Springsure Hospital Museum facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Springsure Hospital Museum
Springsure Hospital Museum from north, 2009
Location	13 Woodbine Street, Springsure, Central Highlands Region, Queensland, Australia
Design period	1840s - 1860s (mid-19th century)
Built	1868 - 1879
Queensland Heritage Register
Official name: Springsure Hospital Museum, Springsure Hospital
Type	state heritage (built)
Designated	21 October 1992
Reference no.	600025
Significant period	1860s-1870s (fabric) 1860s-1930s (historical)
Significant components	out building/s, hospital
Lua error in Module:Location_map at line 420: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).

The Springsure Hospital Museum is a special old building in Springsure, Australia. It used to be a hospital but is now a museum. It was built between 1868 and 1879. This building is important because it is listed on the Queensland Heritage Register, which means it is protected for its historical value.

A Look Back: The Hospital's Story

The Springsure Hospital was built around 1868. It was created because the people in the area needed a place for medical care.

Early Days in Springsure

Long ago, in 1844, an explorer named Ludwig Leichhardt traveled near Springsure. Later, in 1858, William Landsborough explored the area. By 1863, the town of Springsure was planned. More and more people moved there. By 1864, about 720 people lived in the Springsure Police District. Only 34 of them lived in the town itself. As the area grew, it became clear that a hospital was needed.

How the Hospital Started

The community worked together to build the hospital. Volunteers formed a committee to manage the project. People who paid a small yearly fee became "governors" and could help run the hospital. A committee, including a president and secretary, was chosen from these governors.

The hospital was for everyone. Patients who could pay for their treatment did so. But those who could not afford it still received care. On October 7, 1868, three men, William Henry Hinton, Louis Meyer, and George Pultney Malcolm Murray, became the first official trustees.

A New Way to Design Hospitals

When the hospital opened in 1868, it used a new design called the "pavilion plan." This plan was first used in France in the mid-1800s. Florence Nightingale, a famous nurse, helped make this design popular. She saw how well it worked for soldiers during the Crimean War.

The main idea of the pavilion plan was to have very good air flow and cleanliness. This helped patients get better faster. The Springsure Hospital is the oldest hospital in Queensland built with this design that is still standing. It was also the first hospital built in inland Queensland.

Inside the First Hospital Building

The Springsure Hospital was like a small cottage. It had a main building with a ward for six beds. It also had an office, a surgery room, a place to prepare medicines (dispensary), and a store. The building was made of brick with a shingle roof.

To get good air flow, there were French doors on the north and south sides of the main ward. A verandah went around three sides of the ward. Each bed was placed between two French doors. This made sure every patient got fresh air.

At first, a husband and wife, Thomas and Ellen Cahill, worked as the wardsman (who cared for patients) and matron (head nurse). They worked there until the mid-1870s.

Growing with the Community

By 1871, the Springsure area had 1098 people. The hospital treated 48 patients that year. The government also helped with money. Because the community was growing, the hospital needed to expand. In 1879, an extra ward was added. This brought the total number of beds to seventeen.

In the 1890s, many banks had problems. This meant the hospital's money was stuck. They had to borrow money to keep going. But by 1897, they could hire their first trained nurse, Miss Alice Kemp. In 1900, a doctor named Dr. Neilson was hired as a health officer. It wasn't until 1902 that the hospital officially received the land deeds.

Health and Local Government

In 1884, a new law made local governments responsible for treating diseases that could spread easily. This was because people thought bad air and poor drainage caused sickness. Local councils also helped with things like vaccinations. For example, the Bauhinia Shire Council helped with vaccinations during the 1919 flu epidemic. Councils also had to provide special wards for people with infectious diseases. In 1920, the Bauhinia Shire Council gave money to improve the hospital's isolation ward.

More Growth and Changes

The hospital kept growing. In 1914, separate living quarters for staff were built. Health services in the area also improved in the 1920s. An ambulance service started, and a maternity home opened. In 1924, the Queensland Government built a maternity ward at the Springsure Hospital. In 1925, new wards and a kitchen were added next to the old brick building.

Local councils helped pay for the hospitals until 1945. During the Great Depression, the hospital almost closed because of money problems. The community held a meeting and promised to give more money to keep it open. In the late 1930s, the Bauhinia Shire Council promised £400 a year to keep the hospital running on its own, instead of being controlled by the state government.

When a new hospital was built in 1938, the old building was used for fun activities and dances for the nurses. In the 1980s, the original brick building was no longer needed by the hospital. The land was divided, and the 1868 building with its old timber annex became a special heritage site. The Bauhinia Shire Council became its caretaker.

Springsure Hospital Museum

The old hospital building was fixed up in 1988. On August 19, 1989, the Springsure Hospital Museum officially opened. It looks like an old country hospital inside. You can see medical tools, photos, and old records there.

The museum was closed for safety reasons in 2004-2005.

For Anzac Day in 2016, the museum had a special display about World War I. It included letters from four brothers, William, Charles, Henry, and John Fryer, who were from Springsure and served in the war. Their parents, Charles and Rosina Fryer, had worked at the Springsure Hospital. Charles, one of the brothers, died in 1917. Another brother, John (Jack) Fryer, came home but died in 1922. His university friends started a collection of Australian books in his memory. This collection grew into the Fryer Library, which is now a huge archive of Australian history and literature.

Today, the museum is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 AM to 12 PM. If you want to visit at other times, you can get a key from the Central Highlands Regional Council office.

What the Museum Looks Like

The Springsure Hospital Museum is at 13 Woodbine Street, right next to the current Springsure Hospital. It is on high ground, a bit away from the town center, which was common for hospitals back then. It's a Victorian Georgian style building that is mostly still in its original form. It has a single-story brick building with a timber annex attached.

The Main Brick Building

The main brick building was built around 1868. It has two parts. The western part was the old six-bed ward, designed with the pavilion plan. The eastern part has offices and a storeroom. A verandah goes all the way along the front, the western side, and part of the northern side.

The building is made of bricks from the local area. The foundations are made of stone, which helped level the building on the sloping ground. The eastern part is at ground level, while the western part is on timber stumps.

The Old Ward

The main room, which was the ward, shows how the pavilion design worked. It was made to have good air flow and be very clean. It could hold six beds along the walls. Between each bed, there would have been a French door. There are three French doors on both the south and north sides, each with a window above it. These doors open onto the verandah. The building also has three fireplaces, which is unusual for Central Queensland. Two are in the ward, and one is in the old office.

The eastern part of the main building has two rooms on the south side. On the north side, there are two small rooms with an open walkway between them. There's a modern toilet on the northern verandah. The building has decorative stone blocks called quoins on the western side. The windows have flat arches and special keystone shapes. The steeply sloped roof has fancy, scalloped timber decorations called bargeboards. The roof is made of corrugated iron over well-preserved wooden shingles.

The Timber Annex

Right next to the main building, on the west side, is a timber annex. It has two rooms and a verandah along its eastern side with decorative details. This building is made of timber and covered with weatherboards. Its roof is also corrugated iron.

The area in front of the museum has native plants and trees.

Why It's a Heritage Site

The Springsure Hospital Museum was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on October 21, 1992. This means it is important for several reasons:

Showing Queensland's History

Built around 1868, the old Springsure Hospital shows how health care developed in Queensland in the 1800s. The community started it, and volunteers managed it. The building is important because it quickly adopted the "pavilion plan" design. This plan for hospitals only became popular in Europe in the mid-1860s, thanks to people like Florence Nightingale.

A Rare and Special Place

The former Springsure Hospital is a rare example of a hospital from the 1800s that is still standing. Out of more than 90 public hospitals built in Queensland in that century, only about ten are left. Among these, the Springsure Hospital is the only small "cottage type" hospital that combined a small pavilion ward with other facilities in one main building. It was the first hospital built inland in Queensland and is the oldest surviving hospital in Queensland designed with the pavilion plan. Many hospitals built with this plan have been changed or torn down over time.

A Great Example of Hospital Design

With its verandah on three sides and French doors for cross-ventilation, the old Springsure Hospital is a great example of the pavilion plan. This design aimed to improve air flow and cleanliness for patients. The hospital used the newest hospital design of its time and was also built to suit the warm climate of inland central Queensland.

Important to the Community

The Springsure Hospital, now a museum, is highly valued by the community. It played a big part in starting health services and providing medical training in the area. It was the main place for public health care, where people were born, lived, and sometimes died. After it stopped being a hospital, it even provided fun activities for people. These places were important not just for helping the sick, but also as symbols of progress and community spirit.

The community also values the old Springsure Hospital as one of the oldest buildings still standing in the district.