Maryborough Base Hospital is a heritage-listed hospital at Walker Street, Maryborough, Fraser Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Queensland Colonial Architect John James Clark and built from 1887 by Robert Taylor. It is also known as Maryborough General Hospital. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 2 February 1998.
History The current site of the Maryborough Hospital, which is the fourth hospital site, was established in 1887 when a complex of brick buildings was constructed to the design of Queensland Colonial Architect John James Clark. The hospital site has experienced many phases of development, most obviously in the late 1920s, the late 1930s and in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Many of the individual buildings, dating from both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, are of cultural heritage significance.
The original township of Maryborough was situated, not in its current place, but on the north of the Mary River, after wharves were established in 1847–48 providing transport for wool from sheep stations on the Burnett River. In 1850 Surveyor, Hugh Roland Labatt arrived in Maryborough with instructions to "examine the River Mary...to suggest ...the best site or sites for the laying out of the town, having regard to the convenience of shipping on one hand and internal communication on the other...also...point out the spots desirable as reserves for public building, church, quay and for places for public recreation." The site recommended by Labatt was not where settlement was established but further east and from the early 1850s this is where the growing town developed.
In 1854 a hospital had been established in Maryborough in Fort Street, and prior to this the sick and invalided were treated at home by a few medical practitioners who lived in the town. By 1859 a Committee of Management had established another hospital, near the new centre of the town, at the corner of Ferry and Albert Streets, but was moved in 1863 to a site on the corner of Lennox and Walker Streets. In 1864 the hospital moved to its first purpose built building in Lennox Street, near the corner of Sussex Street. A substantial two storeyed brick building was constructed and a wing was added to this in 1865. In 1876 further additions were made to this site.
By the mid 1880s, the Lennox Street site was considered inadequate and another site on a large block in Walker Street on elevated ground on the western outskirts of the town was set aside for hospital use. This was officially reserved as a Hospital Reserve after the hospital was constructed, on 4 October 1888 and Henry Palmer, Henry Walker and William Southerden were appointed as trustees.
Centre Block and C-Block
The first complex constructed on the new hospital site comprised three brick buildings, a central administrative core flanked by wards, as well as a separate medical superintendent's residence and a palisade fence with gates along Walker Street. These were designed by colonial architect JJ Clark and based on contemporary principles of hospital design about the pavilion plan.
For about eighty years, from the 1860s, all wards in hospitals built in Queensland were based on the principles of the pavilion plan which emerged as a development of hospital design in Europe in the 1850s. Pavilion planning was seen to overcome problems of good ventilation and sanitation. From the nineteenth century credence was given to the idea that disease was spread by foul air, according to miasmatic theory. The first pavilion plan was used in the design of the Lariboisière Hospital in Paris, which was a series of detached pavilions, where increased ventilation assisted patients in ridding themselves of their illness. This was a breakthrough in hospital design, because for the first time the building form was considered a crucial element of the healing process. By the 1870s and 1880s many pavilion plan type hospital wards were being constructed in major hospitals through Queensland.
Two of the nineteenth century buildings extant at the Maryborough Hospital, namely C-Block and Centre Block, are remnants of a pavilion planned hospital. The original 1887 complex comprised three buildings, a central administrative core flanked by two storeyed pavilion wards, those to the east for women and those to the west for men. Of these buildings only sections of the administrative core, Centre Block, and the men's wards, C Block, remain. The Centre Block housed offices and consulting rooms on the ground floor and residential quarters on the first floor.
Early photographs of the hospital showing these three buildings clearly manifest the ideals of pavilion planning; with three distinct and separated structures surrounded by verandahs. Of about eighty pavilion planned wards constructed in Queensland during the nineteenth century only six remain, three of these are at the Royal Brisbane Hospital, one at Isisford and one at Ipswich.
The foundation stone of the buildings was laid by the Queensland Premier, Sir Samuel Griffith on 15 April 1885, by which time much of the land had been cleared and trees planted. As well gates and fence rails were ordered from local founders, Walkers Ltd. The architect of the project John James Clark, was at that time the Colonial Architect a position he retained from 1883 until 1885. Though this was a limited period of employment Clark is a well regarded architect as the designer of many important Queensland buildings, includingthe Treasury Building in Brisbane; court houses in Mackay, Rockhampton, Warwick and Charters Towers as well as the Yungaba Immigration Depot in Brisbane. Clark designed many health related buildings throughout the state including hospitals at Charleville and Geraldton; additions to Townsville Hospital, the Baillie Henderson Hospital in Toowoomba, and the Lady Norman Wing at the Brisbane Children's Hospital.
The Maryborough Hospital buildings, comprising the hospital complex, residence and fence and gates, were opened on 20 May 1887. The total cost of the complex was about to which substantial donations had been made by local benefactors and the Committee's General Fund with the remainder coming from the government. The contractor for the work was Robert Taylor. In the late 1880s a separate ward for Pacific Islanders was constructed on the Maryborough Hospital site.
The Hospitals Act (1923) introduced many changes to the practice of health care provision in Queensland, resulting in the state government providing more funding to hospitals, bringing about the current system of health care as a responsibility of the state. The Act allowed for the creation of districts, each with a hospital board responsible for fundraising and management issues. Shortfalls in funding were met by state and local governments.
In the decade following the introduction of the Act, the idea of the "modern hospital" emerged as a departure from the pavilion planned hospital. The modern hospital was focussed on cleanliness and efficiency influenced by the new germ theory of disease. These values were achieved within the framework provided by a new, modern architecture and characterised by multi levelled high rise structures incorporating new, building and health technology.
The Act of 1923 was amended in 1944 and, among other changes to the health care system, introduced the concept of base hospitals. Within each region of the state a base hospital was established to offer more specialised services than other hospitals in the region. It was in this way that the name of the Maryborough Hospital was changed to become the Maryborough Base Hospital. During the 1930s the Hospital Board appointed local architect, POE Hawkes to the position of Board Architect and he designed the buildings constructed in the 1938 redevelopment of the grounds. Much of the construction work designed by Hawkes was supervised by EH Boden.
Former Lady Musgrave Maternity Hospital This was constructed in 1928 and took its name from an earlier maternity hospital constructed near the town centre to the design of local architect Samuel Bragg. Before the Maternity Act (1922) lying-in hospitals were run by charitable or religious institutes to provide services for women unable to pay for private pre-natal care. The institutions were named after the wife of the incumbent governor. The Act of 1922 changed the nature of maternity care in Queensland, providing free maternity hospitals and baby clinics throughout the state to engender an increase in population particularly in outback areas. Implementation began immediately and resulted in the construction of about 94 maternity hospitals or wards throughout the state before 1930.
As part of this program a maternity ward, the Lady Musgrave block was constructed in the grounds of the Maryborough Hospital. The building replaced an earlier 1888 lying-in hospital, from where the later buildings got their names. This 1888 building was constructed at the corner of John and North Streets in central Maryborough and was funded by a local fund raising committee. This earlier maternity hospital was opened on 8 November 1888.
The 1928 maternity ward, which replaced this earlier nineteenth century building, was a reinforced concrete building designed by prominent and innovative local architect POE Hawkes. Many of the state's maternity wards were constructed to a standard plan, based on pavilion planning principles with surrounding verandahs and all beds in the ward located near on operable opening. Attached to the rear of the wards by an open verandah or covered walk way was a septic ward. The plan of the Maryborough maternity ward was longer than the standard plan accommodating twenty five beds, nine private wards, matron's office, doctor's room, kitchenette, two labour wards, septic wards, sterilising room and matron's quarters. The building incorporated many features standard to 1920s maternity hospitals including a septic ward separated by verandahs. The Lady Musgrave Maternity Ward was opened on 24 November 1928 to co-incide with the opening of nurses' quarters.
On 31 July 1965, a new Lady Musgrave Maternity Ward was opened on land to the north of North Street, acquired by the hospital for the planning of this new wing. North Street was closed through the hospital grounds meaning that the 1928 maternity hospital, which was retained for future use as a disabled children's ward, no longer addressed a street, but faced the rear of the new maternity wing. Mr Douglas Tooth, the Minister for Health, opened the building which cost and was designed by the Public Works Department.
The nurses' quarters Two substantial two-storeyed buildings were constructed on the Maryborough hospital site as accommodation for nurses. The first, facing Walker Street, was constructed in 1928, but after only ten years was converted to private wards and another nurses' quarters was constructed facing Yaralla Street.
Following the introduction of the Hospital Nurses Award in 1921 basic rates were introduced for nursing staff stipulating wages, hours of work, and, importantly that all staff were entitled to free board and lodging in, if possible, separate rooms or suitable cubicles. The result of the award was the upgrading of accommodation for nurses and also an increase in the number of nurses employed at each hospital. Between 1924 and 1930, twenty six new nurses' quarters were constructed throughout Queensland.
The first nurses' quarters constructed at the Hospital, was a two storeyed reinforced concrete building providing accommodation for 78 nurses and domestic staff. The building was opened on 24 November 1928, along with the Lady Musgrave Maternity Hospital and both of the buildings were designed by Maryborough architect, POE Hawkes. This building served as a nurses' quarters for only ten years when a new nurses' quarters was constructed and the earlier building was converted to private wards.