Bundaberg Hospital Nurses' Quarters (former)

General

Also known as

Former Nurses' Quarters - Bundaberg Base Hospital

Classification

State Heritage

Register status

Entered

Date entered

21 June 2024

Location

Address

273 Bourbong Street, Bundaberg West

LGA

Bundaberg Regional Council

Coordinates

-24.8682371, 152.33668856

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Significance

Criterion AThe place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland’s history.

Bundaberg Hospital Nurses’ Quarters (former), built in 1915 and extended in 1919, 1937, 1943, 1963, and 1970, is important in demonstrating the vital role of the nursing profession in the provision of health care in Queensland. Nurses’ quarters were an essential part of Queensland hospital complexes from the late 19th to mid-20th centuries, providing on-site accommodation for nursing staff. As nurses’ quarters built at a training hospital, Bundaberg Hospital Nurses’ Quarters (former) accommodated probationers, trainees, and qualified nursing staff from the Bundaberg district and from across Queensland until 1992.

Built as nursing emerged as a trained profession, and extended in response to legislative and regulatory changes, Bundaberg Hospital Nurses’ Quarters (former) is representative of the evolution of the nursing profession throughout the 20th century. The form, fabric, and layout of the quarters, including the swimming pool, reflect the social mores, the highly regulated and hierarchical nature of the nursing profession, and the legal and economic rationales that required qualified and trainee nurses, who for many years were exclusively female, to be accommodated on hospital grounds.

As a place purpose built to accommodate female workers, Bundaberg Hospital Nurses' Quarters (former) is important in demonstrating the evolution of women's employment in 20th century Queensland, particularly of employer provision of accommodation for female workers.

Criterion DThe place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places.

Bundaberg Hospital Nurses’ Quarters (former) is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a Queensland hospital nurses’ quarters. It is a substantial and intact example that reflects the continuity of this class of cultural place across more than 50 years.

The place retains its:

• freestanding location, toward the rear of the main hospital buildings;
• interior layout of private, cell-like bedrooms and shared amenities, such as bathrooms, laundries, common rooms, kitchens/tea rooms, and lecture/examination rooms, designed to minimise disturbance between day and night staff;
• room layouts and sizes, reflecting and reinforcing the strict, highly-organised hierarchies of Queensland’s nursing education and profession;
• provision of female-only amenity throughout, reflecting the profession’s make up prior to the 1970s;
• provision of nurse recreation facilities (swimming pool); and
• provision of verandahs off the small bedrooms as additional living space.

Criterion GThe place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons.

Bundaberg Hospital Nurses’ Quarters (former) has a strong and special association with the probationers, trainees, nurses, and senior staff who lived, studied, and socialised there between 1915 and 1992. The quarters provided housing, education, and recreation space for trainees and qualified nurses employed at the Bundaberg Hospital, playing an important role in the lives of generations of Bundaberg-trained nurses. Their strong association with the place has been demonstrated through their fundraising activities for the quarters and swimming pool, expressions of attachment, and reunions held into the 21st century.

History

The Bundaberg Hospital Nurses’ Quarters (former) was built in 1915 to provide residential accommodation, recreation and education rooms for nurses employed and training at the hospital, and was extended over 50 years as nurse numbers increased. The building, with its extensions, was a response to legislative and judicial changes to nurses’ employment conditions through the 20th century. In 1954, a swimming pool was added beside the quarters under a statewide policy of improving recreational facilities at nurses’ quarters, in an attempt to address postwar nursing shortages. The building was occupied as living quarters and training space for nurses until 1992, when nursing education switched from practical to tertiary-based. Subsequently used for education purposes, in 2024 the building remains in use as administration offices and staff accommodation for the Wide Bay Health and Hospital Service.

Establishment of hospital services in Bundaberg (1881 to 1914)

Bundaberg is part of the traditional land of the Bailai, Gurang, Gooreng Gooreng, and Taribelang Bunda People.[1] Pastoral stations were established in the area from the 1850s. Bundaberg was surveyed in 1869 following selection of surrounding land after 1868 under the ‘Sugar and Coffee Regulations’.[2] Bundaberg’s development as a port and service centre was boosted by growing coastal traffic and by its designation as the port for Mount Perry's copper mining. Surrounded by large sugar plantations and the site of two sugar refineries, Bundaberg became an important sugar town.[3] The sugar industry propelled Bundaberg’s population growth from 950 inhabitants in 1878[4] to 2,323 in 1886.[5] Infrastructure was erected in south Bundaberg to serve the town’s residents and the surrounding regions of Woongarra and Gooburrum, a total population of around 4,500 people by 1888.[6]

In February 1879, a fundraising appeal was launched to establish a hospital at Bundaberg.[7] Hospitals in 19th century Queensland were charitable organisations erected under voluntary schemes by local communities. They were funded by subscriptions from local residents, government subsidies, and fee-based treatment, and managed by an elected committee or board.[8] A Bundaberg Hospital Committee was formed, and in June 1879, a 3 acre, 3 rood and 30 perch (1.59ha) site, along the Burnett River in south Bundaberg, was reserved for the hospital.[9] A temporary hospital operated in the immigration barracks, before a purpose-built facility opened in March 1881.[10] It featured general, special, fever, and female wards, and a ‘Kanaka’ ward for South Sea Islander sugar cane plantation workers.[11]

The hospital was staffed by a doctor/surgeon; a wardsman, and his wife and daughter who acted as matron and assistant matron respectively.[12] The staff performed a range of medical, administrative, and domestic duties, but only the doctor held medical qualifications. Nursing was in the process of evolving from an untrained role performed by women into a professional occupation undertaken by young women, with the first trained nurse employed in Queensland in 1885, and certified training courses slowly spreading across the colony’s hospitals.[13] When the Bundaberg wardsman and his family resigned in November 1898, the doctor encouraged the hospital board to ‘bring the hospital up to the times’ and appoint a registered matron and staff of trained nurses.[14] The recommendation was timely, as in 1899 the Australasian Trained Nurses’ Association (ATNA) was established and standardised nurse training and registration across Australia.[15] Hospitals which registered with the ATNA could employ probationers and trainees on a practical training course of between three and five years, depending on the daily average of occupied hospital beds. On passing examinations, trainees became nurses with qualifications recognised across Australia.[16]

The Bundaberg Hospital Board engaged Matron Euphemia Bell from Sydney Hospital in late 1898, followed by a senior nurse, trained nurse, and probationers.[17] The hospital registered with the ATNA and commenced nurse training circa 1902.[18] New nurses’ quarters were built that year to accommodate the growing number of staff.[19] Probationers were regularly engaged by the hospital board, and, after a two month trial period, underwent a four year period of training to become certified.[20] Some remained employed at the hospital after passing their examinations.[21] Bundaberg was recognised as a training hospital by the Queensland branch of the ATNA (established in 1904) and the Queensland Nurses’ Registration Board (established in 1912 under the Health Act Amendment Act 1911), as nurse registration was formalised within the state of Queensland.[22] By December 1914, twelve nurses were employed at the Bundaberg Hospital[23] – a relatively large number of staff for a hospital of its size – and received favourable reports, such as in 1915:

As for Matron Donaldson and her large staff of nurses from the head nurse (Sister Wilson) down to the latest probationer, they unite in making the stay of sufferers under their charge as comfortable and happy as exigencies permit.[24]

 Nurses’ quarters – 1915 section

After several years of maintenance issues,[25] the Bundaberg Hospital Board resolved to build a new hospital on a new site. It engaged local architect Frederick Herbert (FH or Fred) Faircloth, who had already designed some the hospital’s existing additions, including the 1902 nurses’ quarters,[26] to design the new hospital. Faircloth inspected hospitals in New South Wales and returned with a design for a two-storey pavilion-plan brick hospital in 1909.[27] The hospital site was re-gazetted in 1910, this time on a 7 acre, 8.4 perch site (portion 80), west of its former site, surrounded by Mulgrave, Takalvan and Bourbong Streets.[28] The new hospital was constructed between 1911 and 1914, the biggest construction project in Bundaberg to that date, and opened in July 1914.[29]

Faircloth’s plan had included accommodation for nurses within the patients’ building, but in 1913 the Hospital Board decided to construct a separate building for nurses’ quarters.[30] Faircloth, instructed to prepare new plans, presented the board with a design for a single-storey brick building with a bungalow roof. [31] The nurses’ quarters were situated north of the main hospital building, nearer the Burnett River and – as one nurse noted in later years – also close to the morgue.[32] The building faced east, and comprised two attached blocks. One held sitting and dressing rooms, and seven bedrooms for day nurses, the sister, and matron; the other featured four bedrooms for night nurses’ bedrooms.[33] Both were wrapped entirely by a verandah with louvred blinds, with a semi-detached ablutions block projecting from its rearward (north) extent. The interior layout of both blocks comprised a central corridor with rooms opening off both sides. The nurses’ bedrooms were likely 14’ x 10’ (4.2m x 3m), with larger rooms for the sister and matron. French doors opened off all rooms onto the verandah for additional space. The hip roof was continuous over the verandah and clad with corrugated metal sheets. The design was deemed to be ‘not only an acquisition to the new hospital, but will be greatly appreciated by the nurses, as in it every comfort and convenience have been provided for them.’[34]

Funding for the Bundaberg nurses’ quarters was partly provided by the State Government, partly by hospital subscribers, and partly by donations from the community.[35] The tender of contractors Messrs Anderson and Pomfret, for £1944 7s. 6d., was accepted.[36] Building was completed in March 1915,[37] and the nurses took up residence in April 1915.[38] The Assistant Home Secretary, visiting in October of that year, was pleased that the hospital committee had not overlooked accommodation for the nurses.[39] The nurses’ quarters were also the first building in the hospital to be lit by electricity, impressing the South Australian Inspector-General of Hospitals, who was on a tour of inspection around Queensland.[40]

Nurses’ quarters at Queensland hospitals

Staff accommodation was an integral part of hospital infrastructure.[41] The concept of providing onsite accommodation for nurses grew out of the religious and military background of nursing, where inductees lived in cloistered or barrack accommodation.[42] Until 1921 there were no requirements to provide nurses’ accommodation at Queensland’s general hospitals,[43] but there were advantages for hospitals in doing so, and they were provided at most hospitals which employed nursing staff.[44] Good quality accommodation appealed to the middle-class, well-educated women who were increasingly taking up nursing,[45] and provided a level of care and protection perceived necessary for the young women living away from their homes.[46] Like cloisters or military barracks, onsite accommodation also allowed senior staff to monitor junior staff, both enforcing the hierarchies that were considered essential for a hospital to function effectively,[47] and the morality considered an essential part of nurses’ characters.[48] Finally, the provision of board and lodging could help justify keeping nurses’ wages low, without which hospitals could not afford trained nursing staff.[49]

Purpose-built nurses’ quarters were constructed at Queensland hospitals from the 1860s until at least the 1960s.[50] They ranged from rooms within the ward building itself, to large freestanding, multi-storey buildings. Over the 20th century, increasingly-larger nurses’ quarters were built at Queensland hospitals. Growing hospitals sometimes had a series of nurses’ quarters built in their grounds, or extended their existing quarters.[51] At some Queensland hospitals, the nurses’ quarters was the largest or tallest single building on the site.[52] They were sometimes described as landmarks within their towns,[53] and their foundation or completion were frequently publicised and celebrated with events attended by the public and dignitaries.[54]

Architecturally, they were not standardised, and varied in size, style, form, and materials, often dependent on funds, staff numbers, and changing architectural fashions.[55] Typically, however, they were freestanding buildings toward the rear or side of the main hospital buildings, or attached but separated in a different floor or wing. The interiors accommodated cell-like bedrooms and shared amenities, including bathrooms, laundries, common or sitting rooms, and kitchenettes/tea rooms. Accommodation was typically organised into nursing hierarchies (trainees, junior nurses, senior nurses, sisters, and matrons), sometimes with separate common facilities, and grouped by wards and shift (day or night). Verandahs were provided as an extension to the bedrooms and living spaces, providing ‘breathing space’ for the occupants. Later quarters often provided self-contained ‘flats’ within the building for the matron and sub- or deputy-matron.[56] The provision of facilities varied little over the 100 years of nurses’ quarters’ construction in Queensland.[57]

1919 extension

By 1918, Bundaberg’s nursing staff had increased to one matron, one sister and 17 nurses, beyond the capacity of the 11-room quarters.[58] An extension was proposed for the nurses’ quarters, to comprise three single bedrooms, dormitory, box room, and lavatory block.[59] Faircloth was again engaged to design the extension, and Anderson and Pomfret to build it at a cost of £1824 7s.[60] The President of the Hospital Board[61] and Canon Beasley (rector of Bundaberg Christ Church)[62] launched public appeals to raise funds for the extension, drawing donations from around the region, including Bundaberg residents, the Woongarra Farmers’ hall trustees;[63] the Millaquin Sugar Co; Olympia Pictures; the Girls’ High School; the Presbyterian Sunday School; a Walloon resident;[64] and a Barolin School euchre tournament and dance fundraiser.[65] The extension was built in 1919 and completed and furnished by January 1920.[66] Its completion made the quarters ‘an ideal building’ in the view of the Hospital Board.[67]

The extension, at the western end of the 1915 quarters, continued the form, detailing, materials, and layout of the earlier section. It had a central corridor, rooms either side which opened onto a wrap-around verandah via French doors, and an ablutions block (the second for the building) semi-detached and standing at the northwest corner of the verandah. The three new nurses’ bedrooms were likely slightly larger, at 14’ x 12’ (4.2m x 3.6m), and were possibly for more senior staff. The extended roof was also a hip and clad with corrugated metal sheets.

The hierarchy of spaces and the regimented nature of the nurses’ quarters was reflected in an incident in October 1924, when one nurse moved without permission from the eight-bed dormitory into another room. She reported the custom of ‘giving the last bed to a probationer’, with all nurses moving ‘up’ a bed while the most senior nurse moved up to the next room. The nurse, however, was evicted from her new bed by the matron, who submitted that the nurse had taken the bed and removed the possessions of a more senior nurse who was undergoing treatment in the hospital. The incident was a black mark for both the nurse and matron.[68]

1937 extension

Changes in hospital administration and nurses’ working conditions in the early 1920s considerably impacted staffing levels at the Bundaberg Hospital. In 1921, a Court of Arbitration judgment amended the nursing award, requiring ‘as far as practicable, separate rooms or separate cubicles shall be provided for each employee at their respective hospitals’. It also set maximum working hours; and provided additional leave entitlements.[69] While Bundaberg Hospital met accommodation requirements, changes to the latter conditions necessitated the employment of more nurses at the hospital.[70] By July 1921 the hospital had 32 trained and probationary nurses, and had requested an extra trained nurse and probationer to keep up with requirements.[71]

In January 1925, the Bundaberg Hospital District was created under the Hospitals Act 1923. The district covered an area including the city of Bundaberg, and the shires of Gooburrum, Isis, Kolan, Perry and Woongarra (encompassing hospitals at Childers, Gin Gin, Mount Perry, and Bundaberg).[72] The Bundaberg Hospital served as a hub for the district, hosting up-to-date equipment (such as X-ray) and nursing training.[73] Bundaberg’s Lady Chelmsford maternity hospital was moved onto the site between 1928 and 1932 to provide maternity services.[74] The hospital’s services were also accessed by patients living outside the district, which kept staffing levels high.[75]

The combined impact of the changes caused cramped conditions at the existing nurses’ quarters – by then known as the general nurses’ quarters, to distinguish them from the maternity nurses’ quarters – at the hospital. Two buildings from the Lady Chelmsford hospital (no longer extant) were repurposed for use at the general nurses’ quarters in 1932,[76] but the Hospital Board began to contemplate a further extension to the building. Plans were drawn up in 1935 by the Department of Public Works (DPW) to almost double the existing building by raising the existing roof and adding a second storey to the main wing of the existing nurses’ quarters. The resulting rectangular, two-storey section was 84' x 32' (25.6m x 9.75m) with a new two-storey, wrap-around verandah. The attached 32' x 22' (9.75m x 6.71m) single-storey block for night nurses bedrooms remained. The new storey added 15 new bedrooms, a large sitting room 24' by 19' (7.32m x 5.8m), and two new bathrooms and lavatory blocks above the older ones. The extension expanded the quarters’ capacity to 35 nurses, accommodated in dormitories and 28 bedrooms. In keeping with the 1915-1919 quarters, the building was constructed in face brick and concrete, at an estimated cost of £4,295.[77]

In appearance, the extension took its cues from the earlier section, and removed and re-used earlier fabric for its new rooms. The new first floor layout followed that of the earlier ground floor, with a central corridor and rooms either side that opened via French doors onto the verandah, but omitted the dormitory in lieu of further single bedrooms. As such, the new nurses’ bedrooms were the same size as the earlier ones below. The earlier verandah was fully demolished and replaced at this time with the two-storey verandah. The new verandah was more elaborate on its east and south sides, with face brick arches to its ground floor and face brick piers and timber posts to its first floor (possibly reused from the earlier section). One of the larger 1915 rooms of the ground floor (likely a sister’s bedroom) was converted to a stair hall with the addition of a concrete, iron, and timber stair to the first floor, and an external timber stair was added to the rear (north) verandah.[78]

The extension occurred when the DPW was overseeing construction of ‘a number of Public Hospitals buildings throughout the State’.[79] As increasing numbers of hospitals were brought under the Hospitals Act 1923 (and its successor, the Hospitals Act 1936), more public funding was allocated to hospitals across the state. The Great Depression also encouraged a works programme of hospital construction estimated to cost £273,000 (reaching £475,000 in 1938).[80] Not least amongst these was the construction of nurses’ quarters at public hospitals, which had accelerated since the 1921 Nurses’ Award. Nurses’ quarters were constructed or extended at more than 30 hospitals across the state in the interwar period, including examples at the Brisbane Children’s Hospital (1921), Lady Bowen Hospital (1923), Mundubbera (1924 and 1926), Herberton (1925-6), Laidley (1925), Alpha (1926), Atherton (1927), Maryborough (1928), Brisbane General Hospital (two further quarters, 1936 and 1939), Gladstone (1928), Mackay (1928), Barcaldine (1930), Biloela (1931), Warwick (1934), Mossman (1936), Gympie (1935), Cracow (1938), and large-scale extensions to existing quarters at Toowoomba (1927), Brisbane General Hospital (1931), and Maryborough (1938).[81]

The Bundaberg Hospital nurses’ quarters extension was officially finished in August 1937, and nurses took up occupancy immediately.[82] The quarters ‘fulfil[ed] a long felt want, for the comfortable accommodation of the fine staff of nurses, for which the Bundaberg Hospital is noted’. [83] The extension ultimately cost £5,120, partly funded by a grant of £2,000 from the Golden Casket funds.[84] It was opened by Minister for Health and Home Affairs (EM Hanlon) in October 1937. Bunting was strung across the building while nurses in white uniforms formed a guard of honour for the visiting dignitaries.[85] The ‘attractive design’ of the building was ‘in keeping with the imposing block of buildings, comprising the Bundaberg General Hospital’.[86] The Minister also emphasised the ‘homely and comfortable’ nature of the quarters, [87] stating that, ‘they had no right to expect any girl to leave her home and devote her life to hospital service unless they could give her a home as decent and attractive as her own.’[88] The rooms were described as being ‘elaborately furnished’,[89] and the nurses expressed their gratitude.[90]

The importance of the nurses was emphasised by chairman of the Bundaberg Hospitals Board, AE Atkin:

The Hospitals’ Board fully realises the fact that it is one of its most important duties to provide an efficient nursing service…For efficiency it is essential to have contentment, and having that in mind, attention was turned towards housing the young ladies under ideal conditions. The local effort has resulted in the building of this, let me call it ‘home’, for such we want the nurses to feel it is. It is substantial, and is as comfortable as we have been able to make it.[91]

1943 extension

Despite the promise of comfort, extensions were immediately required to the nurses’ quarters.[92] The 1937 extension had not contemplated the staff increases which occurred through the 1930s, leaving nurses accommodated on the verandah of the brand-new extension. Plans for further additions and a new block at the hospital, totalling £30,000,[93] were postponed by the outbreak of World War II.[94] By 1940, however, conditions at the nurses’ quarters were ‘deplorable’:

Eleven nurses are accommodated in one dormitory and one temporary shack, which has a hessian ceiling 7 feet from the floor. The night staff, usually about 10 to 12, have four bedrooms and are compelled to sleep on the verandahs and in the hot weather, in many cases, they do not get more than three to four hours sleep per day.[95]

The Bundaberg nursing staff then totalled 53 trainees and 11 trained nurses, 13 of whom were accommodated in temporary buildings outside the nurses’ quarters. The nurses also lacked lecture space, necessary for training and examination, which had been partially taken over by the dental clinic. The Bundaberg Hospitals Board engaged architects Cook and Kerrison to design a further extension and reconfigure earlier layouts as necessary to accommodate 75 nurses, lecture and recreation rooms, sanitary conveniences, and ironing and tea rooms.[96] The estimated cost was £12,000, which the Board admitted was ‘extraordinary’ given the opening of additions just two-and-a-half years earlier, but it noted that the existing accommodation breached the nurses’ award.[97]

Despite the war, the Bundaberg Hospitals Board successfully applied for the work. It was authorised to borrow funds, and engaged Bundaberg contractor John Young to build the extension at a cost of £12,673, in April 1941.[98] The work involved minor alteration of partitions of the ground floor in the 1919 section to convert the dormitory to single bedrooms, the addition of a second storey on top of the 1915 night nurses’ block, and the addition of a long, two-storey wing extending eastwards off the front (eastern face) of the building that angled northwards at approximately its middle. Construction was undertaken between 1941 and 1943, with the building reported completed in October 1943.[99] War shortages forced the substitution of reinforced concrete walls for brick walls (likely referring only to the internal partitions). [100]

The extension was a face brick building, similar to the earlier sections but simpler in its detailing. It extended the 1937 verandah around the new wing and included a new semi-detached two-storey ablutions block extending off the new verandah’s northern side. It extended the hip roof to match the earlier section. The wing’s interior layout also had a central corridor with bedrooms opening off both sides, and at the ground floor’s eastern end was a large recreation and lecture room that could be divided into two rooms by a large folding door. A second stair hall with a concrete and iron stair was at the part of the building where it angled. The architects had initially drawn plans for rooms 11’ x 8’3” (3.3m x 2.5m) which, although smaller than the existing bedrooms at Bundaberg, were larger than the newly-built bedrooms at Brisbane’s Lady Lamington, leading the Minister for Health and Home Affairs to suggest their size be reduced.[101] All bedrooms opened via French doors out onto the broad verandah. The extension was built over the front of the earlier building, shifting the main entrance from east to south.

Like the earlier quarters, the new quarters reflected both the hierarchy of nursing through its spaces and the regimented life in nurses’ quarters. This included the matron’s and sisters’ rooms being positioned near entrance doors, where incomings and outgoings could be easily monitored;[102] and the size of rooms, with senior staff rooms larger than trainees’ rooms.[103] The matron also had additional furnishings, though these were not necessarily elaborate or up-to-date.[104] Some nurses were accommodated in cubicles, rooms with only part-height partitions, a concept born out of 19th century approaches to providing ventilation.[105]  One trainee, commencing at Bundaberg Hospital in the late 1940s or early 1950s, described her ‘cubicle-like room’ with ‘a door opening from the internal corridor, another onto the long verandah that skirted the quarters’, a combined wardrobe/dressing table, bed and wooden chair.[106]

Swimming pool (1954)

Wartime nursing shortages had flowed into the postwar era, leaving Queensland hospitals with more than 600 vacant nursing positions by 1946. Advertising campaigns were launched to encourage young women into the profession, and other incentives were contemplated.[107] Health and Home Affairs Minister Foley outlined a policy in 1947 that hospital boards should improve nurses’ accommodation, including lounge suites and chairs, wireless sets, pianos, laundry facilities, and recreation and off-duty rooms for nurses.[108] This was an attempt to entice trainees and trained nurses to apply for positions where conditions were acknowledged to be less appealing than other employment for young women.[109]

Before World War II, common rooms were typically the only area provided for the nurses’ recreation, to sit down after a long shift, entertain friends on their half day off, or write letters. Outdoor recreation, like tennis courts, were less regularly provided, often only through the nurses’ instigation and their fundraising.[110] Bundaberg’s recreational facilities for nurses then included indoor sitting rooms and a recreation room, the latter added with the 1943 extension. A tennis court, funded and managed by the nurses, had been constructed in front (on the southern side) of their quarters in 1922 (no longer extant).[111]

In 1948, the State Cabinet approved a £ for £ subsidy for public hospitals for constructing or maintaining swimming pools.[112] Rockhampton, Charleville, Cairns, and Richmond hospitals all planned for nurses’ swimming pools in the late 1940s,[113] while the Brisbane and South Coast Hospitals Board provided a nurses’ swimming pool at Brisbane General Hospital in 1958.[114] Bundaberg Hospital built a swimming pool in 1954, co-funded by the nurses, Bundaberg City Council, and Queensland Government.[115] A photograph of the pool taken c1970 show it as a rectangular, concrete inground pool, surrounded by a new garden near the nurses’ quarters on its northern side. It had a narrow concrete concourse around the pool, ladders into the pool on both long sides, and a diving board at its short northern end. A very low, decorative metal garden ‘fence' separated the concourse from the surrounding garden, which featured hedged shrubs and a closely-planted row of cypress pines along its western edge (no longer extant).[116]

A filtration plant was installed at the pool between 1973 and 1975, and the pool ‘proved very popular with staff over the summer months’.[117]

1963 extension

Administrative, legislative, and social changes in the postwar era continued to impact hospitals. With all hospital districts brought under the Hospitals Act by 1944, Queensland was redistricted, and in 1945, Bundaberg was absorbed into the Wide Bay hospital district. The Bundaberg hospital remained the main hub hospital for Bundaberg, Gin Gin, and Mount Perry, under the management of the Bundaberg Hospitals Board.[118]

As postwar material shortages lifted and the state’s population grew, additions, improvements and repairs were planned for hospitals across Queensland.[119] Nurses’ working hours were also finally reduced to a 40-hour week, again necessitating the employment of more nurses at hospitals.[120] A new wave of construction of nurses’ quarters occurred across Queensland, with 29 new quarters built and 14 upgraded.[121] The Bundaberg Hospitals Board had applied for funding for an extension to the Bundaberg general nurses’ quarters in 1948, citing a considerable increase in staff due to the shorter working week and expanded hospital services. The hospital again had insufficient rooms and cubicles to accommodate the staff, and the work was ‘urgently required in order to…avoid complaints from employees and their representatives.’[122] However, it was postponed as other urgent work arose, leaving nurses accommodated on the nurses’ quarters verandahs or in temporary RAAF huts on the hospital site.[123]

By 1960 the nursing staff included sixteen 16 sisters and 74 nurses, and the Bundaberg Hospitals Board again applied to have the nurses’ quarters extended.[124] A new extension was designed by architects Goodsir and Carlyle.[125] The extension was a long, two-storey, face brick wing, extending northwards off the northern end of the former night nurses’ block. It had a central corridor running north-south with rooms on either side, with communal rooms and a stair hall on the west side, and bedrooms on the east, which opened onto a long verandah running along the eastern side of the wing. At the northern end of the wing were self-contained flats for the matron (ground floor) and deputy matron (first floor). The matron’s flat had a separate, private northern entrance. The eight bedrooms (four per floor) had built-in furniture, and the wing included a communal lounge, kitchenette, and ablutions, creating an additional 5,100sq ft (473.8m2) of floor space. SC Lohse’s[126] tender for £27,800 was accepted,[127] and the extension was scheduled for construction between March and September 1963.[128]

Unlike earlier extensions, Goodsir and Carlyle’s design did not take many architectural cues from the earlier sections. Designed in a postwar, Modern style, the wing had an orange face brick exterior, timber floors, and a low-pitched hip roof clad with metal roof sheets.[129] Its ceiling heights were lower than the previous extensions, and its two floor levels were at different floor heights from those of the earlier sections, requiring short stairs to be added to both sides of the former night nurses’ block to provide access. The new extension was officially opened by the Minister for Health, Dr HW Noble, MB, BS, on 23 November, 1963.[130] ‘No home was too good for the nursing staff which served Bundaberg so faithfully and well.’[131] The nurses moved into the new quarters in December.[132]

Post 1963

The Nurses’ Award was changed again in 1963, granting nurses five weeks of leave per year, and requiring training courses to be held during hospital time, rather than the nurses’ spare time. This, once again, required larger numbers of nurses to be employed. By the 1970s Bundaberg Hospital had between 45 and 118 nursing students sitting their general examinations each year, and in the early 1980s approved staffing levels averaged 50 registered nurses and 86 general nursing students.[133] The expansion of specialised services in Bundaberg Hospital also pushed up demand, as the hospital was made the Base Hospital of its own region in 1977.[134]

Changes were made to the nurses’ quarters over time, to keep up with staff numbers and maintain accommodation standards. As the advantages of air circulation gave way to privacy concerns in the second half of the 20th century, partitions were raised to the ceiling to create single bedrooms from the nurses’ cubicles, with some sections converted in 1953-54 and the rest in the late 1960s.[135] General improvements (to the value of $22,000) were planned and undertaken between 1968 and 1970, including the extension of the eastern verandah outside the matron’s and deputy matron’s flats (1969);[136] and the conversion of nurses’ cubicles to rooms; extension of the nurses’ laundry; and the enclosure of the ground floor verandah of the 1963 wing with louvres to prevent ‘prowlers’ (1970).[137] The ablutions blocks were renovated in 1973 (replacing the baths, building shower recesses, tile floors and walls).[138] Renovations were carried out to the first floor in 1980 to modernise nursing accommodation,[139] and in 1985 to the ground floor to accommodate training rooms for the School of Nursing.[140]

At the same time, focus began to shift away from onsite training for nurses. Offsite post-registration courses became available in Queensland from the 1960s, and tertiary courses were offered in place of hospital training from 1978.[141] Lecture hours were increased from the 1970s, but the four-year training course was reduced to three.[142] In 1969, registered nurses’ wages changed from ‘living in’ to ‘living out’, enabling nurses to find their own accommodation off the hospital site if they chose. Student nurses were required to live onsite until 1973, after which they could seek parental permission to ‘live out’.[143] This was not ideal for hospital management, as the nurses’ quarters provided access to a ready group of nurses for extra shifts if needed.[144] An estimated 40 nurses opted to live out when rents were raised at the Bundaberg Hospital Nurses’ Quarters in 1978.[145] However, the quarters remained occupied until the final group of trainees graduated in July 1992.[146]

Building work was undertaken to the nurses’ quarters in 1986 and 1987, managed by TW Gatley, John Murchie and Sons and Lohse Constructions, included re-roofing, replacing the verandah floor boards of the early sections with large flat sheets, and rebuilding the brick pier of the first floor verandah using new bricks, costing $155,675.26. On completion of this project, the Bundaberg Hospitals Board expressed its ‘justifiable pride in the restoration of this magnificent building’.[147]

Accommodation for female workers

Nursing was one of the few avenues of paid employment available to women in Queensland through the first half of the 20th century. Until the 1970s, the fields of women's work were limited to domestic work, inside or outside the home, paid or unpaid; retail shop work; clerical work; education; and nursing. Very small numbers of Queensland women were able to achieve professional careers in other fields, such as Dr Lilian Cooper (medicine), Dorothy Hill (geology) and Daphne Mayo (art), while owners of property could earn income through paid domestic work as hotel publicans or boarding accommodation proprietors. Factory work, available to women in southern states, was less practised in Queensland, where the manufacturing industry was smaller.[148] Paid employment was undertaken by unmarried women who sought independence, were vocationally inclined, or whose families were unable to support them. Retirement was expected on a woman's marriage, when she would take up unpaid domestic or charitable work, with a  return to paid employment possible if she were widowed or deserted.[149]

Working women living away from home were considered vulnerable to corrupting influences in boarding houses or on the streets. From the mid-19th century, charitable organisations established accommodation for women seeking employment, such as the Servants' Home (1863-1870) and Aboriginal Girls' Home (1900-1906).[150] Employers sometimes provided purpose-built accommodation for female employees: the Department of Education provided housing for teachers (both male and female); private and public hospitals provided nurses' quarters;[151] and domestic service workers resided in servants' quarters or rooms within private residences or at hotels.[152] In rare cases, accommodation was provided for retail and office workers, such as TC Beirne's Bulolo Flats (1934, QHR 602188). This accommodation fulfilled dual roles of protection and supervision, with acceptance of independent-living employed women gradually emerging through the 20th century.[153]

The provision of onsite accommodation was a vital component of nursing. Nursing was an exclusively female profession until the 1970s, with caring for the sick considered an inherently feminine task.[154] Nurses were unmarried,[155] often young,[156] and were required to be of 'good fame and character' to be registered.[157] Onsite accommodation was desirable not only for training and staffing, but also for preventing young unmarried women from unchaperoned travel between the hospital and off-side accommodation.[158] Additionally, the provision of comfortable homes for nurses could entice women into nursing, compensate them for their dedication and sacrifice, and fortify them for their arduous work.[159] From 1911 and 1921 respectively, private and public hospitals were required to provide accommodation for nurses in their employment, and the design and layout of nurses' quarters reflected their accommodation of a single-sex workforce, deserving of comfort and supervision.

Nurses at Bundaberg (and role of the quarters)

With a staff of trained nurses since 1898, Bundaberg served as the main (and frequently only) training hospital for general nursing in the region from 1902.[160] The hospital was often reported as enjoying a good reputation as a nurse training hospital, with trained nurses undertaking postgraduate studies,[161] and trainees achieving good results in annual examinations.[162] Probationers came from across Queensland to begin their nursing training, including Innisfail, Monto, Nebo, Degilbo, and Croydon, with English emigrants in the 1950s.[163] The training hospital also provided ‘regional’ experience for nurses from larger or smaller hospitals. In 1969, the Bundaberg Regional Training School was established at the Bundaberg Hospital, enrolling nurses from Bundaberg, Monto, and Gladstone. An exchange programme of nurses was run between the three hospitals in the following years.[164]

Once successfully trained, Bundaberg’s nurses remained at the hospital or travelled further afield, working as nurses or matrons in hospitals intrastate, interstate, and internationally.[165] Jane Bell, who replaced her sister Euphemia as Matron of the Bundaberg Hospital in 1903, became particularly renowned for her contributions to nursing in Australia.[166] Bundaberg Hospital nurses served in both world wars, and the pride of the Bundaberg community in its nurses was reflected through the erection of the Bundaberg War Nurses’ Memorial in 1949 (QHR 600365), on a site opposite the front of the Bundaberg Hospital.[167] Sarah Keenan, matron of the hospital from 1946 until 1970, was the inaugural head of the Matrons’ Association, a Fellow of the College of Australian Nurses, and undertook international studies; on her retirement, she was made an MBE for her services to nursing. Nurses who trained or worked at Bundaberg include an OBE and an AM recipient. [168]

Nurses were held in high regard by the general public, both across Queensland and specifically in Bundaberg.[169] Expressions of gratitude for nurses’ hard work were published in media and provided to the Bundaberg Hospitals Board from earliest days of nursing at the hospital.[170] Journalists and newspaper correspondents sided with the nursing staff in public disputes between them and the hospital board, and defended them vigorously against criticism.[171] Fundraising for the nurses’ quarters was supported by the local community, and social ties to the community were reciprocated by nurses, such as through inviting members of public to use the tennis courts.[172]

The nurses also formed close bonds with one another.[173] Trainee nurses were almost exclusively young single women;[174] and many trainees were significant distances from their homes.[175] Most of their time was spent at the hospital, either on duty, studying, or in their quarters, with time off the site restricted by a strict curfew. Much of this time was also focused on the quarters, which combined accommodation and professional development, with lectures/examinations often held in the same building.[176] Groups of nurses were photographed outside or on the steps of the quarters,[177] and social events were held at the hospital, particularly following the formation of a branch of the Student Nurses Association at Bundaberg Hospital, which organised social evenings, fetes, play readings, a film evening, recreational activities, and even a discussion with the hospital matron to raise nurses’ concerns.[178] In 1924, the unity of the nurses was demonstrated when 24 nurses resigned en masse in support of the matron and engaged legal counsel against the hospital board.[179]

As practical training gave way to tertiary education in the 1980s, Bundaberg nurses began to attend registered courses at the Capricornia Institute of Advanced Education.[180] The final group of trainees began training at the hospital in July 1989, and in July 1992, the News-Mail announced the ‘end of an era’ as the 17 trainees completed the last three-year training at the hospital.[181] Residential accommodation for hospital staff was retained in parts of the quarters, while other sections were used for education, such as commencement of classes of the University of Queensland’s Rural Clinical School Bundaberg in the ground floor library of the former nurses’ quarters in 2004.[182]

Annual Bundaberg Hospital nurses’ reunions were held from 2010-2013,[183] with nurses reflecting on the ‘nightly curfews, bedpans, short-sheeting beds and clandestine raids on the pantry’;[184] the friends they made in the nurses’ quarters,[185] and the ‘skills of patience and tolerance’ they learned while residing in the Bundaberg nurses’ quarters.[186] The reunion drew nurses from across Queensland and Australia,[187] and allowed former nurses to share their stories with current and future nurses training at the Central Queensland university.[188]

In 2024, the former Bundaberg Hospital Nurses’ Quarters is in use as administration and staff accommodation for the Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service.

Description

Bundaberg Hospital Nurses’ Quarters (former) comprises a Nurses’ Quarters (1915-70) and adjacent Swimming Pool (1954) standing at the northeastern end of the grounds of the Bundaberg Base Hospital. It is located to the rear of the main hospital buildings, toward the Burnett River.

Features of state level cultural heritage significance include the:

• Nurses’ Quarters; and
• Swimming Pool.

Nurses’ Quarters

The Nurses’ Quarters is a two-storey, face brick building, constructed in sections at different times. It comprises a main, long front wing of nurses’ bedrooms and common rooms, which runs east-west and faces south to an internal hospital road. Wrapping around this wing is a broad verandah. Projecting off the rear of the verandah are short ablutions blocks, and a long, central wing of further nurses’ bedrooms and common rooms.

The verandah of the building’s principal facades (southern and eastern sides of the main front wing) features polychrome face brick arches and piers, and timber posts, balustrades, and brackets. Access into the building is from the verandah via its many French doors.

The building layout is considerably intact and its historical functions are legible. It retains original partitions in most areas with some minor alterations and demolitions. The long wings generally have central corridors with runs of cell-like nurses’ bedrooms and common rooms on either side. At the eastern end of the 1943 extension’s ground floor is the large former Recreation Room and at the northern end of the 1963 wing’s ground and first floors are former flats for the matron and deputy matron.

The building’s extensions copy and reference earlier details and forms, and earlier fabric has been removed, re-used, and blended into new areas.

In 2024, the majority of the building is used for hospital administration offices, equipment store, staff training rooms, and a small area of staff residential accommodation.

Features of the Nurses’ Quarters of state-level cultural heritage significance include:

• the main front wing (1915, 1919, 1937, and 1943) and its attached night nurses’ block (1915 topped with a 1943 first floor), including its:
  • concrete and brick exterior stairs;
  • face brick stumps and metal antcaps;
  • timber-framed and face brick verandahs (including fabric rebuilt 1986-7);
  • flat sheet and batten verandah ceilings (first floor);  
  • timber verandah posts, mouldings, and arched brackets;
  • timber slat verandah balustrades (south and east sides only);
  • flat sheet-clad balustrade of northern verandah (added 1937, ground floor, 1919 section);
  • timber-framed hip roof, with timber batten and flat sheet-clad gablets, and corrugated metal roof sheets;
  • face brick exterior walls of core and evidence of their different construction eras;
  • concrete door and window sills and headers;
  • timber-framed floors and timber floor boards;
  • original interior plastered/rendered masonry partitions, and their timber skirting boards, architraves, and cornices;
  • timber-framed part-height partitions of cubicles of 1943 wing, and their 1950s-60s extension to the ceiling in flat sheet material to form rooms;
  • overhead beam and header wall of former folding partition in Recreation Room (1943);
  • original ceilings, including flat sheet and batten-lined ceilings (interior rooms and verandahs, 1937 and 1943), and earlier original ceilings to earlier sections that may survive concealed behind non-significant suspended ceiling;
  • 1937 and 1943 stair halls and their concrete floors and stairs with metal and timber balustrades; and
  • original and early timber-framed doors and windows, including: low-waisted French doors; low-waisted, glazed doors; ribbed glass French doors (internal) to 1943 wing; early double-hung windows; early casement window and its obscure glass in 1915 section (likely into former sister’s room); early casement windows enclosing western verandah of 1915 night nurses’ block and its curved sheetmetal hood; and original and early door and window hardware;
• rear ablutions blocks (1915, 1919, 1937, and 1943) and single-storey laundry extension (1970), including their:
  • rendered brick walls and evidence of their different construction eras (render present by 1937, earlier sections may have been face brick);
  • concrete sills and headers to doors and windows;
  • timber-framed hip and gable roofs and corrugated metal roof cladding (original cladding has been replaced);
  • original and early timber-framed doors and windows; and
  • original/early masonry partitions; original/early timber-framed cubicle partitions and doors; flat sheet and batten-lined ceilings and lattice vents; early bath; and early tearoom/kitchenette joinery;
• 1963 wing, including:
  • face brick walls and terracotta vents;
  • shallow-pitched hip roof (excludes roof cladding);
  • long timber-framed verandah on eastern side (including 1969 extension of verandah for matron’s and deputy matron’s flats) and its flat sheet-clad balustrade, timber posts, timber board floors, and its early, added, steel-framed glass louvre enclosure (1970);
  • small, enclosed, two-storey timber-framed verandah on southwestern corner (off communal lounges) and its flat sheet and batten walls, timber-framed casement and fixed windows, and timber-framed window hoods with flat sheet-lined soffits, and original pan and rib roof sheets and quad gutter (ground floor hood only);
  • original concrete stairs, ramp, and pipe balustrades to entrances on western side;
  • concrete first floor balcony (1963, off deputy matron’s flat) and its steel posts and pipe balustrade;
  • original partitions, their timber skirting boards and architraves (clear-finished in places);
  • flat plaster ceilings;
  • original built-in joinery, including wardrobes and cupboards (generally retains original clear finish);
  • original tearoom/kitchenette fitout, including cupboards and wall tiles, and original tiles to ablutions walls and floors;
  • stair hall and its concrete stair with metal and timber balustrade, terrazzo floor and stair cladding; and
  • original timber-framed doors and windows (windows to ablutions rooms have fixed ventilation slots), terracotta paver window sills, and timber-framed window hoods and their battened soffits (excludes hood roof sheets);
  • original door and window hardware, including to robes/cupboards; and
  • original wall-mounted light fixtures to eastern verandah.

Features of the Nurses’ Quarters not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:

• alterations to the main front wing and its attached night nurses’ block made after 1970 (when nurses’ on-site living requirements began to change), including:
  • all verandah balustrades not mentioned previously (including non-original timber slat balustrades of northern verandah, likely added 1986-7 replacing originally flat-sheet and batten clad solid balustrade); flat sheets to verandah floor; verandah enclosures; lattice; and screens (excludes original posts); non-original concrete and steel rear fire stairs and associated verandah doors; concrete ramp to ground floor northern verandah 1915 section;
  • later doors and windows, including replacements of French doors with casement windows;
  • later rainwater goods (gutters, downpipes);
  • non-original suspended ceilings and fitouts; and  
  • all non-original electrical services;
• alterations to rear ablutions blocks and laundry extension made after 1970, including:
  • metal louvre window grille; aluminium-framed doors and windows; electrical services including air conditioners and satellite dish; metal-framed window hoods to laundry extension; rainwater goods (gutters, downpipes); and vent pipes; and
  • post-1970 fitouts, including topping slabs, tiles, benches, partitions, and joinery;
• alterations to the 1963 wing made after 1970, including:
  • later roof and window hood cladding and rainwater goods;
  • later doors and windows (typically aluminium-framed), screens, and awnings;
  • enclosure of matron’s porch (near northwest corner of wing);
  • post-1970 partitions, fitouts, and finishes; and
  • all electrical services (air conditioning units, lights).

The Swimming Pool 

The Swimming Pool comprises an inground, concrete pool shell in a garden behind (to the north of) the Nurses’ Quarters.

Features of the Swimming Pool of state-level cultural heritage significance include:

• rectangular, inground concrete pool shell.

Features of the Swimming Pool not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:

• non-original concrete and paver paths around pool; added shallow section of pool, and associated walls and steps; pool ladders; paver pool edge; landscaping, structures, and fences beside pool, including lawn areas, garden beds, vegetation, metal shed, timber gazebo, shade frames, and poles; and filtration equipment.

References

[1] DATSIP map, <https://culturalheritage.datsip.qld.gov.au/achris/public/public-registry/home>, accessed 6 July 2022.
[2] Janette Nolan, Bundaberg history and people, St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1978, p.12. The land surround Bundaberg became available for selection after half of each pastoral run was resumed under the Crown Lands Alienation Act 1868 and made available for closer settlement from 1869.
[3] Entry on the Queensland Heritage Register, Bundaberg Central State School, 601533; ‘Sugar in the Wide Bay Region’, DERM, c.2008, pp.3-4.
[4] Pugh’s Queensland Almanac, Law Calendar, Directory, Coast Guide, and Gazetteer for 1878, Brisbane: William Thorne, [1878], pp.411-412.
[5] Pugh’s Almanac for 1887, Brisbane: Gordon & Gotch, 1887, p.46 (Queensland Directory).
[6] Pugh’s Almanac and Queensland Directory for 1888, Brisbane: Gordon & Gotch, 1888, pp.50-51 (Queensland Directory).
[7] The Week, 15 February 1879, p.19. The launch took place at the opening of the first stage of the railway to Mount Perry, when the railway contractor made a £100 donation ‘towards the attainment of this most desirable object’ – the opening of a hospital – and agreed to match future donations.
[8] Ian Cameron, 125 Years of State Public Works in Queensland 1859-1984, Bowen Hills: Boolarong for the Premier’s Department, 1989, pp.87-88; Thom Blake, Michael Kennedy, Margaret Pullar in association with Robert Riddel Architect, Queensland Health Heritage Survey, Vol. 1, Brisbane: Queensland Health Central Office, October 1996, pp.1-4; Glenda Strachan, Labour of love: The history of the Nurses’ Association in Queensland 1860-1950, St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd, 1996, p.3.
[9] JY Walker, The History of Bundaberg: A typical Queensland agricultural settlement, Bundaberg: WC Aiken, 1890, pp.97-98. Section 53 in the town of Bundaberg: Queensland Government Gazette (QGG), Vol. XXIV No. 83, 26 April 1879, p.986, cited in Queensland heritage register (QHR) application, appendix, p.1; Plan of the Town of Bundaberg, Parish of Bundaberg, County of Cook, Bundaberg Land Agent’s District, B15854, Brisbane: Surveyor-General’s Office, 1889.
[10] Sue Gammon, ‘Bundaberg Base Hospital’, Local History Feature, Bundaberg Library, p.1; The Telegraph, 5 March 1881, p.3; cited in QHR application, appendix, p.1.
[11] E.g., images from Bundaberg Regional Library (General Hospital Bundaberg ca1885, BRN 189476; Old Hospital Bundaberg, BRN 208082) and State Library of Queensland (Bundaberg Hospital ca1881, IE219331; Bundaberg Hospital Lithograph ca1894, IE1384069; Bundaberg Hospital 1895, IE2845720; Bundaberg Hospital 1904, IE219928; Bundaberg Hospital 1906, IE219445)  supplied with QHR application.
[12] Bundaberg Hospitals Board, Annual Report and Financial Statement for the year ended 30th June 1978, [p.4], via State Library of Queensland, https://collections.slq.qld.gov.au/viewer/612453369); Strachan, Labour of love, 1996, p.3. The Gardiner family worked as wardsman, matron and assistant warder at the hospital 1884-1898. Duties beyond patient care included taking responsibility the hospital’s dairy cows: The Bundaberg Mail and Burnett Advertiser, 18 January 1893, p.2.
[13] Mary Weedon (who had trained in London) undertook a nurse training programme with Dr Jackson at Brisbane hospital: Ross Patrick, A History of Health and Medicine in Queensland 1824-1960, St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1987, pp.279-280; Margaret Cook, ‘The Noblest Profession: Nursing in Queensland’, Stories from the Archives, Queensland State Archives (QSA), https://blogs.archives.qld.gov.au/2016/07/14/the-noblest-profession-nursing-in-queensland/, 14 July 2016, accessed 17 November 2023; Wendy Madsen, ‘Early twentieth-century untrained nursing staff in the Rockhampton District: a necessary evil?’, Early Journal of Advanced Nursing, Vol. 51 No. 3, 2005, pp.207-313, at p.312, cited in QHR application, appendix, p.2.
[14] Patrick, A History of Health and Medicine in Queensland, 1987, pp.279-280; The Bundaberg Mail and Burnett Advertiser, 30 November 1898, p.2; The Week, 2 December 1898, p2, cited in QHR application, appendix, p.2.
[15] Patrick, A History of Health and Medicine in Queensland, 1987, p.279.
[16] Patrick, A History of Health and Medicine in Queensland, 1987, p.281.
[17] The Bundaberg Mail and Burnett Advertiser, 19 July 1899, p.2.
[18] In 1900, the ATNA asked Bundaberg Hospital Board to adopt the former’s schedule of training to be placed on the list of recognised hospitals, and the Board decided to affiliate with the association (The Bundaberg Mail and Burnett Advertiser, 20 June 1900, p.2) but it is unclear what date it was officially recognised. The commencement of training in 1902 was cited later (News-Mail, 1 July 1992, p.6).
[19] The Bundaberg Mail and Burnett Advertiser, 23 April 1902, p.3 and 23 July 1902, p.3.
[20] The Bundaberg Mail and Burnett Advertiser, 18 November 1903, p.3 ; 17 February 1904, p.4; 21 June 1905, p.3; and 19 July 1907, p.4. Due to a misunderstanding the hospital initially trained nurses for three years; this was increased to four years when it was realised the hospital had a daily average of just over 30 occupied beds, not 40 as required: The Bundaberg Mail and Burnett Advertiser, 18 November 1903, p.3.
[21] E.g., Nurse Nott in 1909: The Bundaberg Mail and Burnett Advertiser, 18 August 1909, p.2.
[22] Patrick, A History of Health and Medicine in Queensland, 1987, pp.282-3; An Act To Amend “The Health Act of 1900” (The Health Act Amendment Act of 1911). The Act gave preference to registered nurses in hospital appointments, though probationers were still able to be employed (Health Act Amendment Act 1911 (Qld), s.92; Strachan, Labour of love, 1996, pp.79-80); QGG, Vol. CII No. 81, 28 March 1914, p.941.
[23] The Bundaberg Mail and Burnett Advertiser, 9 December 1914, p.3; Enid Cullen, Bundaberg Institutes: The History of Hospitals in Bundaberg, Bundaberg: Edgars Printers, 2000, pp.8-9. The twelve nurses were photographed with the hospital’s doctor on the hospital grounds circa 1915: ‘Nurses in front of the Bundaberg General Hospital, ca.1915’, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, negative number 68356, https://collections.slq.qld.gov.au/viewer/IE220426 (supplied with QHR application). 
[24] The Bundaberg Mail and Burnett Advertiser, 25 January 1915, p.4.
[25] The Bundaberg Mail and Burnett Advertiser, 5 July 1897, p.2 and 21 October 1908, p.3; Gammon, ‘Bundaberg Base Hospital’, p.2, cited in QHR application.
[26] The Bundaberg Mail and Burnett Advertiser, 23 April 1902, p.3. Frederick Herbert Faircloth (c.1870-1925) was responsible for the design of most of Bundaberg’s major late 19th and early 20th century buildings, designing shops, residences, dairy factories, School of Arts hall, banks, churches, the Sisters of Mercy convent, and the Bundaberg War Memorial (1921-2, QHR 600364), as well as buildings in Childers, Mount Perry, and Gin Gin: Donald Watson and Judith McKay, Queensland Architects of the 19th century: A biographical dictionary, South Brisbane: Queensland Museum, 1994, p.66.
[27] The Bundaberg Mail and Burnett Advertiser, 21 April 1909, p.3, and 19 May 1909, p.2.
[28] QGG, Vol. XCV, No. 121, 12 November 1910, p.1327; Survey Plan No. B15874 (1910). The site was part of the Botanic Gardens reserve, gazetted in 1884 (QGG, Vol. XXXIV No. 74, 10 May 1884, p.1370). The old hospital buildings – including the 1902 nurses’ quarters – were sold for removal: The Bundaberg Mail and Burnett Advertiser, 8 February 1915, p.3.
[29] Cullen, Bundaberg Institutes, 2000, pp.7-8; images (e.g., Bundaberg Regional Library, ‘Building the Base Hospital ca. 1913’, BRN 181529; ‘New Bundaberg Hospital under construction, Bundaberg, ca. 1910, State Library of Queensland, image number APO-009-0001-0015), supplied with QHR application.
[30] The Bundaberg Mail and Burnett Advertiser, 20 August 1913, p.4. In July, one of the Bundaberg Hospital Board members had stated it would be a ‘crying shame’ if the nurses’ quarters were erected in timber instead of brick, and promised to collect the additional money needed: The Bundaberg Mail and Burnett Advertiser, 16 July 1913, p.4.
[31] The Bundaberg Mail and Burnett Advertiser, 20 August 1913, p.4, and 22 October 1913, p.3, cited in QHR application, appendix, p.4.
[32] Lennie Wallace, From Nanango to Cooktown: Queensland memoir of a mining warden’s daughter 1930-1955, Rockhampton: Central Queensland University Press, 2005, p.104.
[33] The separate accommodation for night nurses was intended to afford consideration to nurses whose sleep was disrupted, but as trainees were rotated on and off night duty, they would also be rotated in and out of night nurses’ rooms, causing disruption and minimising the personal possessions nurses could keep with them: Thom Blake and Peter Marquis-Kyle, Lady Lamington Nurses’ Home Conservation Management Plan: A report for Metro North Hospital and Health Service, February 2018, p.20.
[34] The Bundaberg Mail and Burnett Advertiser, 22 October 1913, p.3, cited in QHR application, appendix, p.4.
[35] The Bundaberg Mail and Burnett Advertiser, 19 November 1913, p.3; lists of private contributions, 1915, in QSA ITM18142 (Correspondence records re hospitals, hospital boards and ambulances).
[36] Daily Mercury (Mackay), 28 January 1914, p.7; submission on QHR application, Bundaberg & District Historical Museum & Society, 20 November 2023. By July 1914 the cost of work was cited as ‘upwards of £3,000’: Daily Mercury, 15 July 1914, p.7, cited in QHR application, appendix, p.3.
[37] Inspector of Works to Under Secretary and Government Architect, DPW, 6 March 1915, in QSA ITM18142.
[38] The Bundaberg Mail and Burnett Advertiser, 17 April 1915, p.3.
[39] The Bundaberg Mail and Burnett Advertiser, 22 October 1915, p.2.
[40] The Bundaberg Mail and Burnett Advertiser, 24 February 1915, p.2 (cited in QHR application, appendix, p.4) and 1 April 1915, p.4. The president of the Mackay Hospital board, Mr Croker, expressed admiration of the nurses’ quarters in December 1915, and ‘hoped to see the day when Mackay would have such a fine hospital’: The Bundaberg Mail and Burnett Advertiser, 11 December 1915, p.3.
[41] Blake et al, Queensland Health Heritage Survey, Vol. 1, p.54, cited in QHR application, appendix, p.4.
[42] Thom Blake, assisted by Michael Kennedy and Margaret Pullar, Health buildings in Queensland: an historical overview, Brisbane: Capital Works and Asset Management Branch, 1997, p.52; Cook, ‘The Noblest Profession’, 2016; Blake and Marquis-Kyle, Lady Lamington Nurses’ Home Conservation Management Plan, 2018, p.29.
[43] Section 74 of The Health Amendment Act of 1911 required private hospitals to provide ‘proper and sufficient accommodation for the nurses employed therein’, but did not make a similar requirement for public hospitals.
[44] Blake et al, Queensland Health Heritage Survey, Vol. 1, p.55.
[45] Strachan, Labour of love, 1996, pp.1-3, 9, 19-20.
[46] Cook, ‘The Noblest Profession’, 2016, cited in QHR application, appendix, p.5.
[47] Wendy Madsen, ‘Learning to be a nurse: the culture of training in a regional Queensland Hospital, 1930-1950’, Transformations, No. 1, Central Queensland University, September 2000, pp.2-4; Blake and Marquis-Kyle, Lady Lamington Nurses’ Home Conservation Management Plan, 2018, p.13.
[48] Strachan, Labour of love, 1996, pp.12, 14, 19-20; Blake and Marquis-Kyle, Lady Lamington Nurses’ Home Conservation Management Plan, 2018, pp.58-59; Cook, ‘The Noblest Profession’, 2016, cited in Queensland heritage register application, appendix, pp.5-6.
[49] Strachan, Labour of love, 1996, pp.48, 93-94, &130.
[50] Blake, Health Buildings in Queensland, 1997, p.64.
[51] For example, nurses’ quarters with 27 bedrooms were erected at Toowoomba Hospital in 1913 (Darling Downs Gazette, 16 June 1913, p.6), extended in 1927 to 80 bedrooms (The Brisbane Courier, 18 April 1927, p.12), and a new building was added in 1960 (Toowoomba Hospital, QHR601296). At Maryborough General Hospital, 78 bedroom quarters were built in 1927 and new quarters of more than 100 bedrooms in 1938 (Project Services, Maryborough Hospital Conservation Study, 2011, pp.23&26). Brisbane General Hospital’s 1897 Lady Lamington nurses’ quarters were joined by new quarters in 1922, with bedrooms for 90 nurses (Thom Blake, Michael Kennedy, and Robert Riddel Architect, Herston Hospitals Complex Conservation Plan, 1994, p.13), a tower block in 1936 with bedrooms for 166 nurses (Blake and Marquis-Kyle, Lady Lamington Nurses’ Home Conservation Management Plan, 2018, p.5), and a second tower in 1939 with 128 bedroom ‘cubicles’ (Blake and Marquis-Kyle, Lady Lamington Nurses’ Home Conservation Management Plan, 2018, p.5). Some of the larger, late 20th century nurses’ quarters included: Townsville General Hospital – c1954 with 210 bedrooms (Townsville Daily Bulletin, 14 January 1953, p.2 and 18 January 1954, p.3); Rockhampton General Hospital – 1954 with bedrooms for 172 nurses (Morning Bulletin, 12 July 1954, p.3); Brisbane Women’s Hospital – 1953 with 225 bedrooms (The Courier-Mail, 2 March 1953, p.5); and South Brisbane Auxiliary Hospital (later Princess Alexandra Hospital) – c1955 with more than 500 nurses in around 486 bedrooms, likely the largest ever built in Queensland.
[52] Cairns Post, 22 May 1952, p.5; The Telegraph, 2 May 1936, p.9; Toowoomba Chronicle and Darling Downs Gazette, 26 November 1928, p.5.
[53] Truth, 5 November 1939, p.35; The Brisbane Courier, 8 May 1931, p.6.
[54] Central Queensland Herald, 23 March 1950, p.22; Darling Downs Gazette, 16 June 1913, p.6.
[55] The DPW, typically more invested in plan standardisation, developed a standard general hospital staff quarters plan by 1960 – DPW drawing, ID 43-33-5/5 HA-9-184, ‘Standard General Hospital New Staff Quarters Injune’, May 1960 – however, it is not known how widely this was employed or if an earlier standard plan existed.
[56] The Courier-Mail, 6 February 1953, p.3.
[57] Maryborough Chronicle, 9 September 1937, p.8; Blake and Marquis-Kyle, Lady Lamington Nurses’ Home Conservation Management Plan, 2018, pp.11,13-14.
[58] The Bundaberg Mail, 10 January 1918, p.2. Some of the hospital’s trained nurses had been called to active war service, but had been replaced by probationers, as the hospital’s patient numbers had increased: The Bundaberg Mail and Burnett Advertiser, 20 July 1916, p.3.
[59] The Bundaberg Mail, 19 June 1918, p.4 and 28 January 1919, p.2, cited in QHR application, appendix, p.4. Box rooms were used to store nurses’ excess luggage or personal possessions while they were on holidays: Blake and Marquis-Kyle, Lady Lamington Nurses’ Home Conservation Management Plan, 2018, p.20.
[60] The Bundaberg Mail, 17 July 1918, p.4.
[61] The Bundaberg Mail, 6 August 1918, p.2.
[62] The Canon objected to fundraising that involved a form of gambling, and in lieu of a liberty fair, canvassed for the nurses’ quarters himself, collecting £300: The Brisbane Courier, 24 August 1918, p.4.
[63] The Bundaberg Mail, 31 July 1918, p.3.
[64] The Bundaberg Mail, 14 August 1918, p.4; 23 August 1918, p.2; 26 August 1918, p.2; 27 August 1918, p.2; and 13 September 1918, p.2.
[65] The Bundaberg Mail, 24 October 1918, p.2.
[66] The Bundaberg Mail, 28 January 1920, p.6.
[67] The Bundaberg Mail, 28 January 1919, p.2.
[68] The Bundaberg Mail, 15 October 1924, p.2 (cited in QHR application, appendix, p.5); and 22 October 1924, p.3. The incident came on the heels of a difficult year of relations between the hospital board, matron, and medical and nursing staff, during which two trainees and a wardsman lodged complaints against the matron; 32 nurses resigned, 24 in a two day period (though these were later rescinded); the honorary medical staff resigned; the matron successfully charged the president of the board with assault; and the board discovered it and the hospital’s rules were not legally constituted. The hospital’s administrative woes made national news and were discussed in the Legislative Assembly. The patients, local community, and some members of the board expressed their support for the matron and nursing staff. Within a year, however, the matron and nurse involved in the October 1924 incident had lost their roles at the Bundaberg Hospital – the nurse for acts of insubordination, the matron for reasons withheld from the public but causing ‘considerable public indignation’ (Queensland Times, 23 September 1925, p.6)  – while control of the hospital had transferred to new board members under the provisions of the Hospital Act 1923.
[69] Blake et al, Queensland Health Heritage Survey, Vol. 1, pp.54-55 (cited in QHR application, appendix, p.4); Daily Herald (Adelaide), 22 June 1921, p.8; QGG, Vol. CXVIII No. 197, 8 June 1922, p.1682 (clause 14).
[70] The Court of Arbitration decision came about as a result of action undertaken by the Queensland Nurses Association, a recently-formed body attempting to redress to the generally poor working conditions for nurses, including low pay and 96 hour weeks. Strachan, Labour of love, 1996, pp.93-97; Cook, ‘The Noblest Profession’, 2016.
[71] The Bundaberg Mail, 21 July 1921, p.2.
[72] The Bundaberg Mail, 20 January 1925, p.4; QGG, Vol. CXXIV No. 19, 22 January 1925, p.544. The board in charge of the district was named the Bundaberg Hospitals Board. In 1932 Childers Hospital was removed from the Bundaberg Hospitals District: QGG, Vol. CXXXVIII No. 54, 20 February 1932, p.833.
[73] QGG, Vol. CXXIV No. 93, 29 March 1925, p.1573.
[74] The maternity nursing staff resided in separate quarters, purpose-built for them by the DPW (alongside a new maternity building) in 1928-1932, which are no longer extant. DPW, Bundaberg General Hospital Block Plan, 26 July 1926 and Bundaberg Hospital New Maternity Ward Block Plan, February 1928; DPW, Annual Report of the Department of Public Works for the year ended 30th June 1929, Brisbane: Government Printer, p.39; Sunday Mail, 24 July 1932, p.4.
[75] QSA ITM18131 (Correspondence re Bundaberg District Hospital and Hospital Board). While local governments within a hospital district were required to contribute financially to its upkeep, residents were not restricted from going to hospitals outside the district. Bundaberg was reportedly accessed by people living in Miriam Vale, and numbers of patients accessing Bundaberg services hit a record in 1935: The Courier-Mail, 21 February 1935, p.3; The Telegraph, 27 June 1945, p.5.
[76] Bundaberg Daily News and Mail, 21 March 1932, p.8.
[77] DPW, Report of the Department of Public Works for the year ended 30th June 1936, p.9; Bundaberg Daily News and Mail, 1 October 1937, p.4; DPW, Bundaberg Hospitals Board, Bundaberg Hospital, Nurses Quarters Additional Stor[e]y (Elevations), October 1935, QSA, ITM3875159.
[78] DESI site visit, February 2024; DPW, Bundaberg Hospitals Board Bundaberg Hospital Nurses’ Quarters, Additional Storey (Elevations), October 1935, QSA ITM3875159.
[79] DPW, Report of the Department of Public Works for the year ended 30th June 1936, p.4.
[80] Daily Standard, 23 November 1933, p.2; Queensland Times, 17 August 1938, p.8.
[81] Blake, Health buildings in Queensland, 1997, p.64; entries on the QHR: Toowoomba Hospital (QHR 601296); Rockhampton Hospital (601967); Mossman District Hospital (602713); Brisbane General Hospital Precinct (QHR 601903); Maryborough Hospital (601907); and Lady Bowen Hospital Complex (former) (601798).
[82] Maryborough Chronicle, Wide Bay and Burnett Advertiser, 25 August 1937, p.8; DPW, Departmental Works Order, Completion Report, in QSA ITM279517 (Bundaberg Hospital Board, 1934-1951, Health and Home Affairs Department Special Batches).
[83] Bundaberg Daily News and Mail, 1 October 1937, p.4.
[84] Bundaberg Daily News and Mail, 4 October 1937, p.6; The Courier-Mail, 4 October 1937, p.18, cited in QHR application, appendix, p.5.
[85] Maryborough Chronicle, Wide Bay and Burnett Advertiser, 6 October 1937, p.8; image, ‘Bundaberg General Hospital, 1937’, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, negative number 202904, supplied with QHR application.
[86] Bundaberg Daily News and Mail, 1 October 1937, p.4. The hospital was gazetted as The Bundaberg Hospital, but was often referred to as the Bundaberg General Hospital, distinguishing it from Bundaberg’s numerous private hospitals.
[87] Bundaberg Daily News and Mail, 2 October 1937, p.4.
[88] The Courier-Mail, 4 October 1937, p.18.
[89] Bundaberg Daily News and Mail, 1 October 1937, p.4.
[90] Bundaberg Daily News and Mail, 2 October 1937, p.4.
[91] Bundaberg Daily News and Mail, 4 October 1937, p.6.
[92] The Minister had noted at the opening of the 1937 extension that there were already ‘ample applications for accommodation’ in the nurses’ quarters: Bundaberg Daily News and Mail, 4 October 1937, p.6. A 1940 report noted that even on the opening day of the 1937 extension, six nurses were still living in a ‘skillion on conditions that were simply awful and they are still living there’: Notes of Deputation from Bundaberg Hospitals Board, 23 March 1940, 4 April 1940, in QSA ITM279517.
[93] The Courier-Mail, 10 August 1939, p.7.
[94] Bundaberg Hospital Board to Under Secretary, Department of Health and Home Affairs, 24 January 1940, in QSA ITM279517.
[95] Bundaberg Hospital Board to Under Secretary, Department of Health and Home Affairs, 24 January 1940, in QSA ITM279517. Making matters worse for the day nurses were reports of prowlers around the quarters ‘on an average of twice a week’ for six weeks in the summer of 1939-1940, forcing nurses to sleep with doors and windows locked: The Courier-Mail, 17 January 1940, p.8. Making matters worse for the night nurses were the distribution of the bedrooms, with one bedroom reserved for the sister and nine sharing three rooms. These three rooms were used only for dressing, as the beds were on the verandah, where nurses could not avoid sunshine or the summer heat: Notes of Deputation from Bundaberg Hospitals Board, 23 March 1940, 4 April 1940, in QSA ITM279517.
[96] Harold Morton Cook (1901-1968) and Walter James Ernest Kerrison (1902-2000) formed the Brisbane-based architecture firm, Cook and Kerrison, in 1939 (successor to the eminent firm Hall and Dods). Between 1962 and 1978 the firm operated as Cook, Kerrison and Partners. After Cook’s death and Kerrison’s retirement, it became Perry Bland Kennerson Loynes Pty Ltd (1978-1981). The firm employed many architects and was at times a large firm handling many jobs. Cook and Kerrison’s built work was diverse, including private residences, offices, churches, banks, and King’s College at University of Queensland, St Lucia. Australian Institute of Architects, ‘Vale Robert Arthur Bland’, https://www.architecture.com.au/archives/news_media_articles/vale-robert-arthur-bland, 10 July 2020, accessed April 2024; Glenys Haalebos, ‘Walter’s drawings still win praise’, QUT Links, Vol.2, No.3, Autumn 1998, pp.8-9, https://digitalcollections.qut.edu.au/3617/2/PUB_LINKS1998April_FIN_20150521.pdf, accessed April 2024; Brisbane Telegraph, 4 May 1948; The Courier-Mail, 26 September 1953, p.10; 27 March 1954, p.13; 8 September 1954, p.14; 19 October 1954, p.12; and 15 November 1954, p.15; Morning Bulletin, 19 June 1954, p.8 and 26 August 1954, p.8; ‘Harold M Cook & Walter JE Kerrison’ and ‘Tom McKerrell’, Digital Archives of Queensland Architecture, https://qldarch.net/firm/relationships?firmId=2457 and https://qldarch.net/architect/interview/2539?time=2326&architectId=305, accessed April 2024; John Macarthur, Deobrah van der Plaat, Janina Gosseye, Andrew Wilson (eds), Hot Modernism: Queensland Architecture 1945-1975, London: Artifice books on architecture, 2015, p.20.
[97] Specifically, the accommodation of five nurses in one room: Notes of Deputation from Bundaberg Hospitals Board, 23 March 1940, 4 April 1940, in QSA ITM279517. Conditions had been causing discontent amongst the nurses, with large numbers resigning in 1942 and 1943, though one junior nurse in 1943 defended the accommodation, ‘we have every comfort and convenience in our quarters. They are most up to date, and I can say with assurance, their equal is not to be found throughout the State as regards cleanliness, comfort, and convenience’: Bundaberg News-Mail, 21 May 1943, p.2.
[98] A&B Journal of Queensland, Vol. XIX No. 227, May 1941, p.18; Maryborough Chronicle, Wide Bay and Burnett Advertiser, 23 October 1940, p.4; Minister for Health and Home Affairs to B McLean, MLA, Parliament House, 17 January 1941, in QSA ITM279517; The Courier-Mail, 21 April 1941, p.7, cited in QHR application, appendix, p.6.                                                                                                       
[99] Progress Report, in QSA ITM2301335 (Co-ordinator General of Public Works – Co-ordinator General Works Section – Co-operation with Hospital Boards – Bundaberg Hospital Board – General Works – Bundaberg Hospital, 1941-1951).
[100] DPW to Under Secretary, Department of Health & Home Affairs, 12 June 1941, in QSA ITM279517.
[101] Harold M Cook and Walter JE Kerrison Architects, General Hospital at Bundaberg Queensland Proposed Extension to Nurses’ Quarters (Drawing No. 5) and First Floor Plan (Drawing No. 6), April 1940, via QSA, ITM279517; Notes of Deputation from Bundaberg Hospitals Board, 23 March 1940, 4 April 1940, in QSA ITM279517; Memorandum, 28 February 1940, in QSA ITM279517. Cook and Kerrison’s plan perpetuated the existing room size (14’ x 9’)(4.3m x 2.7m) which the Minister for Health and Home Affairs opposed, proposing 10’ x 9’ rooms (3m x 2.7m). The nurses’ quarters at Brisbane General Hospital, erected in the late 1930s, were 11’6½” x 8’6” (3.5m x 2.6m).
[102] Surveillance and regulation of nurses’ behaviour by the matron was a high propriety, also visible in the Lady Lamington nurses’ quarters in Brisbane General Hospital: Blake and Marquis-Kyle, Lady Lamington Nurses’ Home Conservation Management Plan, 2018, pp.11,13-14, 58-59.
[103] Harold M Cook and Walter JE Kerrison Architects, General Hospital at Bundaberg Queensland Proposed Extension to Nurses’ Quarters (Drawing No. 5) and First Floor Plan (Drawing No. 6), April 1940, via QSA, ITM279517. Some alterations were made before the extension was constructed, but the plans are indicative of its layout.
[104] E.g., in December 1958 the Bundaberg Hospitals Board applied for approval to purchase a small refrigerator for the use of the matron in her quarters ‘as is done in other large hospitals in this State’, to replace the ‘fairly old ice-chest’ she was using: Secretary, Bundaberg Hospitals Board to Under Secretary, Department of Health and Home Affairs, 22 December 1958, Queensland State Archives DR83445.
[105] Blake and Marquis-Kyle, Lady Lamington Nurses’ Home Conservation Management Plan, 2018, ii, pp.11, 15-17, 25.
[106] Wallace, From Nanango to Cooktown, 2005, p.101.
[107] QSA, ‘Recruitment of Nurses after Second World War’, Stories from the Archives, https://blogs.archives.qld.gov.au/2015/01/13/recruitment-of-nurses-after-second-world-war/, 13 January 2015, accessed 11 January 2024.
[108] The Northern Miner, 24 January 1947, p.4.
[109] Strachan, Labour of love, 1996, p.180. The secretary of the ATNA Queensland branch had made a similar statement in 1945: “If the living conditions in hospitals were made more attractive there would be more nurses. The hospital is a nurse’s home. As many amenities as the authorities and the local community can manage should be put there. Nurses do not want coddling, but they do want reasonable treatment. We must concentrate on the more distant hospitals.” (The Courier-Mail, 1 November 1945, p.2).
[110] E.g., Gympie 1912 (Gympie Times and Mary River Mining Gazette, 3 September 1912, p.3); Warwick 1930 (Warwick Daily News, 5 September 1930, p.4); Barcaldine 1934 (The Western Champion, 26 May 1934, p.6).
[111] The Bundaberg Mail, 19 January 1922, p.3 and 23 August 1924, p.3.
[112] The Courier-Mail, 22 July 1948, p.3.
[113] Morning Bulletin, 25 February 1947, p.5; The Charleville Times, 5 March 1948, p.8; Cairns Post, 21 January 1949, p.5 and 7 April 1949, p.5; The Courier-Mail, 14 December 1949, p.3.
[114] John H Tyrer, History of the Brisbane Hospital: A Pilgrim’s Progress, Brisbane: Boolarong, 1993, p.310. A nurses’ swimming pool was also built at Gin Gin Hospital in 1965, with others reported at Blackall, Dalby, Barcaldine, Mount Isa, Townsville, Roma, Gympie, the Princess Alexandra Hospital and Chermside in the 1960s and 1970s (QSA records; Bundaberg Hospitals Board, Annual Report for year ended 30th June 1965, [p.4]).
[115] Bundaberg Hospitals Board, Annual Report of the Bundaberg Hospitals Board for the year ended 30th June 1955, [p.4].
[116] Photograph, circa 1970, through Bundaberg Remember When Facebook page, accessed January 2024.
[117] The Bundaberg Hospitals Board, annual reports for the years ended 30th June 1973, p.7; 30th June 1974, p.7; and 30th June, 1975, p.5.
[118] QGG, Vol. CLXIV No. 130, 24 May 1945, pp.1349-1351.
[119] Thom Blake, assisted by Michael Kennedy and Margaret Pullar, Health buildings in Queensland: an historical overview, Brisbane: Asset Management Unit, Capital Works and Assessment Management Branch, 1997, pp.8-9.
[120] Nurses’ hours had been increased in 1931, due to the difficult economic conditions, but had not since been reduced: The Telegraph, 12 October 1931, p.2; Strachan, Labour of love, 1996, pp.208-209; Capital Works Proposal, Bundaberg Hospitals Board, 30 March 1948, in QSA ITM2301364 (Co-ordinator General of Public Works – Co-ordinator General Works Section – Cooperating with Hospitals Board – Bundaberg Hospital Board – Nurses Quarters – Bundaberg Hospital), cited in QHR application.
[121] Blake, Health buildings in Queensland, 1997, p.53, cited in QHR, appendix, p.6.
[122] Public Works Reserve Capital form, 30 March 1948; and Application for inclusion of work in the 1948/49 loan programme, Additions to General Nursing Staff Quarters, Bundaberg Hospital, in QSA ITM2301364. This was despite the nursing shortage, which appears to have been felt more in the maternity hospital than the general hospital: The Courier-Mail, 4 November 1946, p.3.
[123] Ibid, cited in QHR application, appendix, p.7. More unsuccessful applications for extensions were made throughout the 1950s: Application for inclusion in the Loan Programme for the financial year 1949/50, Additions to General Nurses Quarters, Bundaberg Hospital; Application for inclusion in the Loan Programme for the financial year 1950/51, Additions to General Nursing Staff Quarters BGH; and Application for inclusion of works in the 1951/52 in the Loan Programme, Additions to General Nursing Staff Quarters BGH, in QSA ITM2301364. The Hospitals Board had purchased disused RAAF buildings to house the nurses in 1947: Queensland heritage register application, appendix, p.7.
[124] Application for Inclusion of Works in the 1960/61 Loan Programme, Additions to General Nurses’ Quarters, Bundaberg Hospital, 2 February 1960, in QSA ITM2301364. Conscious of both increased services and ‘the review of working conditions affecting the nursing service’, the Board had hoped for accommodation to meet future demands but this was not approved: Bundaberg Hospitals Board, Annual Report for the year ending 30th June 1963, [p.3].
[125] DB Carlyle and HJ Goodsir were in partnership from 1946, and designed the new Innisfail hospital and the Maryborough Fire Station in 1949, Emmanuel College at the University of Queensland in 1950, Fallon House in Bundaberg for the Australian Workers' Union in 1953, the Queensland Spastic Welfare League building at New Farm in December 1953, and the Bureau of Sugar Experimentation on Gregory Terrace in 1958. Goodsir and Carlyle were part of a group of modernist architects producing functionalist designs often found in hospitals, schools, and offices in the 1950s. The firm later evolved to become Goodsir, Baker and Wilde, and D Wilde acted as supervising architect for the Bundaberg Hospitals Board in the 1970s. Entry on the Queensland Heritage Register, Fallon House (602814); The Bundaberg Hospitals Board, Annual Report for the year ended 30th June 1972, p.5.
[126] Bundaberg News-Mail, 23 November 1963, p.3.
[127] Department of Health and Home Affairs Recommendations, 1963/64 Loan Programme, in QSA ITM2301364.
[128] Application for Inclusion of Works in the 1963/64 Loan Programme, Furniture for additions to nurses’ quarters, Bundaberg Hospital, 11 February 1963, in QSA ITM2301364; QHR application, appendix, p.8.
[129] Application for Inclusion of Works in the 1962/63 Loan Programme, Additions to General Nurses’ Quarters, Bundaberg Hospital, 6 February 1962, in QSA ITM2301364.
[130] The Bundaberg Hospitals Board, Annual Report of the Bundaberg Hospitals Board for the year ended 30th June 1964, [p.3]; building plaque, viewed on DESI site visit, February 2024.
[131] Bundaberg News-Mail, 23 November 1963, p.3.
[132] The Bundaberg Hospitals Board, Annual Report of the Bundaberg Hospitals Board for the year ended 30th June 1965, [p.3].
[133] The Bundaberg Hospitals Board, annual reports for the years ended: 30th June 1973, p.5; 30th June 1974, p.6; 30th June 1975, p.4; 30th June 1976, p.5; 30th June 1978, p.6; 30th June 1980, p.12; 30th June 1981, p.12; and 30th June 1982, p.11.
[134] QGG, Vol. CCLV No. 107, 20 August 1977, p.2100.
[135] Application for inclusion in Loans Programme for the financial year 1953/54, in QSA ITM2301364.
[136] Department of Health to Department of Works, 14 April 1967; Department of Health to Secretary, Hospitals Board, 13 December 1967; and Department of Health to Secretary, Bundaberg Hospitals Board, 11 July 1968, in QSA ITM2301364; The Bundaberg Hospitals Board, Annual Report for the year ended 30th June 1969, p.2.
[137] Department of Health to Department of Works, 3 June 1968, Extract from Treasury Advice of Approved Loan Programme 1969/70; and Order in Council, 14 August 1969, in QSA ITM2301364; The Bundaberg Hospitals Board, annual reports for the years ended: 30th June 1970, p.4; and 30th June 1971, p.4.
[138] Application for Inclusion in of Works in the 1969/70 Loan Programme, in QSA ITM2301364; The Bundaberg Hospitals Board, annual reports for the years ended: 30th June 1972, p.5; and 30th June 1973, p.7.
[139] The Bundaberg Hospitals Board, Annual Report for the year ended 30th June 1980, p.5.
[140] The Bundaberg Hospitals Board, Annual Report for the year ended 30th June 1985, p.[5].
[141] Cook, ‘The Noblest Profession’, 2016.
[142] The Bundaberg Hospitals Board, annual reports for the years ended: 30th June 1970, p.6; and 30th June 1971, p.6.
[143] Blake and Marquis-Kyle, Lady Lamington Nurses’ Home Conservation Management Plan, 2018, pp.25-26.
[144] ‘Nurses rebel over rents’, Bundaberg News-Mail, 8 April 1978, p.1.
[145] ibid.
[146] News-Mail, 1 July 1992, p.6.
[147] Bundaberg Hospitals Board, Annual Report and Financial Statement for the year ended 30th June 1987, [p.4].
[148] Grace Johansen, Women in Central Queensland: a study of three coastal centres, 1940-1965, thesis (PhD), School of Humanities, Central Queensland University, 2002, thesis, p.167; Clare Wright, Beyond the Ladies Lounge, Australia’s female publicans, Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 2003, pp.17,31,35,36,42,51; CAC Leggett, 'Cooper, Lilian Violet (1861–1947)'; John S Jell, 'Hill, Dorothy (1907–1997)'; and Judith M McKay, 'Mayo, Lilian Daphne (1895–1982)', in Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University,  https://adb.anu.edu.au/, accessed May 2024.
[149] Maria Nugent for the Australian Heritage Commission, Women’s Employment and Professionalism in Australia: Histories, Themes and Places, 2002, p.18; Helen Gregory, A Tradition of Care: A History of Nursing at the Royal Brisbane Hospital, Bowen Hills: Boolarong Press, 1988, p.86.
[150] Entry on the Queensland Heritage Register, Brisbane School of Arts, 600072, https://apps.des.qld.gov.au/heritage-register/detail/?id=600072, accessed May 2024; Brisbane City Council Archives, Notes about Cranbrook Former Home West End, 2008, Identifier PO0016. For women deemed to require higher levels of supervision, accommodation and work was provided at charitable institutions such as the Holy Cross Laundry (1889, QHR 600072) and the House of Mercy (1875, QHR 600200). Inmates were intended to earn their living through domestic service on their release: Entries on the Queensland Heritage Register, Holy Cross Laundry, 600072, https://apps.des.qld.gov.au/heritage-register/detail/?id=600359, accessed May 2024; and All Hallows’ Convent and School, 600200, https://apps.des.qld.gov.au/heritage-register/detail/?id=600200, accessed May 2024.
[151] Section 74 of The Health Amendment Act of 1911 required private hospitals to provide ‘proper and sufficient accommodation for the nurses employed therein’, but did not make a similar requirement for public hospitals. It was not until 1921 that all hospitals were required to provide accommodation for nurses.
[152] For women deemed to require higher levels of supervision, accommodation and training was provided at charitable institutions such as the Holy Cross Laundry (1889, QHR 600072) and the Aboriginal Girls’ Home (1899-1906, not extant). Inmates were intended to earn their living through domestic service on their release: Entry on the Queensland Heritage Register, Holy Cross Laundry, 600072, https://apps.des.qld.gov.au/heritage-register/detail/?id=600359, accessed May 2024; Brisbane City Council Archives, Notes about Cranbrook Former Home West End, 2008, Identifier PO0016.
[153] Entry on the Queensland Heritage Register, Bulolo Flats, 602188, https://apps.des.qld.gov.au/heritage-register/detail/?id=602188, accessed May 2024.
[154] Nugent, Women’s Employment and Professionalism in Australia, 2002, p.30.
[155] Gregory, A Tradition of Care, 1988, p.86.
[156] From 1912, the minimum age for nurses to register was 21 years, meaning training could commence at 17 or 18 years old: Gregory, A Tradition of Care, 1988, p.85; QGG, Vol. XCIX, No. 118, 1 November 1912, p.1123; Cook, ‘The Noblest Profession’; Strachan, Labour of love, xvi; Johansen, Women in Central Queensland, 2002, p.181.
[157] Under the 1912 nursing regulations, candidates for nursing examinations were required to submit two certificates of ‘good fame and character’: QGG, Vol. XCIX, No. 118, 1 November 1912, pp.1124-1125. The requirement that a nurse be of good fame and character was carried over into the Nurses and Masseurs Registration Act 1928 (Qld), section 5(3), and the Nurses Act 1964 (Qld), section 18. Consequences for misconduct ranged from reprimands to deregistration (section 22).
[158] Nugent, Women’s Employment and Professionalism in Australia, 2002, p.30.
[159] The provision of comfortable living conditions for nurses had been part of Florence Nightingale’s vision for the profession: Gregory, A Tradition of Care, 1988, p.10. Articles calling for donations to fund nurses’ quarters at Brisbane’s Sick Children’s Hospital in 1919 emphasised the need to provide comfortable living conditions for nurses to keep their strength and health, contrasting their ‘fearless’ nature in their work with their vulnerability to disease and exhaustion: The Telegraph, 11 April 1919, p.4.
[160] Bundaberg Hospital was the only training hospital for general nursing in the region until 1949, when the Bundaberg Mater Hospital was registered as a training hospital. Sectional training began at Gin Gin Hospital around the same time, but nurses could not graduate from Gin Gin without an additional year at Bundaberg or another registered training hospital: ‘Nurse Training to be Stepped Up’, Maryborough Chronicle, 16 November 1948, p.1; QGG, Vol. 172, No. 65, 19 March 1949, p.997; Bundaberg Hospitals Board, Annual Report for the year ended 30th June 1959.
[161] Sarah Keenan, FCNA, Dip.N.Admin., matron of the Bundaberg Hospital 1946-1969, was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in June 1970 for services to nursing; Bundaberg trainee Norma West was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in June 1983 for nursing; and Bundaberg nurse Toni Hoffman was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in June 2007 ‘for service to nursing and to the community through concern for the wellbeing of patients in the public health care system, and advocacy roles to improve standards of medical care’. (Australian Government, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Australian Honours Search Facility, https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/1084430,  https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/1108245, https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/1134744, accessed February 2024).
[162] Bundaberg Hospitals Board, annual reports for 1954-55 and for the years ended: 30th June, 1971, p.3; 30th June, 1977, p.3 (when nursing student Susan Parson placed fourth in the State in the November 1976 examinations); and 30th June, 1979, p.4 (when general nursing student Jennifer Churchward topped the State in the November 1978 examinations); Wallace, From Nanango to Cooktown, 2005, p.89.
[163] Wallace described ‘bush-bred girls from a wide area of the State, from cattle and sheep stations, dairies and farms’ during her time at the nurses’ quarters in the early 1950s: Wallace, From Nanango to Cooktown, 2005, pp.101&103; Townsville Daily Bulletin, 30 September 1938, p.4; Daily Mercury, 23 October 1939, p.5; Maryborough Chronicle, Wide Bay and Burnett Advertiser, 23 January 1941, p.3 and 26 December 1941, p.8.
[164] S Keenan, Matron, ‘Report of the Nursing Services Branch, Bundaberg Hospital’, Bundaberg Hospitals Board, Annual Report 1968-1969, p.5; ‘Farewell for nurses’, Bundaberg News-Mail, Saturday 9 May 1970, p.9.
[165] E.g., Sister Mary Joseph, who, having trained in Bundaberg, nursed in Sydney and the South Solomons (Advocate (Melbourne), 14 August 1946, p.4); Matron Margaret Mitchell, who qualified in Bundaberg, served in World War I and, on returning to Queensland, was appointed matron of hospitals around Queensland until her marriage (Townsville Daily Bulletin, 1 June 1948, p.2); Nurse Ruby Arnell, senior sister of Bundaberg, became matron of Dalby (The Daily Mail, 16 January 1917, p.4); Sister Glennie left Bundaberg in 1929 to take up duties at the Queen Victoria Hospital in Launceston, Tasmania (The Brisbane Courier, 11 May 1929, p.7).
[166] Lyndsay Gardiner, ‘Bell, Jane (1873-1959)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bell-jane-5195/text8737, published first in hardcopy 1979, accessed online 11 December 2023.
[167] Entry on the Queensland Heritage Register, Bundaberg War Nurses Memorial and Park, 600365, https://apps.des.qld.gov.au/heritage-register/detail/?id=600365, accessed May 2024; but also, e.g., The Telegraph, 9 November 1940, p.9.
[168] Margaret O’Meara, deputy matron of the Bundaberg Hospital, was announced as the first Queensland student to undertake post-graduate training at the College of Nursing in 1952: The Northern Miner, 10 April 1952, p.3.
[169] This was true of most communities: Patrick, A History of Health & Medicine in Queensland, 1987, pp.71-72.
[170] E.g., The Bundaberg Mail and Burnett Advertiser, 14 May 1908, p.3 and 26 May 1908, p.3; Bundaberg Daily News and Mail, 17 August 1931, p.6; The Bundaberg Hospitals Board, Annual Report for the year ended 30th June 1973, p.5.
[171] Such as in 1908 (The Bundaberg Mail and Burnett Advertiser, 14 May 1908, p.3, and 26 May 1908, p.3) and 1924 (The Bundaberg Mail, 5 August 1924, p.3). Or against outsiders, such as 1963 defence of the hospital against a Brisbane resident who had stayed there briefly. While the Brisbane man excluded the nursing staff from his criticism, readers of The Bundaberg News-Mail nonetheless rushed to their defence, refuting the man’s claims of untidiness and poor food on the grounds that the matron ‘would not stand’ for such conditions: Bundaberg News-Mail, 2 January 1963, p.5; 4 January 1963, p.4; 7 January 1963, p.5.
[172] The Bundaberg Mail, 20 August 1924, p.6, and 23 August 1924, p.3.
[173] Blake and Marquis-Kyle, Lady Lamington Nurses’ Home Conservation Management Plan, 2018, p.59. The requirement to live and work on site led to the development of a distinctive nursing culture among Queensland’s hospital nurses that reflected the work, moral and traditional elements of the nursing profession, but with practices that were unique to each hospital: Madsen, 'Learning to be a nurse’, 2000, pp.1-3.
[174] ‘Very rarely does the Bundaberg Hospitals Board get through its monthly meeting without having to accept the resignation of one or more of its staff on account of marriage. At the last meeting no fewer than four resignations were received for this reason’: Daily Mercury, 21 March 1941, p.9. Decisions about retaining nurses after marriage were made by hospital board committee (e.g., the Brisbane and South Coast Hospital Board did not allow the employment of married nurses): Strachan, Labour of love, 1996, p.173, but very few hospital boards would accept married nurses: Gregory, A Tradition of Care, 1988, p.86. In 1951 the Bundaberg Hospitals Board decided to replace its married female staff with single women, though women deserted by their husbands would be considered single for the purpose of the policy: Sandra Godwin and Letea Cavander (eds), Bundaberg in Print: 110 years of news, Bundaberg: News-Mail, 2009, p.[106]. Male nurses were not engaged at public hospitals (other than Greenslopes repatriation hospital) until the late 1970s (Patrick, A History of Health and Medicine in Queensland, 1987, p.286), when nurses were allowed to reside off the hospital site; a male nursing student was first noted in the Bundaberg Hospital annual report in 1988: GE Goodman, Director of Nursing, ‘Nursing – Bundaberg’, The Bundaberg Hospitals Board, Annual Report and Financial Statement for the year ended 30th June, 1988, p.[6].
[175] Bundaberg News-Mail, 21 May 1943, p.2.
[176] The nurses’ quarters were not the only educational space on the hospital site: the former domestic quarters were converted into the school of nursing (Thom Blake, Michael Kennedy, Margaret Pullar in association with Robert Riddel Architect, Queensland Health Heritage Survey, Vol. 2, 1996, WB07/7) but removed from the site c.1997 (aerial images QAP5224173, 13 April 1994; QAP5467143, 24 July 1996; QAP5637102, 1998).
[177] E.g., Nurses sitting on the stairs to a hospital in Bundaberg, ca. 1928, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, negative number 200461; Nurses at Bundaberg Base Hospital 1945, Bundaberg Regional Library BRN190572, supplied with QHR application. Groups of nurses at and around the nurses’ quarters in the 1930s, 1950s, 1960s and 1990s have been shared on Facebook pages (Bundaberg Remember When and Bundaberg Regional Heritage Group, accessed January 2024).
[178] Johansen, Women in Central Queensland, 2002, pp.183-184.
[179] Ultimately the nurses withdrew their resignations to avoid embarrassing the Hospital Board, but earned community support for their show of spirit. The Bundaberg Mail, 13 August 1924, p.4, and 28 August 1924, p.8.
[180] The Bundaberg Hospitals Board, Annual Report for the year ended 30th June 1988, p.[3].
[181] News-Mail, 1 July 1992, p.6.
[182] University of Queensland Rural Clinical School, ‘Our History,’ https://rcs.medicine.uq.edu.au/our-history, accessed January 2024.
[183] A 30-year reunion was also held in 1975: Bundaberg Remember When Facebook page, accessed February 2024.
[184] Jodie van de Wetering, ‘Beneath the veil: Bundy nurses prepare for reunion’, ABC Local Radio, 29 April 2011, https://www.ab.net.au/local/audio/2011/04/29/3203882.htm?site=local, accessed 17 November 2023.
[185] ‘Nurses get together to recollect days gone by’, News-Mail, 13 May 2011, p.4.
[186] Carolyn Archer, ‘Nurses reunion a hit’, News-Mail, 4 May 2012, p.2; Jim Alouat, ‘Healthy vision shared’, News-Mail, 3 May 2013, p.4.
[187] Attendees from Townsville, Mt Isa, Cairns, Western Australia, and Victoria were reported in 2012: Christina Ongley, ‘Nurses gather’, News-Mail, 3 May 2012, p.6.
[188] CQUniNEWS Archive, 'Students Celebrate International Nurses Day in Bundaberg', 9 May 2013, https://uninewsarchive.cqu.edu.au/uninews.cqu.edu.au/UniNews/viewStoryb7f5.html?story=10635, accessed March 2024.

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