Nearly all of us would have some memory of Austin Hospital. Did you know it was founded by a woman? Austin Hospital was initially a hospital for the Incurables Cancer, Tuberculosis etc. This newspaper is piece from the Melbourne Argus 26th April 1949. Austin Hospital Was Founded By a Woman WHEN Thomas Austin married Miss Elizabeth Phillip Harding in 1845, they transplanted a scrap of their native England on the broad green paddocks of Victoria near Geelong. The mansion they built was called Barwon Park, and the legend of their gracious living is still there in the streets of Victorias Winchelsea. The story is still also told of Mrs Austins cook, Louisa, an English woman, who had been brought to Australia to serve the Austins. For strange as it may seem, Louisa and her illness with the dreaded tuberculosis, was actually the foundation stone for the Austin Hospital at Heidelberg, which today is still carrying on the battle for the relief of suffering. This is how it happened: About the middle of the last century, the Church in Melbourne was agitating for a hospital in Victoria to house patients with incurable diseases. Subscriptions were thin, and it seemed that the hospital would never be built. It was at this time that Louisa told her mistress that she would have to cease work. It meant, of course, that she would enter the badly equipped prison hospital, this being the only hospital accommodation for immigrants with incurable sicknesses. The exact story of how Louisas plight decided Mrs Austin to donate the money for a hospital is obscure. It is also only a hazy legend, how the government eventually donated a block of land, and the historic foundation-stone was laid. But this is sure: Louisa was among the first patients in the Austin Hospital, and although she died eventually from tuberculosis, there are many today who look back across the sunny lawns of the hospital and walk through the gate as cured men and women. Mrs Austins historic donation totalled £6,000. Acting on an energetic committee, she managed to get, together with her own donation £11,105/1/8. This, in those times, was enough to begin building, and on January 24, 1882, the hospital was incorporated as the Austin Hospital for Incurables. Through the years Mrs Austin maintained her interest in the development of the hospital, and as the result of another appeal, the childrens ward was opened in July, 1901. Mrs Austin died in 1910, but together her descendants still serve on the hospital board, and maintain the interests of a remarkable woman whose memorial is still expanding with the years. One of her grandchildren, Miss Embling, of Caulfield, who is on the hospital board, says: In the near future the Austin will become a general hospital, although naturally the original work will still be carried on. A new childrens block is being built, which will accommodate 122 children, and Heidelberg House, the hospital for intermediate patients, is among the most modern in Victoria. Visit the Austin Hospital, Heidelberg, and you visit a piece of Victorias history. The old clock tower, built with the original hospital, still stands amidst the ultra modern wards of the newer additions. The original foundation stone, worn with the weather, the letters fading with time, stands surrounded with flowers and lawns. Furniture taken from Mrs Austins own Barwon Park still grace parts of the older wards. Yet, in contrast to these fascinating relics, are the long, air-conditioned corridors of Heidelberg House. IN THE CHILDRENS WARD Ultra-modern therapy and X-ray machinery, the up to-the-minute operating theatre, the pleasant, quiet wards. Here indeed is a hospital which, although proud of its age, has moved thoroughly with the times. Trainee nurses are happy, attractive girls under the control of Matron Evelyn Richardson, O B E. They train at the Austin Hospital in an atmosphere of friendliness, glorious scenery, and honest hard work. And they are secure in the knowledge that their final certificate will be recognised and respected abroad. Conscious of the future, the founders of the Austin Hospital fully recognised that space, air, and colour are three essentials to help patients towards recovery. Consequently, the Austin Hospital looks from the hill at Heidelberg across the plains towards the Dandenongs. Fresh, clean air blows gently across the grounds, and the grounds themselves are a gardeners triumph. Since 1882 thousands of patients have sought and received skilled care and attention at the hands of generations of doctors and nurses at the Austin Hospital. In the beginning Mrs Austin thought her hospital would be a comfortable home for those who believed their life was over. Today they have taken the word incurable out of the hospitals registered name. Perhaps that is the finest tribute we can ever pay Mrs Thomas Austin.—
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 10:42:21 +0000
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