[1][2] Archbishop of Perth Matthew Gibney invited eight sisters of St John of God to Western Australia in 1895 to help people with typhoid fever during the 1890s gold rush.

He provided land for them to set up a hospital in a timber building in Subiaco, which opened on 19 April 1898 with fifteen beds, increased to thirty by 1900.

The hospital accepted all patients – private, reduce-fee and free-bed – regardless of denomination, and distributed them throughout the buildings so that sisters were unaware of their status.

[6] In 2011, the hospital was among many institutions named in submissions to a Federal parliamentary inquiry into forced adoption in Australia.

[9] It is the oldest surviving hospital in Australia run by St John of God Health Care.