A cure for all ills: medicine in Bendigo

A cure 

for all ills: 

medicine 

in Bendigo 

1

a satellite space of 

Bendigo Art Gallery 

42 View Street 

Bendigo, Victoria 3550 Australia 

www.bendigoartgallery.com.au 

Published 2014 

Copyright © Bendigo Art Gallery 2014 

This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the 

Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process 

without prior written permission. 

Typeset and printed in Australia by Bendigo Modern Press 

www.bmp.com.au 

National Library of Australia 

Cataloguing-in-Publication data: 

Needham, Clare 

A cure for all ills: medicine in Bendigo 

Needham, Clare; Quinlan, Karen 

ISBN: 9780949215758 (pbk.) 

Medicine--Victoria--Bendigo--History--Exhibitions. 

Family medicine--Victoria--Bendigo--History--Exhibitions. 

Medical care--Victoria--Bendigo--History--Exhibitions. 

Bendigo (Vic.)--Social life and customs--Exhibitions. 

Bendigo (Vic.)--Social conditions--Exhibitions. 

Bendigo (Vic.)--History--Exhibitions. 

Other Authors/Contributors: 

Quinlan, Karen. Hill, Ian – photographer. Bendigo Art Gallery. 

610.99454 

Exhibition venue: 

Post Office Gallery, 51-67 Pall Mall, Bendigo. 

Exhibition dates: 

7 February – 10 August 2014 

A cure 

for all ills: 

medicine 

in Bendigo 

Post Office Gallery and Bendigo Art Gallery are proudly 

owned and operated by the City of Greater Bendigo with 

support from Arts Victoria. 

First year students and tutor 

in Prac Room [detail] 

c1967 

gelatin silver print 

Collection Northern 

Media sponsor 

District School of 

Nursing Graduates 

Association 

2 1

Introduction 

The new Bendigo Hospital will 

be the largest regional hospital 

development in Victoria’s history and 

one of the largest hospital projects in 

Australia. It will provide healthcare 

services to a vast geographical area and 

bring significant economic benefit to 

Bendigo. With such momentous growth 

in Bendigo’s healthcare sector it seemed 

an opportune time to look back on 

the makeshift and somewhat chaotic 

beginnings of medicine in Bendigo 

and chart how far we have come. To 

this end, the exhibition A cure for all 

ills: medicine in Bendigo explores the 

social history, advances and professional 

foundations of healthcare in Bendigo. 

Post Office Gallery’s local lenders 

and supporters are an integral part of 

the success of the Gallery and each 

exhibition. For their commitment 

to the preservation of our region’s 

long and proud history and their 

generosity in sharing their knowledge 

and collections with the broader 

community, thank you to: Janet 

Clemens; Carol Holsworth; Aylene 

Kirkwood; Peter Marcollo; Dennis 

O’Hoy; Darren Wright; the Northern 

District School of Nursing Graduates 

Association; Bendigo Health, 

namely Angela Gallagher, Librarian, 

Organisational Development and 

Archives Centre; Elmore Progress 

Association Museum and Eaglehawk 

Heritage Society. I would also like to 

thank the Henry Forman Atkinson 

Dental Museum, Melbourne University 

for loans from their collection and 

Louise Murray, Curator for her 

assistance. 

I’d like to thank Clare Needham, 

Curator of City History and 

Collections for curating this exhibition 

and for her ongoing management 

of Post Office Gallery operations. 

Thank you also to intern Kate Eastick 

for her assistance. I acknowledge the 

technical team of Bendigo Art Gallery 

for installing the exhibiton and I 

wish to highlight especially the Post 

Office Gallery volunteers, who make 

a significant contribution to visitors’ 

experience at the Gallery. 

Karen Quinlan 

DIRECTOR, BENDIGO ART GALLERY 

Maurice Pease 

Pharmacy, 

Hargreaves Street, 

Bendigo [detail] 

L to R: Janet 

Clemens, Maurice 

Pease, Stuart 

Anderson and 

Rene Truscott 

1952 


Collection Janet 

Clemens 

Improvement; Bendigo Regional 

2 3

A cure for all ills: 

medicine in Bendigo 

Today it is relatively straightforward 

to visit your local doctor, get a tooth 

fixed at the dentist, a prescription 

filled at the pharmacy or seek 

alternative remedies outside the 

framework of mainstream medicine. 

Public healthcare structures like 

Medicare make this process relatively 

affordable. Since the arrival of 

Europeans the healthcare system 

in Australia has grown to become 

an ecology of varying disciplines, 

working cohesively to manage the vast 

array of health problems experienced 

by the general population on a 

daily basis. However, it was a very 

different story in the mid 1800s when 

thousands flocked to the Bendigo 

goldfields seeking their fortune. 

From chaotic beginnings to the 

formation of professional practice, the 

introduction of regulations against 

quackery 1 and the establishment of 

long standing institutions such as 

Bendigo hospital, A cure for all ills: 

medicine in Bendigo explores some 

of the social history surrounding 

the foundations of healthcare in 

Bendigo and the contribution of 

doctors, pharmacists, dentists, nurses 

and Chinese herbalists in providing 

essential health services to the 

community. 

Primitive beginnings 

Early doctors on the goldfields 

were pioneers working in makeshift 

conditions. Overcrowding, lack of 

water, almost no provision for the 

disposal of garbage or sewage, swarms 

of flies and poor food storage meant 

that disease was rife. 2 Accidental 

injuries such as gunshot wounds, 

or broken limbs from poorly built 

mine shafts were also common. 

Many medically trained men came 

to Bendigo not to practice medicine 

but to dig for gold, nevertheless after 

surveying the pitiful conditions and 

discovering that mining was a rather 

chancy enterprise, many set up a 

tent and advertised their professional 

services. 

Despite most charging a substantial 

fee for a consultation, being a doctor 

on the chaotic goldfields was an 

unenviable task. Isolated from centres 

of learning and their fellow colleagues 

in Britain, with no hospital, nurses or 

general anesthetic, early procedures 

would have been brutal; and there was 

often little that could be done other 

than to ease the patient’s pain until 

their recovery or death. 

Official healthcare provisions on 

the Bendigo Creek diggings began in 

April 1852 when Dr James McCrea 

Syringes and needles 

20cc, 10cc and 2cc 

early 20th century 

glass, surgical steel 

Collection Elmore 

Progress Association 

Museum 

took up an experimental position 

encompassing camp surgeon and 

coroner, and a temporary canvas 

structure was erected for the treating 

of patients. 3 At this time, qualified 

medical practitioners, although a 

minority on the Bendigo goldfields, 

gained the support of local clergy 

and began to campaign for the 

establishment of a more permenant 

hospital. Despite an apparent apathy 

among the mining community 

concerning healthcare or enterprises 

for public benefit, in 1853 after 

a public meeting, the Bendigo 

Gold District Hospital Board of 

Management was elected and money 

was collected for the hospital’s 

construction. 4 

The first Bendigo hospital 

opened in November 1853. It was a 

weatherboard building constructed 

on a slab, built on a two-acre reserve 

on McKenzie Street at the top of 

Short Street, known then as ‘Hospital 

Hill’. The humble building included 

a kitchen and a surgeon’s room; the 

first medical superintendent was Dr 

Edward Hunt, a ship’s surgeon. 5 

Quackery and regulation 

In the first year of the Bendigo 

hospital only 20 patients were 

admitted, which is surprising 

considering Bendigo’s population of 

approximately 40,000 at the time. 6 

Unless it was an emergency – with 

strict admission rules – it was not easy 

to get into the hopsital. Many people 

avoided seeing a doctor, preferring 

instead to save their money and take a 

‘do-it-yourself’ approach to healthcare 

or visit a pharmacist. Choosing a 

qualified doctor was also a hazardous 

affair, since at this chaotic time of 

rapid growth on the goldfields, there 

was no regulation of medical practice. 

Quacks and charlatans abounded and 

there was nothing preventing them 

assuming a medical title, putting up a 

sign and offering their services. 

One 1850s commentator Mrs E 

Clancy noted: ‘It is no joke to get 

ill at the diggings; doctors make 

you pay for it. Their fees are – for a 

consultation at their own tent, ten 

shillings; for a visit out, from one to 

ten pounds, according to time and 

distance. Many are regular quacks, and 

these seem to flourish best.’ 7 

With little or no training, the 

remedies and results of these charlatans 

were at best mostly ineffective and 

at worst brutal. It was little wonder 

that quackery became an ongoing 

threat and concern to the medical 

4 5

Panorama of Bendigo 

Hospital 

late 19th – early 

20th centuries 


Collection Bendigo 

Health 

establishment, trained in reputable 

colleges in Britain. 

In 1862, after many years of 

agitation, an Act regulating the 

practice of medicine in Victoria 

was passed. The Act safeguarded 

ethical standards and ensured 

mechanisms were in place to register 

suitably qualified practitioners. 

Although the Act did not stamp 

out quackery altogether, those who 

were unregistered could not take 

up official appointments or write 

medical certificates including death 

certificates. 8 

Solid foundations 

Just five years after it opened, the 

first site of the Bendigo hospital was 

deemed unsuitable, when strong 

winds almost blew the building off 

its foundations. 9 That same year, 

1858, the foundation stone for a new 

stone-and-brick building on a tenacre 

site on Lucan Street was laid by 

The Honourable John O’Shanassey. 

The new hospital was designed by 

renowned Bendigo architects Robert 

Getzschmann and William Vahland 

and was open by the end of 1858. 10 

The new hospital slowly gained 

momentum and by 1865, the medical 

superintendent was joined by other 

staff including a nurse to care for an 

increasing number of female patients. 

The Bowen Wing, established for 

the care of women and children, was 

opened in 1874 with the foundation 

stone being laid the previous year 

by Lady Diamantine Bowen, wife 

of his Excellency, Sir GF Bowen, 

then Governor of Victoria. The 

two buildings were connected by a 

two-storey covered walkway. Apart 

from the Royal Melbourne Hospital, 

by the 1880s, the Bendigo hospital 

was the largest and most important 

in the colony servicing many smaller 

townships across the region. 11 

With the services the hospital was 

able to provide for the community, 

it soon became overcrowded and it 

was apparent that the hospital alone 

was not enough. The goldfields 

were bursting at the seams and there 

was little in place to care for the 

destitute, the aged and the mentally 

and chronically ill. With dwindling 

prosperity on the diggings, such 

cases were prevalent and examples 

of distressing circumstances appeared 

regularly in the local press. At a 

time when similar institutions were 

being established across Victoria, the 

Artery forceps, surgical 

thread and surgeons’ 

needles 

mid 20th century 

metal, cotton, paper 

Collection Elmore 

Progress Association 

Museum 

Following page: 

Cyril White 

Australia 19th century 

Nurses Effie Fussell, 

Topsy Tyson and others 

on the hospital float for 

the Easter Fair Parade 

1915 



Health 

Artist unknown 

Published by 

Ebenezer and David 

Syme, Melbourne 

19th century 

Hospital Sunday at 

Sandhurst, parade and 

service in Camp Reserve 

Published in The 

Illustrated Australian 

News for Home Readers 

1873 

wood engraving 

Courtesy State 

Library of Victoria 

6 7

8 9

Previous page: 

Hamel and Ferguson 


Illuminated address 

given to Lady Bowen 

on the laying of the 

Foundation Stone of the 

Bowen Wing, Bendigo 

Hospital 

1873 

paper, cotton, 

embossed leather, 

ink, acrylic paint 


Health 

WH Robinson 


James Lamsey 

1900 


Collection Dennis 

O’Hoy 

Bendigo Benevolent Asylum was 

opened in 1860. Later called the 

Bendigo Home and Hospital for the 

Aged, the asylum filled an immediate 

local need and took pressure off the 

hospital. 

The main issue during the early 

decades of the hospital, and indeed 

the asylum, was maintaining capital. 

A reduction in government grants 

resulted in a significant reliance on 

the community to give generously, to 

enable essential services to continue 

to be provided. Despite an initial 

lack of interest, the community 

ultimately rose to this challenge with 

most of the hospital’s funds coming 

from community donations, friendly 

societies, schools and annual hospital 

subscriptions. In addition, money was 

raised each year through charitable 

events such as the annual Easter Fair, 

established in 1871 to raise money for 

both the hospital and the asylum. 12 

Another fundraising measure was 

the 1873 introduction of Hospital 

Sunday by prominent Bendigonian 

Mr JH Abbott. 13 Inspired by similar 

successful events in Britain, Hospital 

Sunday – like the Easter Fair – 

proved to be an effective revenue 

raiser. 14 

Ancient traditions 

While Bendigo was establishing 

infrastructure for the practice of 

Western medicine, among the 

Chinese migrants who came to 

the Bendigo goldfields in pursuit 

of gold were those trained in 

the ancient traditions of Chinese 

medicine. These practitioners 

administered traditional remedies 

to their countrymen, then later to 

European migrants who had become 

disillusioned with mainstream 

doctors and were seeking an 

alternative cure. Savvy Chinese 

herbalists advertised in Englishspeaking 

newspapers to attract clients 

who would pay good money for 

their services. 

In the quest to protect the 

interests of the mainstream medical 

establishment, it is no surprise 

that these ‘foreign’ healers were 

ostracised. It was considered 

acceptable for a Chinese herbalist 

to administer traditional remedies 

to their own countrymen, however 

not to treat European clients as 

though they were trained doctors. 

The Victorian Medical Society 

discouraged its members from 

treating patients who were also 

Chinese medicine bottles 

late 19th – early 20th 

century 

glass, paper, wax 


O’Hoy 

visiting a Chinese practitioner. 

Unregistered, Chinese herbalists 

could not issue death certificates 

which could lead to later 

implications with coroners and the 

law. 

The most notable and politically 

active Chinese herbalist on the 

Bendigo goldfields was James 

Lamsey. Medically trained in China 

and previously working in the 

Canton Hospital, Lamsey arrived 

in Australia in the early 1850s, and 

travelled to Bendigo in the 1870s. 

Throughout the late 1800s, there 

were numerous attempts by the 

Victorian Medical Society to curtail 

the activities of Chinese herbalists. 

Several times Lamsey was taken to 

court and interrogated for operating 

under the illustrious title of doctor. 15 

According to local historian Carol 

Holsworth, Lamsey and his fellow 

herbalists tried regularly to gain 

registration with the Society but 

were denied every time, ‘… not 

because of their race or religion, but 

because of their lack of anatomical 

knowledge and adequate years of 

training.’ 16 

Despite being unsuccessful in 

his campaign to be recognised 

as a doctor and to trade under 

this title, Lamsey and his fellow 

practitioners continued their 

practices. In a final effort to gain 

professional acknowledgement, 

Lamsey tried to become registered 

as a pharmacist but was also 

unsuccessful. Nonetheless, Lamsey 

amassed considerable wealth from 

his business activities and gained 

prominence in both Chinese and 

European circles. 17 

Long after Lamsey’s death, things 

finally changed for Chinese herbalists 

practicing in Victoria when an 

amendment to the Pharmaceutical 

Chemists Bill was instigated in 1925 

to regulate the practice of quackery. 

Under the title of ‘Herbalists’, it 

stated: ‘The several persons named 

in the schedule to this Act shall be 

entitled to continue as heretofore 

to practice as Herbalists or Herbal 

Practitioners and to use the title of 

Herbalist or Herbal Practitioner and 

to mix prepare and supply medicinal 

herbs and to give directions for 

their use to persons under their 

personal care or treatment ...’ 18 This 

amendment was accompanied by a 

list of practitioners, including several 

herbalists from Bendigo. 19 

10 11

12 

Maw & Sons 

England 19th – 20th 

centuries 

Pharmacy bottles 

19th century 

glass, 

powdered rhubarb, 

powdered cinnamon, 

Quinnine sulphate, 

compound tincture of 

lavender 

Collection Darren 

Wright 

TR Jones Dispensing 

and Family Chemist 

advertisement 

Published in Bendigo 

Quartzopolis by 

FW Niven and Co, 

Ballarat 

1893 

print 

Courtesy Darren 

Wright 

Felton Grimwade 

& Co 

Melbourne 19th – 

20th centuries 

Snakebite treatment case 

1860s 

glass, tin, cotton, 

paper, caffeine citrate 

tablets, condes 

crystals, lavender salt 

Collection Darren 

Wright 

Pharmacy 

From modest herbal beginnings, 

by the end of the nineteenth century 

pharmacy was a thriving multilayered 

business offering everything 

from medicine and ointments to 

toiletries and household products. 

Chemist shops were alluring, stocked 

full of ointments and ingredients in 

bottles of all shapes, sizes and colours. 

Pharmacists were often the first 

port of call for medical advice. 

In contrast to the expense of a 

doctor’s visit, pharmacists offered 

an affordable, accessible service. 

If age-old home remedies did not 

work, pharmacists would diagnose 

a complaint and prescribe a form 

of inexpensive medicinal treatment 

either ready-made or prepared there 

and then. Early pharmacists would 

often administer the cure themselves; 

this practice was not illegal until 

the end of the nineteenth century, 

when Australian medical registration 

acts barred pharmacists from doing 

anything that was considered to be 

the work of a doctor. 

Initially, many pharmacists started 

not as trained medical practitioners, 

but as shrewd businessmen who 

recognised the lucrative potential of 

the over-the-counter health market. 

Although requiring a vast knowledge 

of the medicinal qualities of various 

herbs and chemical substances, there 

was no expectation a practitioner 

would have any training other 

than to have apprenticed under a 

senior chemist. Formal training, 

registration and examinations were 

not introduced until later in the 

nineteenth century. 

While experimentation was the 

key to advancement, lack of training 

often meant that early prescribed 

remedies had varying effect. Some 

worked wonders while others were 

virtually ineffective, or even worse, 

caused additional problems. Just 

as in other medical professions, 

quackery was rife in pharmacy with 

the production and sale of many 

questionable patent and proprietary 

medicines, none more famous than 

Holloway’s ointment; a concoction 

containing largely beeswax and 

lanolin which swept the world and 

gained popularity through clever 

advertising campaigns and mass 

production. 20 

When compounding medicines 

and ointments, pharmacists used 

an array of ingredients, including 

poisons and narcotics. These 

ingredients, most commonly arsenic, 

13

Dental tools 

late 19th – early 20th 

century 

metal 

Collection Peter 

Marcollo 

were also sold to customers in their 

pure form. Due to a large number 

of regrettable incidences, in the 

late nineteenth century restrictions 

and regulations were introduced 

regarding the sale and keeping of 

poisons and later the sale of narcotics. 

Cases of accidental poisoning were 

common and were regularly reported 

in the local press. The Bendigo 

Advertiser on 9 January 1873 reports: 

The sad and untimely death of the 

young man George James Cox on 

Tuesday morning at the Railway 

Hotel, should prove a warning to 

all persons of the great danger of 

keeping poisons in their possession. 

There can be no doubt that the 

fatal occurrence was the result 

purely of accident, the unfortunate 

deceased having placed a parcel of 

arsenic in a box in which he was 

in the habit of keeping tartaric 

acid and soda, for the purpose 

of making effervescing drinks... 

From the evidence given at the 

inquest it does not appear that the 

slightest blame can possibly attach 

to any other person. The poison 

was purchased from J. K. Smith, 

chemist, of Hargreaves-street [sic] 

… The poison was bought for the 

purpose, it is stated, of destroying 

rats. 21 

The first pharmacy in Bendigo 

is said to have been opened by 

Mr James Nelson Jones. Having 

apprenticed at his uncle’s pharmacy 

in England, Jones arrived in Australia 

and opened a successful pharmacy in 

Adelaide before travelling to Bendigo 

in 1851 with other eager fortune 

seekers. Within a few years he had 

three separate shops, which he ran 

successfully for several years. 22 Other 

early chemists in Bendigo were John 

Holdsworth, Thomas Richard Jones, 

Edward Garsed, and J K Smith to 

name but a few. 

Dentistry 

In the utopia of unregulated 

practice on the early goldfields, 

anyone could advertise their services 

as a dentist and perform a wide 

range of dental treatments regardless 

of training or qualifications. 

Pharmacists, barbers, blacksmiths and 

other enthusiastic amateurs offered 

their services in tooth extraction and 

remedies for pain relief. 

Options for treating toothache 

were limited. Chewing on a clove 

or the application of clove oil was 

The Dentists’ Supply 

Company of New 

York and 

The Amalgamated 

Dental Company, Ltd, 

London 

19th – 20th centuries 

Fused porcelain artificial 

teeth shade guide 



Marcollo 

Denture 


vulcanite, porcelain 

teeth 


Marcollo 

used to alleviate pain. If you were 

unfortunate enough to be suffering 

from toothache, extraction without 

anaesthetic or sterilisation was often 

the only option. While mostly the 

reserve of wealthy patients, as skilled 

craftsmen, trained dentists could 

fashion suitable replacements for 

extracted teeth. They carved realistic 

sets of false teeth from blocks of ivory 

with strategically placed springs and 

supports for facilitating speech and 

eating. Later, porcelain teeth were 

set into metal frames, or moulded 

dentures made of vulcanised rubber. 

As was the case with doctors, 

dental professionals worked hard to 

ensure their profession was regulated 

and evolved within ethical bounds. 

The first Dental Act was passed in 

Victoria in 1887 and shortly after, a 

college was established in Melbourne 

to further advance education in 

the practice of Dentistry. Into the 

twentieth century, dentists were also 

trained under an apprentice system. 

Despite the introduction of formal 

training, dentistry was not without 

mishap. An article in The Argus 

‘Death in a dentist’s chair’ recounts 

a terrible tale from a Bendigo clinic 

in 1896: 

A sudden death occurred yesterday 

in the dentistry establishment of 

Mr. Percy Mole, a youth of 14 

named Albert Vince dying whilst 

under chloroform. Deceased was 

the son of a well-known orchardist 

and vigneron at Bridgewater. He 

had been examined by a doctor, 

who considered him a fit subject 

for chloroform, and this was 

administered by Dr. J. D. Boyd, 

only a small dose being given. 

Eight or nine teeth were removed, 

and Vince suddenly expired. Dr. 

Boyd persevered for an hour and 

a half with artificial respiration, 

and also hypodermically injected 

various restoratives, but without 

avail. Dr. Penfold afterwards held 

a post mortem examination, and 

found that the heart and other 

organs were sound. He considered 

that death was due to shock ... 23 

Despite cavities remaining 

rampant, fuelled by a diet of sweet 

and refined foods, in the late 

nineteenth century there was a 

concerted effort to prevent tooth loss. 

With the advancement of mechanical 

dentistry the field flourished. The 

introduction of the pedal drill, 

made it possible to remove a cavity 

14 

15

P. Rayer author 

Published by JB 

Bailiere, London 

Theoretical and practical 

treatise on the disease on 

the skin 

1935 

bound book 


Health 

Dr John McIntyre Eadie 

late 19th century 


Courtesy Darren 

Wright 

City of Bendigo Reports 

of Infectious Diseases 

Register vol. 1 

1919–1941 

bound book 


Regional Archives 

Centre 

VA2389 City of 

Bendigo/No VPRS 

number 

Bartlett Brothers 

Bendigo 1880 - 1900 

Infectious diseases 

nurses, Bendigo Hospital 

late 19th century 



Health 

while retaining the original tooth 

with the subsequent hole filled with 

the newly developed substance 

amalgam; a material still prevalent in 

contemporary dentistry. 24 

Infectious diseases 

One of the most significant 

developments in medical science has 

been the introduction of antiseptics, 

and a greater understanding of 

germs and disease. Since the 1950s, 

Australia has been almost entirely free 

from infectious diseases in epidemic 

form. This is due mainly to effective 

health education programmes, the 

invention of vaccines and subsequent 

free mass immunisation programs 

provided by municipal governments. 

In the often-squalid living conditions 

of the early settlement of Bendigo, 

infection was widespread. With little 

understanding of how diseases started 

and spread, there were many deaths 

from diseases that today no longer 

exist or are easily treatable. 

In the late nineteenth century, 

public health became a civic 

concern. A local Board of Health was 

established and from 1872 Bendigo 

City Council, then Sandhurst, 

employed a Health Officer to 

monitor the health of the city. The 

first was Dr J Cruckshank who 

was succeeded in the 1880s by Dr 

John McIntyre Eadie, who retained 

the appointment well into the 

following century. Health officers 

wrote quarterly and annual reports, 

providing a statistical breakdown of 

the health of the city. 25 

In Dr Eadie’s Annual Health 

Report for 1890, he notes that there 

were 1021 births and 600 deaths. He 

presents the causes of death in detail 

including six from Scarlatina, nine 

from Diphtheria, 12 from Typhoid 

Fever, 30 from Diarrhoea and 98 

from Phthisis. Often referred to as 

‘miner’s complaint’, Phthisis was 

a disease of the respiratory system 

much like Tuberculosis and resulted 

in the wasting away or atrophy of 

the body; a disease Dr Eadie notes 

was the unfortunate side-effect of the 

‘unhealthy occupation of mining’. 26 

By the turn of the century, deaths 

from Phthisis amongst adult miners 

in Bendigo were six times more 

frequent than among all Victorian 

adult males. 27 

Despite vastly improved living 

conditions in the early years of 

the twentieth century, there was 

a dramatic increase in infection 

throughout the Bendigo region. 

16 17

‘As the most 

vulnerable in the 

community, children 

were often also the 

most susceptible to 

disease.’ 

18 

Bendigo Baby Health 

Centre infant card 

1928 

card, ink 


Regional Archives 

Centre 

VA2389/No VPRS 

number 

Vincent Kelly 


Bendigo Infant Welfare 

Centre 

c1945 


Reproduced with 

the permission of 

the Keeper of Public 

Records, 

Public Record Office 

Victoria, Australia 

In response, in 1915 an Infectious 

Diseases Ward was constructed 

at Bendigo Hospital funded by a 

bequest from the mining millionaire 

JB Watson. 28 Prior to the building 

of this ward, and in subsequent 

times of need, tents were erected in 

the hospital grounds to quarantine 

infectious patients. 

From the early twentieth century, 

infectious disease cases were reported 

to the City by local doctors and 

recorded in the City of Bendigo 

Reports of Infectious Diseases Register. 

In February 1919 – the first month 

and year noted in the first volume 

of the register – there were 157 

cases of Influenza, 14 cases of Scarlet 

Fever, six Diphtheria cases, one 

Tuberculosis case and two cases 

of Typhoid fever. 29 At this time, 

following the First World War, there 

was a global Influenza epidemic that 

caused millions of deaths. Bendigo 

soldiers returning from war would 

have brought the disease back to their 

families and communities. In 1920 a 

new register titled Financial Records 

of Infectious Diseases was introduced 

by the City. This register focused 

only on the vast number of Influenza 

victims in the City between 1920 

and 1922. Along with their name, 

address and age, it recorded the length 

of their stay in hospital; a stay which 

incurred a fee of up to six shillings a 

day. Some people stayed in hospital 

for up to 50 days recovering from the 

disease. 30 

Infant welfare 

As the most vulnerable in the 

community, children were often also 

the most susceptible to disease. From 

the later part of the nineteenth to 

early twentieth centuries one of the 

chief ways of determining the health 

of a community and the success 

of public health measures such as 

hygiene control was infant mortality 

rates. Concerned with the significant 

number of infant deaths in Victoria 

at the end of the nineteenth century, 

social reformers began to campaign 

for the introduction of measures to 

decrease infant mortality, calling for 

more education for mothers. 

The Maternity and Infant Welfare 

Act was passed in England in 1918 

and had a significant influence on the 

development of the emerging infant 

welfare movement in Australia. The 

Act was primarily concerned with 

the education of mothers in areas of 

proper hygiene and the feeding of 

newborns. The Victorian Baby Health 

19

20 

Opening of the Dr 

Catford Memorial 

Baby Health Centre, 

Eaglehawk 

L to R: Mrs Catford; 

Christine Cannan; 

Peter Lockett, 

unknown, Gail 

Ashman and Mayoress 

Mrs R. Watson. 

1956 


Collection Aylene 

Kirkwood 

Miss Beatrice O’Brien’s 

Bendigo Gold District 

General Hospital 

Training School for 

Nurses graduation 

certificate 

1897 

paper, card, leather, 

ink 


Health 

Northern District School 

of Nursing student and 

graduation badges 

1950 - 1989 

metal 




Association 

Centres Association was founded in 

1918, and following in the footsteps 

of their medical counterparts in 

Britain from the 1920s onward 

‘schools for mothers’, also known 

as Baby Health Centres were 

established across Victoria. Hospitals 

were encouraged to refer babies to 

these centres which were staffed by 

specialist nurses. 

Baby Health Centres sought to 

disseminate the ‘science’ of child 

rearing, in which mothers were 

taught to favour the advice of experts 

over that of friends or relatives. The 

centres also monitored community 

immunisation programs and ensured 

they were notified of all births, with 

nursing sisters regularly visiting new 

mothers after their child was born, to 

record details of the baby’s physical 

and social development. 

The first Bendigo Infant Welfare 

Centre was established in a room 

at the Town Hall in October 1921. 

During the first eight months of the 

centre’s operation, 230 individual 

babies were attended to, the total 

number of visits being 1394 with 

the addition of 752 visits made to 

homes by the Infant Welfare nurse, 

Sister Walford. 31 At the 1935 annual 

meeting of the Bendigo Baby Health 

Centre, the then State Director of 

Infant Welfare Dr Vera Scantlebury 

praised the Bendigo centre’s 

popularity and success, noting she 

was amazed at the work done by 

the one sister at the Bendigo centre 

and hoped that Bendigo would soon 

be able to provide another sister 

and suggested that the Government 

should be asked to subsidise the 

centre. 32 

State funding was obtained the 

following year for the training of 

new Infant Welfare sisters, and a new 

Baby Health Care centre costing over 

£2000 was erected at View Point in 

Rosalind Park, opening on 7 April 

1936. At the launch, the Mayor of 

the day commented: ‘In the ten years 

since the centre had been operating, 

Bendigo had achieved a reduction 

in infant mortality of more than 

50 per cent and such wide interest 

was manifest in it that centres were 

being established in surrounding rural 

districts.’ 33 

Nursing 

In the male-dominated field of 

healthcare professionals, nursing 

emerged as a predominantly female 

profession. Patients in the first 

Bendigo hospital were initially cared 

21

‘A training school for 

nurses commenced 

at Bendigo Hospital 

in 1885, marking the 

beginning of nursing 

education in the 

region.’ 

School 64 in class with 

Sister Miller 

c1965 



of Nursing Assembly 

Room set-up for final 

exams 

1957 





Association 

for by male wardsmen with female 

nurses only employed with the 

admittance of female patients. The 

first recorded female nurse employed 

by the Bendigo hospital was Janet 

Morgan in 1859. 34 Early nurses were 

untrained, and in addition to patient 

care their role entailed a significant 

amount of menial housekeeping 

chores. 

In 1859, after serving as a nurse 

in the Crimean War, Florence 

Nightingale published her famous 

Notes on Nursing. By 1860, she had 

become hospital advisor to the world 

and is credited as the founder of 

modern nursing, with a focus on 

discipline, cleanliness and service. 

Nurses’ training in Australia was built 

on the foundations of the Nightingale 

system; an apprentice-type scheme 

where formal training was completed 

in the wards of selected training 

hospitals and student nurses received 

theoretical instruction in the form of 

clinical and classroom lectures often 

presented by the Matron, resident 

surgeon or general practitioners 

outside rostered hours. 

A training school for nurses 

commenced at Bendigo Hospital 

in 1885, marking the beginning 

of nursing education in the 

region. The facility was under the 

direction of resident surgeon Dr 

Archibald Colquhoun. Aside from 

a short recess in the late 1880s, the 

school continued until 1989. The 

introduction of formal training 

elevated the status of nurses in the 

Bendigo hospital. By the 1890s, 

genuine attempts were being made 

to differentiate between nursing 

staff and housekeeping staff and the 

hierarchy of the hospital became 

clearly defined by those who were 

trained and those who were not. 

By the turn of the century, 

while nursing had matured into a 

specialised profession and working 

conditions had somewhat improved, 

nurses were still poorly renumerated. 

Local nurse Isabel ‘Spark’ Gill, who 

commenced nursing at Bendigo 

hospital in 1936, received her 

training under the Nightingale 

system. In her book Nursing in the 

30s, she describes the conditions 

of nursing at the time. ‘Nurses 

worked sixty hours a week or longer 

without overtime and for no or 

little remuneration. Most hospitals 

expected nurses to provide their own 

uniforms. Nurses lived in nurse’s 

homes under strict supervision, and 

attended lectures in their own time. 

22 23

Very few Schools of Nursing had 

eventuated, so nurses entered the 

hospital as raw recruits.’ 35 

In the 1940s, local nurses who 

served in the Second World War 

returned to an acute labour shortage. 

The shortage brought about a rethink 

of the whole structure and role of 

nursing across the State. Numbers 

entering the field of nursing were 

dropping and those nurses who 

married were required to cease 

employment. Social changes also 

meant women had more freedom 

to seek a variety of alternative 

employment with more competitive 

wages. A debate was emerging at this 

time over the discrepancy between 

the standard of training received by 

nurses in different hospitals. 

The Northern District School of 

Nursing (NDSN) was established 

in Bendigo in 1950 in response to 

recommendations from a review 

undertaken by the Hospitals and 

Charities Commission. The NDSN 

was the first independent school in 

Australia catering for trainee nurses 

from large base hospitals such as 

Bendigo and Mildura, as well as 

smaller district hospitals in Swan 

Hill, Echuca, Castlemaine, Dunolly, 

Inglewood and Kyneton. 

Joan O’Shea was enrolled in 

School One in March 1950 – and 

remembers the chaos of the first 

school. 

I was one of 39 girls and I was 

just 17 years old. The building 

works were not complete when 

we started, so our classrooms 

were determined by the amount 

of noise being created. We went 

to the hostels for bandaging 

practice, sat on the piles of bricks 

for ‘private study’ and used lecture 

rooms where possible … Many 

things were incomplete and there 

was a shortage of nursing home 

accommodation. Local girls like 

myself lived at home, country 

girls who were to train at Bendigo 

Hospital lived at Lansellstowe, 

students from country hospitals 

lived at Euralla in View Street and 

the Wattle Street hostel. This later 

changed with all trainees living 

behind Lister House. As School 

One, we were the guinea pigs … 

The hospital girls called us ‘those 

know-it-all kids from the school’. 36 

Operating from Lister House 

in Rowan Street until 1989, over 


of Nursing School One 

1950 





Association 

3,000 students in 108 Schools were 

educated to be trained nurses through 

the NDSN. 37 Each school provided 

a theoretical instruction program 

by way of structured study blocks. 

Following this, the student nurses 

returned to their training hospitals 

to work in designated areas to gain 

appropriate clinical experience. On 

successfully completing three years 

of training, students passed out as 

graduates of their specific training 

hospital. The exceptions to this were 

the Pilot Groups who were students 

of the School and became Graduates 

of the Northern District School of 

Nursing. This method of training was 

the forerunner to today’s tertiarybased 

nurses’ education. 

Evolution 

The Bendigo goldfields grew at a 

rapid pace with thousands descending 

upon the region in less than a year 

of gold being discovered. In this 

context, structures for the provision 

of healthcare inevitably evolved in 

an ad hoc fashion, developing more 

from urgent need and individual 

entrepreneurship than systematic 

planning. Regulatory bodies 

played catch-up, endeavouring to 

make sense of a makeshift system 

of overlapping disciplines and the 

infiltration of quackery. Along with 

regulation, many technical, scientific 

and educational advancements 

have taken place in the 160 years 

since healthcare formally began in 

Bendigo and early chaos has given 

way to a sophisticated system for 

the provision of essential services to 

the community. Through diligent 

campaigning, generous community 

support and the hard work of 

dedicated health professionals, this 

system has expanded to become a 

major industry, which includes the 

Bendigo Hospital soon to become 

one of Australia’s largest regional 

hospitals. 

Clare Needham 

Curator, City History 

and CollectioNS 

24 25

notes 

26 

1 ‘Quackery’ refers to the actions or practice 

of someone who falsely purports to having 

medical skill, knowledge, or qualifications. 

2 ‘Sandy blight’ was the most common 

summertime ailment on the goldfields 

causing swollen and infected eyes. 

3 Keith Macrae Bowden, Doctors and Diggers 

on the Mount Alexander Goldfields. Hedges 

and Bell Pty Ltd, Maryborough, Victoria, 

1974. pp 59 

4 Despite the majority of the population 

being miners, they contributed only one 

fifth of the £646 raised toward the project, 

the rest was contributed by shopkeepers 

and other business owners. The 

government contributed a further £500. 

5 Frank Cusack, Lister House - The Story of 

the Northern District School of Nursing, The 

Hawthorn Press, Melbourne, 1976. pp 2 - 3 

6 David Lloyd, Domestic Comforts They Had 

None - A pictorial history of the Bendigo 

Hospital, Australian Scholarly Publishing, 

Melbourne, Australia, 2003. p 2 

7 E Clancy, A Lady’s visit to the Gold Diggings 

in Australia in 1852–53, P Thompson (ed), 

Melbourne: Landsdowne Press, 1963. p 67 

8 Keith Macrae Bowden, Doctors and 

Diggers on the Mount Alexander Goldfields. 

Introductory notes ix 

9 The ‘Diggers’ Hospital, The Argus, 19 January 

1854. 

10 From the mid-nineteenth century until 

the turn of the century, Vahland often 

in conjunction with his business partner 

Getzschmann, designed many prominent 

buildings in Bendigo, including the 

Mechanics Institute and School of Mines 

in McCrae St, The Masonic Hall and 

Temple (now The Capital Theatre) in View 

St, The Gold Mines Hotel, as well as many 

churches, schools, and private homes. 

11 Several private hospitals were also in 

operation in Bendigo in the late 19th and 

early 20th centuries; however there is little 

documentation about their management 

or practices. Early private hospitals were 

primarily ‘lying-in hospitals’ for the sole 

purpose of midwifery and diseases relating 

to women and children. 

12 £3,749 was raised in the first year of the 

Easter Fair with £1,280 given to both the 

hospital and the Benevolent Asylum. See 

G. Mackay, History of Bendigo, Lerk and 

McClure, Bendigo, 2000 (reprint). 

pp 51 - 2 

13 Hospital Sunday was one Sunday a 

year, when all church offerings, across 

all denominations, were set apart for 

simultaneous contribution to the hospital. 

14 G. Mackay, History of Bendigo. pp 51 - 2 

15 At the time of publication, you can 

still very faintly see the sign painted on 

Lamsey’s store in Howard Lane (now 

Farmers Lane) where ‘JAS. Lamsey Chinese 

Doctor’ has been painted over with ‘JAS. 

Lamsey Chinese Herbalist’ 

16 Carol Holsworth, Chinese Doctor James 

Lamsey & Lady Jane of Bendigo, Friends 

of the Bendigo Cemeteries Inc. Victoria, 

Australia, 2012. p 36 

17 Carol Holdsworth, Chinese Doctor James 

Lamsey & Lady Jane of Bendigo. pp 72 - 5 

18 Amendment re: Pharmaceutical Chemists 

Bill – Herbalists, 1925, private collection of 

Dennis O’Hoy. 

19 The list of Bendigo practitioners that 

are referred to in Clause 1 of the above 

mentioned amendment are Yin Kee, 

Hargreaves Street; Ack King, Howard 

Place; Young Chung, William Street; Lam 

Sun (nephew of Lamsey), McCrae Street; 

J. Ah Yow, High Street and Geo. Lam, 

McCrae Street. 

Vincent Kelly 


Bendigo Hospital staff 

1920 



Health 

20 An excerpt from a newspaper 

advertisement for Holloway’s ointment 

from the nineteenth century states: ‘This 

ointment acts like magic in old wounds, 

sores and ulcers, however inveterate. 

It’s [sic] effect is marvellous in cases of 

paralysis, contracted or stiff joints, and in 

the stoppage of the water or disorders 

of the kidneys it is unequalled.’ The 

advertisement goes on to purport that 

Holloway’s ointment is a cure for asthma 

and bronchitis, bad legs, bad breasts, 

rheumatism and swelling, piles, fistulas and 

the ‘imprulences of youth’. 

21 Accidental poisoning, The Bendigo Advertiser, 

Thursday 9 January 1873. p 2 

22 W. B Kimberly, Bendigo and Vicinity, 1895. p 

17 & 68 

23 Death in a dentist’s chair, The Argus, Monday 

25 May 1896. 

24 Amalgam was developed in the late 

nineteenth century. An alloy of silver, tin, 

copper and zinc cut to a very fine powder 

was mixed with mercury to create a paste 

that set hard after being packed into a 

carefully prepared cavity from which decay 

had been removed. 

25 Quarterly and Annual Health Officer 

reports for the City of Bendigo are 

available to view at the Bendigo Regional 

Archives Centre (BRAC). 

26 City of Bendigo Health Officers’ Annual 

Report, 10/6/1891, VA4862/VPRS 

16936 Sandhurst/Bendigo inwards 

correspondence, Box 33/ Bendigo 

Regional Archives Centre. 

27 Bryan Gandevia, 1960, Land, Labour and 

Gold: The Medical Problems of Australia in the 

Nineteenth Century, The Medical Journal of 

Australia, Volume 1, 47th year, printed in 

Sydney. 

28 The Infectious Diseases Ward at Bendigo 

Hospital was demolished in 1964. 

29 City of Bendigo Reports of Infectious Diseases 

Register, Volume no. 1, VA2389 City of 

Bendigo/No VPRS number/ Bendigo 

Regional Archives Centre. 

30 Financial Records of Infectious Diseases, 

VA2389 City of Bendigo/No VPRS 

number/Bendigo Regional Archives 

Centre. 

31 Bendigo Baby Health Centre records, The 

secretary’s report presented at the 1st Annual 

Meeting of the Bendigo Baby Health Centre, 

July 13, 1922 for year ending June 30, 1921, 

VA2389 City of Bendigo/No VPRS 

number/ Bendigo Regional Archives 

Centre. 

32 Bendigo and District Baby Health Centre, The 

Argus, 17 July 1935. p 12 

33 Bendigo and District New Baby Health Centre, 

The Argus, 7 April 1936. p 13 

34 Bendigo Gold District General Hospital, 

Sixth Annual Report, 1862 as referred to in 

Yolande M.J. Collins and Sandra A. Kippen, 

Aprons and Arches, A History of Bendigo 

Hospital Trained Nurses 1883–1989, Holland 

House, Bendigo, Victoria, 1998. p 1 

35 Isabel ‘Spark’ Gill, Nursing in the 30s - 

Before Antibiotics, Immunization & Modern 

Technology, Curnow Street Trust, Ivanhoe, 

1998. pp 13 - 14 

36 Personal interview with Joan O’Shea, 

Bendigo, November 2013. 

37 There were several intakes of students 

every year. Each intake was referred to as a 

new school and given a number. 

27

Further Reading 

T.R. Jones Chemist 

ointment bottle 

19th century 

glass, paper, cork 


O’Hoy 

Keith Macrae Bowden, Doctors 

and Diggers on the Mount Alexander 

Goldfields, Hedges and Bell Pty Ltd, 

Maryborough, Victoria, 1974 

Yolande M.J. Collins and Sandra A. 

Kippen, Aprons and Arches, A history of 

Bendigo Hospital Trained Nurses 1883 

– 1989, Holland House, Bendigo, 

Victoria, 1998 

Frank Cusack, Lister House, The story of 

the Northern District School of Nursing, 

The Hawthorn Press, Melbourne, 1976 

Frank Cusack, Candles in the Dark, 

A History of the Bendigo Home and 

Hospital for the Aged, Queensberry Hill 

Press, Carlton, Victoria, 1984 

Jane Eastoe, Victorian Pharmacy, 

rediscovering forgotten remedies and recipes, 

Pavilion, United Kingdom, 2010 

Carol Holsworth, Chinese Doctor 

James Lamsey & Lady Jane of Bendigo, 

Published by the Friends of the 

Bendigo Cemeteries Inc. Victoria, 

Australia, 2012 

Milton J Lewis, The People’s Health: 

Public Health in Australia 1788 – 1950, 

Praeger Publishers, United States of 

America, 2003 

David Lloyd, Domestic Comforts They 

Had None - A pictorial history of the 

Bendigo Hospital, Australian Scholarly 

publishing, Melbourne, Australia, 2003 

Philippa Martyr, Paradise of Quacks: 

An alternative History of Medicine in 

Australia, Macleay Press, Sydney, 2002 

Isabel ‘Spark’ Gill, Nursing in the 

30s - Before Antibiotics, Immunization 

& Modern Technology, Curnow Street 

Trust, Ivanhoe, 1998 

Isabel ‘Spark’ Gill, The Lamp Still Burns, 

Nursing in Victoria 1936 – 1981 – an 

autobiographical account. Australian Print 

Group, Maryborough, 1989 

Exhibition catalogue for the 

exhibition, Cavities, keys & camels : 

early dentistry in Victoria curated by 

Professor Henry Atkinson and Louise 

Murray and held at the Leigh Scott 

Gallery, Baillieu Library, University 

of Melbourne, 9 September - 28 

November 2010 

28 1

2 

51–67 pall mall 

Bendigo VICTORIA 3550 

T 03 5434 6179 

postofficegallery 

@bendigo.vic.gov.au

A cure for all ills: medicine in Bendigo

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