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  • 21 Aug, 2019

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Rachel Forster Hospital
The Rachel Forster Hospital for Women and Children opened on 3 January 1922 in Redfern (an inner suburb of Sydney, Australia) as the 'New Hospital'.

History

In 1921, Lucy Gullett worked with Harriet Biffen to create what became the Rachel Forster Hospital. Initial goals were to serve as a training hospital for female doctors and to serve women and children. Lucy Gullett served as the hospital's secretary and she invited Irene Victoria Read to join the hospital's committee in 1924. In 1925 the hospital was renamed after Baroness Rachel Forster, the wife of the then Governor-General of Australia, Henry Forster, 1st Baron Forster.

Lucy Gullet stood down as secretary in 1926. Irene Read's involvement grew stronger, she was the hospital's President from 1930 to 1950 with Gullett as her vice-president from 1932 to 1949.

In 1927, Elsie Dalyell and Marie Montgomerie Hamilton started a clinic for venereal diseases at the hospital. It later grew to include other specialised clinics and a breast cancer research centre.

From 1936 to 1939 Edna Lillian Nelson was the director of the venereal-diseases clinic. She left for further post-grad study in Europe in 1939. She soon returned (because of the war) and she then went part-time until in 1943 she was a consultant.

The hospital started admitting men in 1967.

Closure and Redevelopment

The hospital suffered closure in the mid 1990s and services were transferred to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital by mid 2002.

In 2013, City of Sydney councillor Irene Doutney raised strong concerns about the proposed redevelopment of the site, suggesting that most of the hospital would be demolished apart from the eastern facade and the colonnades at the front entrance, with much of the site being replaced with apartments. She suggested that the hospital had been left to "demolition by neglect", and that in the new development "They’re going to keep the minimum amount of heritage possible then bang a new building down. It's not adaptive re-use at all, it's demolition."

In December 2014, The Daily Telegraph ran a photo piece documenting the deteriorating and vandalised state of the hospital despite its former significance, and referring to Doutney's 2013 concerns about the site falling victim to "demolition by neglect."

References

  1. ^ Mitchell, Ann M. (1983). "'Gullett, Lucy Edith (1876–1949)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Australian National University. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  2. ^ "NEW HOSPITAL". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. 5 January 1922. p. 9. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  3. ^ Bergmann, Lis (2013). "Early Women Students and Graduates, Faculty of Medicine". Sydney University. Archived from the original on 1 November 2014.
  4. ^ Mitchell, Ann M. (1983). "Gullett, Lucy Edith (1876-1949)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Vol. 9. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 3 June 2014.
  5. ^ Puckey, Mary C. (July 1950). "Rachel Forster Hospital for Women and Children" (PDF). Journal of the American Medical Women's Association. 5 (7). Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  6. ^ Weatherburn, Hilary, "Irene Victoria Read (1880–1972)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 5 March 2024
  7. ^ Stell, Marion K., "Marie Montgomerie Hamilton (1891–1955)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 23 October 2023
  8. ^ "Ghost Sydney: Rachel Forster Hospital in Redfern abandoned in 2000 but still home to past". Daily Telegraph. 26 December 2014. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
  9. ^ Weatherburn, Hilary, "Edna Lillian Nelson (1896–1948)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 26 December 2023
  10. ^ "ALL-WOMEN HOSPITAL NOW OPEN FOR MEN". The Australian Women's Weekly. National Library of Australia. 16 August 1967. p. 31. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  11. ^ Forsythe, Patricia (26 June 1996). "Rachel Forster Hospital Closure". Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  12. ^ Patty, Anna (23 May 2002). "Mountains air their fear of the C word". The Daily Telegraph. ProQuest 358795528.
  13. ^ "Rachel Forster Hospital in Redfern to be redeveloped". Altmedia. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
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