesome. Looking forward to seeing the series.

I never knew that building used to be a hospital, wow. At least they didn’t blow it up. they blew up the hospital I was born in.

there’s some nice old buildings around Acton, I’ve always liked the old Staff Centre.

How old is Old Canberran???

I find it amazing that so many things in out little world are linked by small stories.

I think it is great that so many of these old buildings have survived, and are still in very good condition.

Thumper, this place would surely have to be haunted?

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