Original Hospital and Annexe

Statement of Significance

This building has both social and cultural significance in that it was first built as a hospital and is now used as a museum. The building of the hospital provided for an urgent and critical need in the community at the time. Like schools, hospitals are a necessary and essential service for the survival of a community.
The museum now has exhibits and displays, especially of medical equipment belonging to Dr. Chester, the first doctor in the district, which reflect the way of life and the experiences of many of the early settlers.

Physical Description

The building is of pressed cement blocks with quoining now painted white. There are six basic rooms, a wide passage down the middle, with a verandah all around. It is typical of a style and architecture built in the 1930s. It has jarrah joinery and flooring. One room is a kitchen.

History

By 1929 there was an urgent need for a doctor and a hospital in the Koorda district. Women with nursing experience were kept busy and petitions and protests were flooding into the Medical Department, to Members of Parliament and anybody else thought of as some help begging the State Medical Board for a hospital at Koorda and to cover the large area to the north far from a doctor or hospital.
In the Government Gazette of 1929, Hospital Reserve No. 19659 was set aside, but the Medical Board was emphatic they were not contemplating a hospital as a policy of large regional hospitals with ambulances, some aerial, was planned.
Public pressure persuaded a rather unwilling. Road Board to subsidise a doctor. The practice was advertised throughout Australia with a guarantee of £750 a year and Dr. H L Chester was chosen from five applicants. He and his wife arrived in Koorda in April, 1929.
The young doctor, in this his first practice, was popular immediately. He and his wife, Meg, boarded at the hotel with a consulting room in one of the small shops at the north end of the town. They travelled the district over the bush tracks as doctor and nurse. In the Koorda Museum is a collection of instruments which Dr. Chester used for years, some of them made by himself.
However a doctor, no matter how good, needed a hospital. Various organisations had money in hand towards what was known as the Nursing Fund, particularly keen being the R S L. In October, a brilliant Ball raised funds jointly for the Wyalkatchem Hospital and the
History
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Koorda Nursing Fund.
In late 1929 a few stalwarts decided Koorda should build its own hospital. After several attempts a Hospital Fund was formed in October, of Alex Whiteford as Chairman, Dr. Chester Secretary and with a committee of W.C. Chappell, L.J. Carter and J.B. Cole. They set to work on feasibility studies and decided an even bigger drive for funds would start after harvest.
By 1930 over £400 was in hand for the Hospital Fund but money was hard to raise. The drama group, "The Optimists", put on productions at Koorda, Bencubbin and Wyalkatchem in aid of the Hospital Fund.
Ken Skinner, H. McGuigan and Harold Black decided to organise a Charity Queen competition. Jessie Armstrong was designated the Country Queen and Lorna Vickers the Town Queen. There followed a fury of money raising activities. The money was largely raised by dances, parties and social activities of every sort which livened up the whole community. A race meeting and sports day was held at Redcliff for the town candidate, Lorna Vickers. Gordon Armstrong baked a cake of 114 lbs for his daughter's 21st birthday and gave a party for 400 in the hall, with all donations for the Country candidate
The competition ended with a Grand Ball and a most elaborate Coronation Ceremony at which the Country Queen, Jessie Armstrong was crowned by the Minister for Lands, Hon C.G. Latham and £639 had been raised. Lorna Vickers, who had not been long in the town had raised £167 and great credit went to the small district of Gabbin which raised £100. Kulja and Newcarlbeon sent in £21 between them and everyone thought the work for the hospital was finished.
In December, 1931 a contract was let for the building of the hospital. By this time J.W. Price had the building well under way, under the supervision of H.L. McGuigan.
On 8th July, 1932 the Road Board Chairman, Alex Aitken, chaired a meeting to form a Committee of Management. It was poorly attended but those there were conscientious if not enthusiastic. T.J. Marriott, the current Chairman of the Hospital Funds Committee announced that there was £1,173 in hand. Eleven people stood for nomination and two ballots were held. The resulting Board consisted of Messrs. J.C. Green, J.G. Mann, B.C. Nilsson, H. Gray, M.T. Ovens, F.W.T. Main and Alex Whiteford. C.L. Martin was elected Chairman, H.L. McGuigan, Honorary Secretary, Fred Main, Treasurer.
The building cost £792, leaving £381 for equipment. Wyalkatchem donated its old operating table, the school children a cot, the hockey club a hall stand and the old Progress Association passed over £3.10.0 and the Caledonian Society gave £7.4.0.
It was decided to lease the Hospital rent free, giving the matron the Government subsidy of £100 provided indigents and aborigines were given free treatment.
There were seven applicants and the Medical Board advised that further staff could always be got from the list of unemployed nurses in Perth. The Board chose Gwen Bridge as the first Matron and the Hospital was opened officially on September 24th, 1932 by the Hon. C.G. Latham, M.L.C.
Nurse Stewart was employed by the Matron and it was soon obvious that she would not be able to afford further help. Orderlies, and all other work had to be supplied by voluntary labour. Several times a year there had to be a spring clean to help the Matron. Sometimes the hospital was empty for days and then it could be over full for days and someone had to come in to help. At times cutlery and linen had to be borrowed from the Hotel. All this was done by a comparative handful of dedicated people. The official opening had been attended by more politicians and visitors than locals, a fact noted with misgivings.
The C.W.A., as a branch and individually, gave many hours of the work needed to keep it open. Coming to the Hospital as the Depression deepened, some women were unable at times to provide clothes for a new baby or for themselves. The branch instituted a "Baby Box" which was kept filled with everything needed for a confinement and a full layette.
Sadly the district farewelled the Chesters in 1935. Koorda lost a wise and kindly young practitioner and a couple interested in every activity, cultural or sporting. The Road Board was criticised as many thought they should have guaranteed a higher salary. There were many unpaid bills. It was hard enough for the locals to pay their bills but there were also the casual and sustenance workers and the unemployed tramping the countryside who were treated and for whom Len Chester got no pay.
Dr. and Mrs. J.B. Hogg arrived in September. A humorous, scholarly man he looked more like an absent minded professor. He worked hard as the doctor, for the Hospital and community affairs but must have almost starved. Len Chester went to Wyalkatchem and a following with him, in spite of his discouragement. There was a popular doctor at Dowerin so few patients came from the west of Koorda. Left for Joe Hogg were the very loyal, the indigent, the sustenance workers, or the extreme emergencies.
F.W.T. Main was elected Chairman of the Hospital Board in 1936.
J.W. Price's tender of £833 for a Maternity Wing was accepted and work started immediately. It was financed by £500 from the Lotteries Commission, £250 from a Government Grant, £125 from the Road Board and £125 from the Hospital Board.
By this time linen, crockery and equipment was wearing out. The Chairman asked Mrs. Hogg to form a Women's Auxiliary. Bridge parties and musical evenings raised money and sewing bees mended linen, made new curtains, did the Spring cleaning and a host of other jobs.
The new wing opened on December, 21st by the Hon. S.W. Munsie. At the ceremony the Minister agreed to increase the Government subsidy from £100 to £150. An X-ray machine was installed at the hospital at this time. Joe Hogg and Harry Laudy had raised £90 between them by sheer hard work and determination.
In 1938 the 6th Annual Hospital Board meeting elected F.W. Main Chairman again with a committee of Messrs. Laudy, Adderley, Hogg, Price, Mighall and Exton and Silsbury. Ken Skinner as Secretary was being paid a small honorarium by this time but it was barely enough for stamps and stationery. £102 had been raised, £20 of which came from a Wheat Appeal organised by G.F. Best, and a dark room for X-rays was built. In the previous year there had been 102 patients and 849 bed days of treatment.
Dr. Hogg left in March to take over the practice in Dowerin. In spite of strenuous efforts neither the Hospital Board nor the Road Board could find a doctor for Koorda. Dr. Otto Schlafig offered his services but the A.M.A. would not allow refugee doctors from Hitler's Germany to become members of their Association and the Board could not offer their guarantee to him.
Gwen Bridge who had resigned from the Hospital to train at Tresillian, returned to Koorda in February, to open the first Travelling Baby and Health Clinic with Koorda as the headquarters. She travelled over hundreds of miles of dirt tracks through country much of it uncleared, past empty farms to isolated homes and Clinic centres in her work. The help and encouragement given by Frank Walker of Mollerin, who Gwen Bridge later married, kept both hospital and clinic going at times when it would have had to close. When she left it became more and more difficult to get trained staff without a resident doctor.
At the end of 1939 the Chairman of the Hospital Board, Fred Main, called a general meeting to tell the District that neither a doctor or lessee matron could be engaged. The Board would try to run the Hospital on a salaried basis which would mean more work for an already overtaxed Secretary and Board. The Secretary was getting £21 a year which would not have paid for petrol as he searched for staff, patients and tried to raise money. Arthur Franklin's suggestion that every family in the district contribute £2 a year for free treatment was defeated. This suggestion had been made every year as cheap insurance but the public would never agree. C. Hardwick moved that a subscriber list be opened. H. Laudy, T.J. Marriott and F. Main gave £2 each and that was all.
The following July it was announced that Mrs. Hogg would keep the Koorda Hospital open on a trial basis. The Annual Meeting reported that over five preceding Annual Meetings total public attendance had numbered three persons. F.W. Main had been Chairman for four years. Harry Laudy had been a member of the Board for five years and attended 62 out of 62 meetings. The patients fees for a whole year were only £110 and the hospital had a deficiency of £164 after receiving Government grants of £165. This was allowing nothing for repairs and renewals, all of which were being done by voluntary labour. Margaret Hogg had few patients. The hospital eventually closed on the 18th October, 1940.
During the War the Hospital was cleaned regularly and kept ready for use at all times by the Red Cross, although the Road Board took over the Trusteeship of the Board.
In 1945 the Road Board convened a meeting consisting of two representatives each from the Road Board, Parents & Citizens Association, Country Women's Association, Wheatgrowers Union, Australian Labour Party, Mollerin Wheatgrowers Union, Koorda Country & Democratic League, the National Fitness Committee and the Returned Soldiers' League. From this a small committee of Alex Aitken, Noel McDonald, Frank Bradshaw and Charles Smith was formed into an Education Society. They were required to see if bus routes were possible or to make other recommendations. Bus routes were quite impractical and the only alternative was a hostel in Koorda.
The old Koorda Hospital was available but there was opposition to its use as some wanted it re-opened for its original use. The Board asked Fred Main to attend a meeting and give his opinion on the feasibility of re-opening the hospital. He reported on the difficulties of keeping a hospital open without a resident doctor, even if good matrons and nurses could be obtained, which was very doubtful. The the public was given the chance to form a Hospital Board but there was no response whatever. Those who had worked the hardest when the hospital was open were the least enthusiastic. The Wyalkatchem Hospital was losing money and finding it hard to get staff so there was little chance for Koorda.
A group from the Education Committee was elected to administer a hostel. The Road Board agreed to the use of the Hospital until such time as it might be needed again. Fund raising functions met the cost of bedding and furniture and a guaranteed overdraft was arranged to meet immediate running costs. Cleaning and necessary-work was done by busy bees including the demolition, carting and re-erecting of army buildings from Nungarin supervised by J.W. Price. In March there was a 'Back to Koorda' weekend in aid of the Hostel. A special diesel train came up from Perth and there were 900 people present at the official opening by H.A. Leslie, M.L.A. £200 was raised over the weekend with a Grand Ball on the Saturday night.
The Hostel opened on the 3rd June, 1946 with 22 boarders coming from 7 to 40 miles distant. The Living Away From Home Allowance of £15 a year was granted to boarders. Mrs Edith Wood, with her husband Reg, took over the management of the new hostel. Edith and her sister, Ida James, were able to be engaged as Matron and assistant. They both had considerable experience in catering and Ida was an efficient first aider.
In 1951 to the great disappointment of the District, Edith and Reg Wood resigned from the School Hostel and prepared to leave Koorda. Edith's sister Ida James had died in 1949.
By 1956, with the opening of bus routes to surrounding schools and steeply rising costs, the Hostel could not be made to pay expenses even with a Government subsidy. It could have only been continued by continuous money raising efforts so the Education Society decided it would have to be closed. The last Matron was Mrs. Evans who in the mid 1950's married "Paddy" Alford.
After the Hostel closed the Infant Health Clinic room was set up in the old Hospital, run by voluntary subscription and work and a grant from the Lotteries Commission.
The Clinic Committee accepted Andy Calcei's tender of £300 for work on the Infant Health Centre situated in the Maternity Ward of the old Hospital.
The wooden buildings, brought from Nungarin for the Hostel, were empty and Malcolm Henning as President of the Music and Dramatic Club deputised the Road Board and obtained the use of the building for Club Rooms for a peppercorn rent of £1 per year. These rooms were officially opened on 21st September, 1963.
The C.W.A. had for many years had as one of its objectives the establishment of a Silver Chain Bush Nursing centre for Koorda. During 1965, Mrs. Aitken represented the branch at meetings with the Shire Council and the Silver Chain Association and a centre was at last
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established using part of the old Hospital. Later the Silver Chain built their own premises in Allenby Street and once again the Hospital was empty although the Maternity Wing at one time was used as the Police Station.
Dr. Len Chester opened the Koorda Museum before a large crowd on Sunday October, 5th 1975. The museum was set up in the original Koorda Hospital building opened 43 years earlier. The president of the Koorda Historical Society, Mr. Murray Anderson, in welcoming the guests thanked members for their efforts in setting up the museum with special thanks to the Secretary, Marj Delane. He expressed the hope that the museum would tell a story and not be regarded as a dead collection. He welcomed the guest of honour who was the first resident doctor and who practiced there from 1929 to 1935.
Dr. Chester said it was a great pleasure to return to Koorda because he felt that although he was not a pioneer his six happy years qualified him as a former resident. He then declared the Koorda Museum open and cut the ribbon at the front entrance. The public was then able to inspect the various displays which include a map room, a hospital ward complete with an array of surgical instruments used by Dr. Chester, a pioneer kitchen, and a room showing old photos, clothing, china and silverware. On the back verandah is an assortment of old fashioned home aids, tools and farm accessories. The windowless lock up in the back yard commands much attention. A large fenced gravel area at the rear of the old hospital has a farm machinery display.

Integrity/Authenticity

Integrity: As a museum it has been restored to its original state.

Condition

Reasonable

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Last Update

Disclaimer

This information is provided voluntarily as a public service. The information provided is made available in good faith and is derived from sources believed to be reliable and accurate. However, the information is provided solely on the basis that readers will be responsible for making their own assessment of the matters discussed herein and are advised to verify all relevant representations, statements and information.