Becoming A City: Health & Welfare

In the early 20th century, medicine was made up from basic ingredients by the local chemist and they probably had great faith in Mr. Hudson’s Eumenthol Jujubes – his chemist shop was in Brisbane Street although he later moved to Sydney.

In 1901, Eleanor Greenham became the first Queensland-born woman to be registered as a medical practitioner. The daughter of a successful local businessman, Eleanor had been the first student to enroll at Ipswich Girls Grammar School when it opened in 1892. In 1895, she entered the University of Sydney (there was no university in Queensland at that time) and graduated in early 1901. She returned to Queensland and was appointed as a Resident at the Lady Bowen Hospital in Brisbane. She later started a private practice in Brisbane and continued to work until the age of 80. A bronze bust of Eleanor Greenham was presented to IGGS in 1992 to mark the centenary of the school. Eleanor was not the first woman doctor to practise in Queensland. This honour belongs to Dr. Lillian Cooper. Born in England, she had graduated from the London School of Medicine for Women and set up in practise in Brisbane in 1891.

"In 1904, Ipswich was well-served by the Ipswich Hospital which had opened in 1860 after considerable community fundraising. The hospital continued to be maintained by the community; it obtained funds from regular donations and fundraising events including an annual collection. This money raised locally was then augmented by a Government subsidy and by special grants. Several new wards were added in the early years of the century including a second storey to the Children’s Hospital and new wings in 1913 and 1916.

Several private hospitals opened in this period. Dr. Flynn started St Mary’s Hospital in Roderick Street in May 1906. It catered for 12 patients and had its own operating room and dispensary. The building which still exists was designed by architect Henry Wyman and built by Con Madden. Matron Isambert and Nurse England were in charge, while Dr. Flynn lived nearby in “Marymount” (now the site of Villa Maria). In 1904, Dr. John Alexander Cameron set up a surgery on the corner of Roderick and Pring streets. By 1909, he had established a cottage hospital there and named it “St Andrew’s”. By 1909, he had established a cottage hospital there and named it “St Andrew’s”. The first matron was Miss Louisa Wilde, a trained nurse from Yorkshire, later assisted by Miss Edith Pedley and Miss G. Humphreys (midwifery). Dr. Cameron was later joined by Basil Hart and cousins Mervyn Patterson and Benjamin Gilmore Wilson. This eventually evolved into a major private hospital which still exists on the same site". [1]

First female doctor at Ipswich Hospital
Ipswich Hospital's first female doctor was Alice Kirke. Her father was a Presbyterian minister and there were medical practitioners in her family.

Born Alice Miles in Biggar, Lanarkshire, Scotland in 1877, she attended Queen’s School in Edinburgh before studying medicine at Glasgow University. She started her medical practice at Stone in Staffordshire and was then assistant medical officer at the Liverpool City Mission. She immigrated to Australia in 1903 to join her fiancé, George Kinloch Kirke, a Presbyterian minister. They married in Gin Gin in December 1903. The officiating minister was George’s brother, James. George was transferred to Townsville and they had four sons - George, Alexander, William (Robert) and David.

In 1918 the Kirke’s were called to Ipswich and Alice was appointed assistant medical officer. She was closely associated with her husband’s work as pastor of St Stephen’s Church. She practised in Ipswich for 20 years including working with Dr. Edward Elmslie Brown who operated a private hospital, Oakdale. She had a rough introduction to work at Ipswich Hospital with the outbreak of the Spanish Influenza. She developed the illness herself in 1919 along with six of her medical colleagues—Drs J. A. Cameron, Mervyn Patterson, E .J. O’Keefe, John Flynn (who died from the flu), Dr. Roper, and the hospital’s superintendent, Dr. Gilmore Wilson. Former Medical Superintendent, Dr. Phillip Thornton, came our of retirement to act as Medical Superintendent until Dr. Wilson recovered.

A breakdown in her health was followed by a trip back to Scotland. Rev Kirke was called to Wynnum, a parish that enveloped four churches. Alice organised several women and girl’s organisation. George was then called to Bardon but Alice died in March 1941 at the age of 64 before they started work there.

Dr. Kirke was still acting as a consultant until shortly before her death. [2]

High death toll as Spanish Flu arrives
One of the most serious consequences of World War I was the outbreak of Spanish or Pneumonic Flu which spread around the world as soldiers returned home. It killed 20 million people – more than the war itself. The ships coming home to Australia docked first in the southern ports and this is where the flu began in January 1919. As deaths began to occur in Australia, the Government took the decisive step of closing the border between Queensland and New South Wales. Quarantine camps were set up and police were sent to enforce the regulations.

The Ipswich Vice-Regal Band and some of its supporters had just attended a national band competition in Sydney where they had won the championship. On their way home on January 29, they were caught by the border closure and spent two weeks in a camp at Tenterfield Showground along with local member of parliament Frank Cooper and about 600 other people. [3]