Royal Canberra Hospital
It is used by the Research School of Earth Sciences, ANU and a plaque on the front lawn, unveiled in 1978, by the then Minister of Health Mr Ralph Hunt, identifies it as the site of the first public hospital in Canberra.
Dr. J. Frederick Watson of Gungahlin gave evidence to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works considering construction of the new brick hospital on Acton peninsula.
[4] Sister May Hayman at the outbreak of war was working in the hospital at Gona in New Guinea and while fleeing with Allied soldiers was ambushed by a Japanese patrol and bayoneted.
[7] The former H Block (Initial Isolation Ward) was designed by Leighton Irwin, in conjunction with the first major works on the relocated hospital site.
In 1946 Howard Florey administered 25,000 Oxford units of penicillin to a five-month-old infant at the hospital with pneumonia who became one of the youngest children ever treated with the new drug.
[9] There was a poliomyelitis epidemic in Canberra in 1950–1951, many of the cases were from the suburbs of Turner and O'Connor and a pre-school and mothercraft centre were closed; a nurse at the isolation ward contracted the disease and died.
[13] Others were Mr Sid Anderson, Hospital Secretary 1933–1957, Dr Albert Lane, Medical Superintendent 1951–1964 (who had a private loo with an external sign: "Danger, 10,000 volts-do not enter") and Mrs Enid Barnes, Pharmacist 1952–1984.
[16] Leader of the Australian Greens Dr. Bob Brown was a resident at the Royal Canberra Hospital and has stated that one of his early and formative experiences in civil disobedience was watching how the senior medical staff at RCH consistently found healthy young men who didn't wish to fight, completely unfit on medical grounds for conscription into the Australian Army for the Vietnam War.
[18] The Rowing Club at RCH was coordinated by Ken Hopkinson, he managing to get RMOs and registrars on the mist-clad water at 6 am three mornings a week and organising related fundraising.
Such activities, the view of Lake Burley Griffin, its tree-clad shores and islands on three sides, created a powerful sense of tranquility and goodwill in the atmosphere at RCH.
In the years 1966–1968 Annual Reports list 425 contributions to medical and scientific literature, more than half the publications resulting from work carried out in RCH.
"[20] Prof. Whyte records that Michael Denborough's research unit on malignant hyperpyrexia remained on the 5th floor of the main block of RCH "until its dying days.
Consultant physician Marcus de Laune Faunce wrote about the RCH closure: "Towards the end of 1990 many Canberra citizens were either bewildered, angered or saddened as they realised that the Royal Canberra Hospital on Acton Peninsula was soon to be closed...Its staffing structure and organisation were thought to have been planned in advance in step with population needs and the hospital was firmly and warmly placed in the memories and affections of many people...Its beautiful, central position on the lake had been marked by Walter Burley Griffin on his original plan.
After its formative years, it served Canberra for more than three decades as a first-class hospital staffed by hard-working, skilled and caring health workers.
That day, a girl named Katie Bender was killed by flying debris, along with nine other injuries, leading to criticism of the ACT Government and a memorial on the lake foreshore.
[24] A landmark within the grounds of the hospital on Acton Peninsula was the appropriately bulging pine tree in front of the main entry to the Obstetric Unit.
