Old Isisford District Hospital is a heritage-listed former public hospital at 6 St Agnes Street, Isisford, Longreach Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Queensland Department of Public Works and built from 1914 to 1918. It is also known as Isisford District Hospital (former). It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 9 September 2014.
History The former Isisford District Hospital is a timber-framed and -clad complex with corrugated iron roofing, located in western central Queensland. Established in 1892, with additions between 1902 and 1961, it functioned as a hospital to 1970 and as a clinic until 2011. It is a fine example of a district hospital and demonstrates the evolution of Queensland district hospitals from the 1890s in accordance with changes to community needs, health practices and hospital legislation.
Explored during the 1840s and 1850s, the Isisford district, centred on the Barcoo River, was settled by pastoralists from the mid-1860s. In 1874 William and James Whitman established themselves at the site of Isisford and called the place "Whittown". Pastoral development south along the Barcoo River brought workers, drovers and teamsters, boosting Whittown as a service centre. In 1878 the town was surveyed and renamed "Isis Ford". During the 1880s further development in the region occurred. Wool production increased, bringing more shearers into the district. Construction of the Central Western railway line from Rockhampton brought transportation closer with each stage completed - reaching Jericho in 1885, and Barcaldine in November 1886.
The requirement for a hospital and a doctor, to serve the medical needs of the town and district, was recognised by 1887. In 1891 a provisional hospital committee was formed. It quickly raised with another promised. A public meeting in October 1891 appointed a permanent hospital committee, which by April 1892 had complied with the regulations of the Hospitals' Act 1862 and was eligible for a government subsidy. An application for a site on which to erect the hospital buildings was made to the Department of Public Lands and a hospital reserve was subsequently created. In September 1892 the committee had in funds available and the hospital was under construction. At the end of October 1892, the committee was advertising for a matron and a wardsman, and by February the following year the hospital was treating patients.
Isisford District Hospital's plan, location and siting on a large reserve occupying a rise to the south of the town centre, followed the accepted principles for late nineteenth century hospitals. As a series of interconnected buildings, it conformed to the popular pavilion plan for hospitals, comprising a series of detached pavilions, designed to provide light and fresh air. Like other small Queensland hospitals, the wards and rooms of the Isisford District Hospital were enclosed by wide verandahs, while kitchen, bathroom and toilet facilities were contained in semi-detached blocks. The design of hospital buildings, and their location and siting, was influenced by the widely accepted miasmatic theory of disease, which postulated that disease was transmitted by breathing air that was contaminated. Therefore, good ventilation and sanitation would reduce the spread of disease. An essential element of a good hospital site was an elevated position on a generous area of land, preferably on the outskirts of a town. The elevated site was advantageous in catching breezes and enhancing the flow of fresh air through the wards. A large hospital reserve, well removed from the urban centre, was believed to minimise the effect of noxious and foul vapours. Hospital reserves at this time were almost invariably on the outskirts of a town and comprised an extensive area of land, well in excess of what was required, with the main block and out-buildings occupying less than a tenth of the total reserve.
Managed by its committee, with the support of the wider community, the Isisford District Hospital provided valuable medical service for the next 52 years. Funds were raised through subscriptions from members of the community, shearers' contributions, donations of goods and money, and fund-raising events, such as concerts.
Isisford and its surrounding district grew over the three decades following the hospital's establishment. In 1901 Isisford's population was 270, rising to 356 in 1907 and peaking at 388 residents in 1921. Growth in selector numbers in the Isisford district between 1902 and 1926, stimulated by the western progress of the Central Western railway line, combined with a run of good seasons, provided two decades of sustained prosperity.
This growth was reflected by several additions to the hospital. A morgue building was added by September 1903. In 1908 tenders were called for addition of a female ward. In May 1913 an additional building was being erected. The purpose of this building is not mentioned in any reports, but matron and nurses' quarters were being furnished in October 1913 and a 1927 newspaper article notes the earlier addition of nurses' quarters to the original hospital.
Wide-ranging, long-term changes to hospital management in Queensland resulted from the Labor Party (ALP) coming to power in Queensland in 1915 and governing almost without interruption until 1957. In April 1916 several Queensland newspapers carried the story that the Queensland Government intended to take over the management of the Isisford District Hospital. A new committee had been appointed which included two government representatives. However, this made little difference to the management of the hospital - the committee still funded the hospital through fund-raising and donations, supplemented by government subsidies for buildings and maintenance.
During World War I the Isisford District Hospital Committee struggled to retain a doctor. Believing it would be easier to keep a doctor in Isisford if accommodation could be provided, the committee in 1918 set about funding a doctor's residence, subsidised by the Queensland Government. It was erected by the beginning of 1921.
Not long afterwards the attributes of the hospital were listed by the Western Champion newspaper:'If there is one institution in Isisford of which the town and district people may feel proud it is the hospital. The fine block of buildings is erected on an elevated central position, and a beautiful breeze appears to always prevail around the spacious verandahs. It is over 30 years since the Isisford Hospital was founded - certainly in a small way at first, but the buildings have been gradually added to and improved until now the hospital is worthy of a place in much larger towns... The hospital in Isisford appears altogether too large and well-appointed for the size of the town, but still in years to come it may be too inadequate. There are male and female wards, in addition to private wards... operating theatre... dispensary.... The nurses and matron's private rooms are very snug. The northern verandah is well-curtained, and here the nurses have a very comfortable open-air sleeping apartment.... Separating the staff's apartments from the wards is a wide lounge, running the whole length of the building.... The kitchen is commodious and well equipped, and all the doors and windows are gauzed. There is ample verandah space - a most commendable provision on the part of the designers of the building. There is also a lock ward - a separate building, not long erected at a cost of £400 ... and arrangements are well forward for the erection of a maternity ward and also an infectious diseases ward. The hospital water supply is well provided for ... by means of several large tanks, while a "hospital" cow supplies all the milk that is necessary. The building is lighted throughout with acetylene gas.... A very fine new residence (which adjoins the hospital) has just been erected and furnished at a cost of about £1700 for the doctor.'The next major development of the Isisford District Hospital followed the passing of Queensland's Maternity Act 1922, the state's response to the Australia-wide and international movement to reduce infant mortality and improve maternal health. The Act established a network of free maternity hospitals throughout Queensland, managed under the Motherhood, Child Welfare and Hospital Fund, financed through the profits of the state-run lottery, the Golden Casket, established in 1920. The Act sought to decrease the death rate for mothers and babies; to increase the birth-rate; to expand outback settlement, and to train mothers how to care for children, thereby developing a healthy population. Over a 15-year period an extensive network of maternity wards and hospitals throughout the state changed maternity services in Queensland from privately run nursing homes or home births to public hospitals:"By 1940 almost all women in Queensland had access to a government-built maternity facility. No other state government developed such a comprehensive network of maternity facilities".Priority in the provision of maternity wards was given to the more remote and isolated communities. Isisford was in the first group of towns to receive a maternity ward. Isisford District Hospital, received a standard plan five bed maternity ward (without a septic ward annex) designed by the Department of Public Works, erected in 1923–24 and opened in January 1925. The maternity ward "comprised a labour ward, sterilising room, duty room and two two-bed wards which opened onto a verandah. The building was connected to the main block by a covered walkway". It cost, with furniture, approximately . The cost of its maintenance was to be met by the Isisford District Hospital Committee.
In 1927 the growth of the Isisford District Hospital was described by The Longreach Leader:"The original hospital building is now used for two female wards and a kitchen. Additions since opening have been nurses' quarters, two female wards, operating theatre, isolation ward, maternity ward and doctor's residence. The institution is equipped with electric lighting and Xray plant. Staff comprise a medical officer, matron, two nurses and the domestic staff namely yardsman, cook, housemaid and laundress. There are four general wards - public and private ward for males and two similar wards for females."Further health legislation, which altered hospital and medical services in the state, was enacted during the 1920s and 1930s by the Queensland Government. The Hospitals Act 1923 established the model for future management of hospitals through district boards.
However, in the 1930s the Isisford District Hospital was still supported by the fund-raising efforts of its committee, showing the importance of the institution to the district. Throughout the 1930s the Isisford Hospital Committee undertook alterations and additions to improve the hospital including alterations to the maternity ward in 1933 increase ventilation in the building the addition in 1935, of reticulated water, after the council's weir was completed in October 1934.
Post-World War II was a period of great change to hospital funding and operations in Australia. Queensland's Health Act Amendment Act 1944 ended any voluntary hospitals still operating and gave the Queensland Government complete control of the hospital system. Local authorities were relieved of any financial responsibility towards the maintenance of hospitals, and their representation on boards was reduced to one member with the remainder appointed by the government. Isisford Hospital came under the control of the Blackall Hospitals Board.