Geelong’s first hospital
A PUBLIC meeting was held in Geelong in February 1849 at the Theatre Royal on the south side of Malop St, east of Yarra St, to discuss the need for a public hospital in the town.
The meeting led to the establishment of the Geelong Infirmary and Benevolent Asylum, which opened in 1852 on the same site as today’s University Hospital Geelong.
The so-called infirmary was intended to cater for about 20 hospital patients and 20 benevolent patients, who were seen as destitute men, women and children unable to support themselves.
The meeting to create the hospital was called by the trustees of the local Irish and Scotch (sic) Relief Fund, which was formed in response to the famine in Ireland and the highland clearances in Scotland.
The Potato Famine, as it was known, was sparked by the crops becoming infected by a disease referred to as the blight.
It saw about 2 million Irish inhabitants emigrate overseas to places including the US and Australia. The famine lasted from 1845-1849.
The Highland Clearances in Scotland saw the forced eviction of tenants in the Highlands and Western Isles to allow for the introduction of more sheep by landlords.
The early Geelong hospital opened in April 1852, and the first patient was admitted for treatment on April 23 that year.
By 1854, however, it had become obvious the institution’s accommodation was lacking, especially with the discovery of gold near Ballarat in 1851 and the subsequent gold rush.
Two substantial new wings were added on the east and the west of the original building on Ryrie St to cater for the substantial increase in Geelong”s population.
The new hospital’s first sur
geon, Dr Henry Thomas, had originally migrated to Tasmania and practised at Sorell.
However his tenure was cut short by his death in October, 1852.
He was replaced by Dr
James Barlas, who had married the widow of Dr Thomas, Sophia, in 1853.
Dr Barlas resigned in 1857 to take over a Melbourne practice in St Kilda.
A recent edition of the Geelong Historical Society’s magazine Investigator includes an article on a longstanding figure
within the walls of the early hospital.
Dr Thomas Kennedy was appointed resident surgeon at the Geelong Infirmary and Benevolent Asylum in 1890 and remained in that position until his death, aged 70, in 1938.
Dr Kennedy’s home and private surgery, known as Currabeg
House, still stands on the north/west corner of La Trobe Tce and Aberdeen St.
Dr Kennedy was to witness the complete rebuilding of the hospital in the 1920s, when it became the Kitchener Memorial Hospital in honour of the British Empire’s World War I hero.
The unique pavilion-style wards and administration building of the Kitchener hospital have also succumbed to the passage of time.
The story of the Kitchener hospital was a whole new era for the Geelong institution and is best saved for another day.