Garfield Bush Nursing Hospital

The Bush Nursing Hospital Movement began in 1910 with the establishment of the Victorian Bush Nursing Association (V.B.N.A.). At the time the current medical system consisted of big hospitals such as the Royal Melbourne which were run along charitable lines and whose role was to treat poor people, who could not afford to pay a Doctors fee. There were also private hospitals which only the wealthy could afford. To help offset medical costs Friendly Societies or Lodges were established which people could join for a yearly fee. This gave them access to the Friendly Society doctor and access to medicine dispensed from the Friendly Society Dispensary. There was also a growing move to nurse people in their own homes through what is now the Royal District Nursing Service.  People in the city and the suburbs could have a nurse visit them to help recover from confinements and general illness. This type of service took pressure off the public Hospitals. Lady Dudley, the wife of the Governor General, was aware of these visiting nurses and had also seen first hand the need for skilled nurses in the bush, so from these experiences came the idea of Bush Nursing Hospitals. Lady Dudley (1867-1920) promoted and raised money for the idea and thus the Victorian Bush Nursing Association began in 1910 (1).

To obtain a Bush Nursing Centre, the local community had to raise the money to fund the cost of the nurse’s salary, board, uniform and a ‘means of locomotion’. The salary was set by the Bush Nursing Association at the rate of around £80.00 per annum, the rate of pay for a hospital nurse with five or six years experience. The first Victorian nurse was appointed to Beech Forest in March 1911 (2). Eventually some towns provided cottages for the nurses to provide accommodation for both the nurse and the patient. Koo Wee Rup was an early example of this where the original nurse, Nurse Homewood, started work in the bush nursing centre in July 1918. On May 23, 1923, a Bush Nursing Hospital, which was named the Fallen Soldiers' Memorial Hospital, to commemorate the local soldiers who died in the First World War, was opened (3).  Pakenham’s Bush Nursing Hospital opened in June 1926 in temporary premises and in a new brick building on February 11, 1928. (4)

Denise Nest in her History of Shelley Memorial Hospital noted that the push to get a hospital in Garfield started about 1930, when Dr Kenneth McLeod proposed the idea (5). Dr McLeod had arrived in Garfield around 1928 (6).  The Annual Report of the Bush Nursing Association, released in September 1928, stated - there are now 59 bush-nursing centres and 13 bush-nursing hospitals. New hospitals are in process of organisation at Katamatite, Garfield, Yarra Junction, Gisborne, Violet Town and Broadford (7). It would thus appear that Dr McLeod began work to establish a hospital in Garfield soon after his arrival in the town. 

Mrs Nest notes that the community soon raised around £340, but due to the Depression the momentum for Hospital slowed (8). One of the fund-raisers was a Pony Race meeting held on October 11, 1928.

Pony races in aid of the Bush Nursing Centre at Garfield.

The Age October 2, 1928 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article204119213

On December 4, 1940 a meeting was held and the Garfield branch of the V.B.N.A., was formed with an Executive and twenty-six Committee members, so there was obviously a lot of enthusiasm for the idea (9). The President was local store owner, Arthur Nutting, and the Vice-Presidents were Cora Lynn farmer and local Councillor, Dan Kinsella and Garfield Orchardist, Alfred Parish; the Treasurer was A.H. Wilson and the Secretary was T. Phelan. (10).  In August 1941, the Committee purchased No. 8 and No. 9 Railway Avenue and a design for a Hospital was drawn up. The planned building could accommodate five beds and would cost about £1500. However the hospital was put on hold due to the War. (11).

The fate of the Hospital over the next few years can be summed up by these reports in the newspapers -

August 1941 - Notiftying council that it had been definitely decided to proceed with the erection of a Bush Nursing Hospital at Garfield, the Garfield B.N. committee appealed to council for a grant towards the building costs. Cr Kinsella said that the cost, including land, would be £1350. He had hoped that the building would be deferred until after, the war, but as the committee was going ahead he thought they should support them (12). 

February 1942 - As a permit to build cannot be granted for some considerable time, Mr. T. Phelan advised that the proposed Bush Nursing Hospital at Garfield had been shelved. He hoped that council’s promised grant of £100 would hold good when it was decided to carry on with the project.(13)

September 1943 - When the Tynong and Garfield Baby Health Centres were being discussed, and it was revealed that the latter centre had now been made “water-tight,” Cr. Kinsella said that Garfield was not anxious to go on with the erection of a separate centre as it hoped eventually to have it incorporated in the Bush Nursing Hospital when erected. Cr. Anderson said that Mr. Barker had generously offered to have a site ready for a centre if it was needed, but Mrs. Patterson now said that there is actually some hope that they would be given a permit to build their Bush Nursing Hospital.(14)

A new Committee was elected towards the end of 1944. The President was John Fallon, a farmer from Iona; Vice-Presidents - Alf Parish and E. Schmutter - presumably Edward Schmutter of Vervale; Treasurer was Cecil John Jackson, Bank Manager at Garfield and the Secretary was Garfield plumber, Frank Marsh. There was also a committee of thirteen. (15).

Notice of public meeting to elect the Bush Nursing Hospital committee

Dandenong Journal November 22, 1944 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article214168056

In January 1945, it was decided that the hospital would be a Branch of the Warragul Hospital instead of a Bush Nursing Hospital. To this end, in June 1945 the Garfield and District Hospital Committee was formed and all the assets of the Garfield branch of the Victorian Bush Nursing Association were transferred to this new committee. From 1946 to 1948 land in Jefferson Road was acquired; some was purchased and some was obtained by swapping the Railway Avenue land with some of the Jefferson Road blocks. All in all blocks 16 to 24 were acquired and plans were drawn up in August 1946 for a 15 bed hospital. This lapsed due to the shortage of material and labour after the War. The Committee went through various changes in personnel, other plans were drawn up but Government finance was not available. By 1948, the Hospital Committee had raised over £2,600. Various submissions were made in the 1950s to the Hospital Commission to get the Garfield Hospital established but to no avail.  (16). 

No money for the Garfield Hospital

Koo Wee Rup Sun, January 13, 1954, p. 1

In spite of the rejections, even as late as September 1954, there was still hope that a hospital could be built in Garfield. The Dandenong Journal  reported -

Nine years ago the Berwick Council promised Garfield Hospital Committee a grant of £1350 towards the cost of erecting its proposed new hospital. At the same time it promised £300 to the Building Fund of the Westernport Memorial Hospital at Kooweerup. But for one reason and another both projects were held up. Now Kooweerup Hospital is being proceeded with and the Garfield Hospital Committee, in asking council to redeem its nine-year-old promise, said that it was now probably that the Garfield Hospital would be built within three years. Although most councillors had forgotten the promise, it was recorded in the minutes and there was no question whatever about it not being kept. Garfield asked for payment of its £1350 over the next two or three years and council decided to provide for one-fifth of the joint total of £1650 on next year’s estimates (17). 

The Hospital at Garfield never eventuated due to a generous gift received by the Bunyip township. On January 8, 1944, Mr Emile Shelley, the chemist at Bunyip, passed away. The contents of his will were detailed in a letter his Trustees sent to the Berwick Shire Secretary -

“We beg to advise that the company is applying for probate of the will of Emile Henry Shelley, late of Bunyip, retired chemist, who died on the 8th. ult. Under the will, the whole of the estate, both real and personal, is devised and bequeathed upon trust for the widow, for life without impeachment of waste. On the death of the widow, the sum of £1000 is payable to the trustee for the time being of the Bunyip Mechanics’ Institute, and £1000 to the trustees of the Bunyip Agricultural Society.

The remainder of the estate is to be known as the Emile Henry Shelley Trust and is bequeathed upon trust as to capital and income to be administered by the trustee and expended as it in its absolute discretion shall decide for the beautification and advancement of the township of Bunyip, and the trustees may seek the advice of F. S. Dodge, J. A. Cock, G. B. Calderwood, all of Bunyip, or the survivor or survivors of them. From data prepared to date it would appear that the value of the trust will be in the vicinity of £7000, but it will be appreciated that this figure may vary by the time the trust is established." (18). 

The money became available after the death of Mrs Ethel Shelly on June 3, 1950 (19).  In 1957, the Trustees of the Shelly Trust decided that the money should go towards a Hospital. In the end, the money that had been raised by the community for the Garfield Hospital, plus the £1,330 realised from the sale of the Jefferson Street land was put together with some of the Shelley Trust money and the Shelley Memorial Hospital Society was established in 1960. The Shelley Memorial Hospital at Bunyip was officially opened on March 19, 1966 and closed on May 1, 1991. The building is now part of Hillview Aged Care (20). 

Trove list - I have created a list of articles on the Garfield Bush Nursing Hospital, access it here. 

Footnotes

(1) Priestley, Susan Bush Nursing in Victoria: 1910-1985, the first 75 years  (Victorian Bush Nursing Association/Lothian 1986). Lady Dudley (1867-1920, nee Rachel Gurney) - Obituary in The Argus, June 29, 1920, see here; Australian Dictionary of Biography, entry here.

(2) Priestley, op. cit.

(3) A detailed report from the Koo Wee Rup Sun on the opening of the Fallen Soldiers' Memorial Hospital at Koo Wee Rup, is here. 

(4) Pakenham Bush Nursing Hospital - South Bourke and Mornington Journal, August 5, 1926, here; The Argus, February 13, 1928, see here. 

(5) Nest, Denise History of Shelley Memorial Hospital, A'Beckett Road, Bunyip 1930-1991 (Bunyip History Committe, 2000)

(6) Dr Kenneth McLeod - I have written a bit about him, here.

(7) The Age, September 21, 1928, see here.

(8) Nest,  op. cit., p. 1.

(9) Ibid. The Committee listed in the book -  F. Marsh, P. Nilsson, P. Pratt, Mr Downer, E. Cox, R. Wall, J. Grigg, H. Burleigh, E. Oram,  Gilligan, W. Masters. J. Anderson, F.S. Hodge, D. James, H. Hourigan, K. Sarah; Mesdames E. O'Donohue,  E. Paterson, Gilligan, E. Cox. L. Tutton, Folks, G. Whelan, N. Sarah,  E.L. Towt, Parish. 

(10) Arthur Nutting -  I have written about him here; Dan Kinsella - I have written about the family, here; Alfred Parish - the father of Bill Parish, Garfield Historian. Not sure who A. H. Wilson and T. Phelan were, but they were also Treasurer and Secretary of the Garfield Red Cross in 1941, see The Argus, July 23, 1941, here.

(11) Nest,  op. cit., p. 2. Also see various articles in my Trove list, here.

(12) Dandenong Journal, August 20, 1941, see here.

(13) Dandenong Journal, February 25, 1942, see here.

(14) Dandenong Journal, September 22, 1943, see here.

(15) Nest,  op. cit., p. 2. The Committee is recorded as E. Cox, M. Tobin, K. Sarah, Dr D. Martin, W. Parish, W. Masters, H. Hourigan, J. Kierce, F. Rigg and Mesdames Frawley and E. Towt; Miss Costigan and Miss M. Kierce. 

(16) Nest, op. cit, pp 2-4.

(17) Dandenong Journal, September 29, 1954, see here.

(18) Dandenong Journal, February 23, 1944, see here.

(19) The Argus, June 5, 1950, see here.

(20) Nest, op. cit., passim