Old Hospital

Statement of Significance

The site of the Old Hospital represents the first hospital in Meekatharra opening as a casualty ward in 1907, with a female ward in 1910, and maternity ward in 1915. Conditions were less than satisfactory, but the only hospital facility until a new one was constructed in 1954.

History

The first hospital at Meekatharra was located on the eastern side of town, between the township and the mines at Paddy's Flat. Tenders were accepted for a hospital on 7 October 1907 and the place opened with a casualty ward. A two-bed female ward opened in June 1910. The place was a subscription hospital with 400 subscribing members in that year. The former doctor's residence was removed from Darlot street (near the Courthouse / Bundi Club) to the hospital grounds on 11 July 1914 where it was fitted out as a maternity ward, which opened on 20 January 1915. Conditions at the hospital remained the same for the next thirty years, despite efforts by the Hospital Committee to get new buildings. Herbert Lee Steere recalls how in the early 1950s, a journalist came up from Perth to get a report on a lost plane, which by the time he arrived had been found with all on board safe. The journalist bemoaned not having a story so Mr Lee Steere took him to the hospital. The journalist was shocked with the conditions and an article in the West Australian followed with the result that architects and surveyors soon arrived and a new hospital was built and opened in 1954.

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Site

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