Newsletter December 2011 President’s Report Elections for the positions on the ACHHA Manage- be an invitation for nurses to write short anecdotal ment committee were held in October, and the new stories of experiences they may have had with re- committee structure can be found elsewhere in this gards hospital training or experiences of living in newsletter. My congratulations and welcome to Nurses’ Quarters. Relevant stories will appear in members of the new committee. this Newsletter, and copies will be kept at the Mu- seum. I continue as President, and I thank members for again electing me for a further year. It is more School tours continued through out this quarter, fulfilling if belonging to an organisation, to be in- guided by members of the committee. There is a volved in the overall management, and I appreciate need for more volunteers to help on these days, as this ongoing opportunity afforded me. the groups can be large, and at least three people are needed for the guiding. Please let me, or anoth- Through personal and work commitments, Debbie er member know if able to assist. has elected not to seek nomination again this year. I thank Debbie for her input over the past years, and The favourable and enthusiastic Comments in our welcome her offer to continue in the role of Cura- Visitors Book indicate that the Hospital Museum is tor, and to continue working on the school tour pro- more than appreciated by the Visitors, and adds to ject. With Debbie and Lorraine as Curators and the satisfaction of all that are involved in its Yvonne as Archivist, the collection is in safe hands. progress. I welcome Nancy Crapp to the ACHHA committee as My best wishes go to all ACHHA Members, families our new member. Nancy’s main area of interest is and friends for much happiness and health over the Operating Theatre, an area of great interest to Christmas and during 2012, and continued involve- visitors. ment in ACHHA. The Committee has received the much awaited Sig- Norma West nificance Assessment document which identifies President and groups all collections and sub collections and rates their significance in Historical terms. This doc- Did you know? ument will be used in our future planning as a basis That the first meeting of the Rockhampton to value add to the collections. Hospitals Board took place at 2:30 pm on Monday 23rd November 1925 in the School of Arts building. Our last meeting for the year in early December is to This is where your management committee be a planning meeting where needs and funding will normally meets each month. be identified. The emphasis at the moment is in the Archive area, and there is much to be done in The Board took charge of the General Hospital, the sorting and recording of documents and photos. Women’s Hospital, the Children’s Hospital, the Yeppoon Hospital and the Emu Park Convalescent th A date claimer for 2012 is the 12 May. This is In- Home and rapidly set about moving all Rockhamp- ternational Nurses Day, and an exciting program is ton facilities to the Canning & North Street site. already being planned. Part of this celebration will ‘Dedicated to preserving the health service history of Central Queensland’ ACHHA Newsletter December 2011 Page 2 Significance Assessment of the Collection Reports from 1873 onwards which are in all like- Perhaps the most important activity undertaken by lihood the only ones in existence, over 2000 the Association this year has been the significance pieces of medical and surgical equipment and assessment of the collection. This was made possi- around 400 glass plate slides depicting anatom- ble by a $4,400 Community Heritage Grant from ical images used in training. the National Library of Australia. In “academic” The stored collections are in a dry, clean envi- terms, a significance assessment may be described ronment with conditions monitored regularly. as follows:1 Archival materials are used to house the collec- “The process of studying and understanding the tion and lighting levels are controlled. Displayed meanings and values of an item or collection, material is exhibited thematically and any po- enabling sound and reasoned statements and tentially hazardous medical equipment is not judgements about the importance of items and accessible by visitors. All objects are in the pro- collections, and their meanings for communi- cess of being catalogued and entered onto an ties. The outcomes of a significance assessment electronic database. should guide decisions made about the man- The collection is of historic significance because agement of an item or collection into the of its links to prominent health care profession- future.” als in Central Queensland and its documentary The National Library provides funding to enable an evidence of regional health care services organization to employ an outside person to carry throughout Australia. The extensive archives out the process. In our case, the assessment was offer immense research potential into key indus- conducted by Ms Bronwyn Roper, the Central try groups as well as changes to the manage- Queensland Museum Development Officer for the ment and delivery of services in regional areas. Queensland Museum, who worked closely with our The collection is also of social significance to the Archivist Mrs Yvonne Kelley. The overall signifi- local nursing fraternity to utilise the uniform cance assessment document which has been for- collection annually for International Nurses Day. warded to the National Library is 37 pages in The collection demonstrates provenance with length. Here we reproduce the one page Executive clear ownership of the majority of objects docu- Summary for the information of our members. mented. The collection also holds rare items and “The Australian Country Hospital Heritage Asso- groups of items such as the Both Artificial Respi- ciation collection consists of archival and three- rator, of which only 800 were made by Lord dimensional objects which document the history Nuffield’s Morris Car Company in Britain and of Rockhampton Hospitals, the history of nurse distributed amongst the Commonwealth coun- training in Central Queensland and the history tries. The collection in its entirety is representa- of regional and rural health care service delivery tive of regional health care especially country throughout Australia. hospitals. The Collection is in excellent condition The majority of the collection is housed in the due to the professional administration of the former Mt Morgan Nurses Quarters which has volunteers and has immense interpretive poten- been relocated to the Rockhampton Heritage tial for future projects by the group.” Village, a site owned and operated by the Rock- Yvonne has commented that explaining the collec- hampton Regional Council. The collection is tion to a person outside our organization has as- managed by an executive committee and group sisted in developing her thinking about future man- of dedicated volunteers who form The Australi- agement and documentation of the collection. We an Country Hospital Heritage Association. express our appreciation to both Yvonne and Bron- The volunteer group consists of current and for- wyn for their efforts in completing the assessment. mer health care professionals. The focussed 1. Russell, Roslyn, Winkworth, Kylie. 2010. collection consists of between 8000 and 10,000 ‘Significance 2.0: A Guide to Assessing the Signifi- archival records, around 3000 photographs of cance of Collections’ accessed at <http:// building and personnel, over 100 oral history www.environment.gov.au/heritage/publications/ interviews with health care professionals, more significance2-0/glossary.html> on 30 Nov 2011. than 50 rare and original uniforms dating back to 1918, a set of Rockhampton Hospital Annual ‘‘Dedicated to preserving the health service history of Central Queensland’ ACHHA Newsletter December 2011 Page 3 From the Archives These two short stories from our Country Hospital Museum archives give us a glimpse of the way things were in 1949 – sixty-two years ago. Both stories were written in the 1980’s as part of Yvonne Kelley’s efforts to document early events in our The President and members hospitals. of the ACHHA Management Committee The first story, “Back in 1949” was written by Mrs wish all of our members Viv Schneider, the Rockhampton Hospital’s Domes- and volunteers tic Supervisor, in August 1983. It provides an insight a very Happy Christmas and into conditions in the original Rockhampton Hospital good health and prosperity buildings as they were in 1949. Viv writes: throughout 2012. We look forward to your visits “All wards had wooden floors and the girls had to to our Museum get down on their hands and knees and scrub the and your on-going support floors with sand soap, as there were no fancy with the continuing task detergents to use, the only solution used was of developing what is already an excellent resource both for our Lysol or Dettol. The floors were washed every region and the wider Australian day with a mop and bucket of water and you had and International Communities. to wring the mop out by hand. Mop buckets did- n't come in for over ten years or so after. The ward girls all worked broken shifts as they had to come back at night and get tea and wash up for two wards, sometimes there would be 60 people to wash up for and all done by hand. Where A & E is now, Ward 1 men’s ward, all acci- Association Membership dents were also brought in there. Ward 2 was women's ward and used for the same purpose, The Association welcomes your support for our ac- tivities. The Association operates on a normal finan- both for accidents and other sick people. cial year, so that subscriptions are now due for the The Nurses’ Quarters were huts that the Ameri- 2011/2012 year.