A cure for all ills: medicine in Bendigo

Panorama of Bendigo
Hospital
late 19th – early
20th centuries
gelatin silver print
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
gelatin silver print
Collection Bendigo
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
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