Yarloop Hospital

Statement of Significance

The hospital had social value as the location of an essential community service for the town and district since 1885.
The hospital had historic value as a collection of buildings from 1895 that demonstration the evolution in medical treatment and practice
The hospital had aesthetic value and contributes to the streetscape of Yarloop townsite.

Physical Description

Complex of timber framed buildings with jarrah weatherboard and/or fibre cement cladding, and with corrugated iron roofing. The main building fronting the road has a long gable roof pierced by brick chimneys and with louvred vents at the peak of the weatherboard gable ends. The separately roofed verandahs surrounding the building have been enclosed with fibre cement sheeting and the wooden floors are raised on timber stumps.

History

Millar's Timber and Trading Company built the one room medical service in 1895 and only treated company employees. Workers paid sixpence a week for their medical insurance. A house was built for the mill doctor in 1898.
Circa 1901 an 8-bed ward, kitchen, laundry and ablutions were built.

Dr Fred Lovegrove was the first resident mill doctor in 1900. As Millar's paid his wages he could not practice privately. He could, however, give emergency treatment to the families of employees. All other treatment had to be sought in Bunbury or Perth. After 1900, mill doctors travelled weekly by train to the mills connected to Yarloop, providing a medical service to the outlying mill towns.

Workers pressured the company to provide for women and in 1911 a ward was built which company employees’ children could also use. After World War I, Millar's divested themselves of the management and for 20 years a local Hospital Board, with strong community involvement, ran the hospital.

Dr Barrington Knight, became Resident Doctor in 1936 and practised there for 45 years. Hospital Road was renamed Barrington Knight Road in his honour. At the time of its official closure in November 2006 Yarloop Hospital was the oldest hospital in WA continuously operating from its original buildings. It is now run as a Community Health Centre offering medical and social services to the community.

This building was burnt down by the January 2016 Yarloop/Harvey/Waroona Fire. The Chimneys were left standing however has was deemed structurally unsound and was subsequently removed.

Integrity/Authenticity

Nil/ Nil

Condition

Destroyed in the January 2016 Yarloop/ Harvey/ Waroona Bushfire.

Uses

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.