Shaping Our Identity: Health & Welfare

Dr. Von Lossberg
Dr. Von Lossberg at times rode long distances on horseback to attend patients. He made one such trip to a cattle station 100km away to amputate the arm of a stockman. He performed the operation and tried to return but became lost in the bush after his horse became caught in quicksand. He was lost for five days without food and was writing farewell letters to his family when he was found by an aboriginal man who brought help.

Dr. Kevin Izod O'Doherty
Kevin O'Doherty, a member of the Young Ireland Party was transported to Van Diemen's Land for ten years, charged with treason-felony. He came to Queensland with his wife and children in 1862 and set up a practice in Ipswich.

Discover more about the Convict Doctor on the Ipswich Hospital Museum website.

Visiting Doctors
In the early years, visiting specialists sometimes came to Ipswich eg in 1864, Dr. Berncastle of London, Surgeon, Occulist and Aurist advertised that he would visit Ipswich for five days in December and could be consulted on "all Diseases of the Eye and Ear, on all afflictions of the Chest and on all other Medial and Surgical cases." Dr. Berncastle then went on to Brisbane and Rockhampton.

Hospitals
Ipswich once had many private hospitals. Medicine was simple and setting up a small hospital was not the huge expense it would be today. Several doctors set up their own hospital. The QCWA Rest Home in Milford Street was once a private Hospital owned by Dr. Brown, while Carrington Guest House in Roderick Street was once St Mary's Hospital run by Dr. Flynn. 

Most babies were born in small private maternity hospitals run by a capable nurse.

Ipswich Hospital was built in 1859 and accepted its first patient in 1860.

Ipswich Hospital's First Matron and first patient
The following information has been reproduced with permission form the Ipswich Hospital Museum who published the article in the first newsletter "Museum Matters".

First Hospital

Ipswich Hospital’s first matron was Miss Ellen (Ellenor) Raymond when it opened on March 3, 1860.

Miss Raymond was born in Riverstown, County Westmeath in Ireland and was baptised on 21st May 1825. She was fifth of eleven children (seven brothers and three sisters) to John and Ellen Raymond. She was educated at Killucan School near her home and commenced employment in domestic service where she worked herself up to being the housekeeper and manager of the home of a wealthy family in Northern Ireland earning £10 per year.

Miss Raymond was invited by her brother, Robert Raymond, who was a prominent Ipswich citizen, to come to Australia and take up the position of Matron of the brand new Ipswich Hospital. She arrived in Queensland on November 25, 1859 on board the Shackamaxon with her brother, James, and sister, Eliza. Three more of her siblings followed these pioneers to Australia at a later date.

Ellen had no previous nursing experience. Nursing training was just in its fledgling years in London at the time. Her responsibilities included the day to day running of the hospital, the recruitment and retention of staff, personnel management, purchasing of consumables and the management of patient care, as well as the hospital garden and farm animals e.g. poultry, cow and pigs. She was responsible for all hospital staff other than the Resident Dispenser and the doctors. She reported to the Ipswich Hospital Committee. She earned £50 per year.

In 1865 she contracted typhoid fever from one of her patients and died 5 days later on December 30, 1865 at the age of 40 years.

First patient
Thomas Tindale Makepeace was the Ipswich Hospital’s first patient. Mr. Makepeace was admitted the day after the official opening on March 3, 1860. Mr. Makepeace was born in northern England in 1823. He travelled with his wife Hannah and their three children to Australia in September 1856 on board the “Morning Light”.

Thomas found work at the Riverside Colliery, at Moggill, managed by his brother-in-law, until it closed. Thomas was working at the Redbank Coalmines at the time of his admission.

After losing his leg in a mining accident, Thomas turned his hand to farming. Thomas died on September 7, 1911 and is buried in the Moggill Cemetery.

The second edition of Museum Matters included an interesting article about early epidemics in Ipswich.

Matron Raymond died of fever in the summer of 1863 while nursing fever patients.

Providing accommodation for fever patients was a problem at the original Hospital in 1860s. 37 beds in 3 wards in the main hospital building did not provide effective isolation, so in 1863 a detached cottage with two large well ventilated rooms was erected for fever patients.

When a fever epidemic occurred that summer, this ward had been diverted to house female patients. The Hospital Committee urgently petitioned the Colonial Government for £500 to build a fever ward, and to request the loan of 3 to 6 large military tents.

Tents were provided later in the 1860s as emergency accommodation in epidemics. (Sick with fever, in a canvas tent, in an Ipswich summer, is not a pleasant prospect) There were further entreaties to the government for funds: including “four cases of typhoid fever”; “a case of cholera was reported”; “there is now a patient under treatment for typhoid fever who from want of proper accommodation is kept on the stair landing”.

In 1872 a vote for £300 for a fever ward was in the Government Estimates. A fever ward costing £400 was completed.

Chemist Shops
Ipswich had several chemists or "apothecaries" as they were once known. They mixed up medicines ordered by doctors from basic ingredients.

Some books dating from 1866 have been preserved from an Ipswich chemist shop. They record the prescriptions ordered for patients, eg Master William Panton of Claremont must have had a bad cold because the doctor ordered a cough mixture with a honey mixture for sore throat. Later, he was given a tonic containing iron to build him up.

Dentists
Dentists were advertising in the local newspapers from the early years eg in 1863, Mr. Wilson, Surgeon Dentist, advertised that he would visit to Ipswich on the last Monday and Tuesday each month. He could be consulted at Tattersall's Hotel.

In 1866, M. H. Long of "The Medical Hall Ipswich" advertised that "M. H. Long, Surgeon Dentist, extracts teeth with the most approved instruments obtainable. M.H.L's Fifteen Years' experience in the profession is a sufficient guarantee to those entrusting themselves to his care, that they will be satisfied with his treatment. Stumps extracted with slight pain."

Diseases
There were many fevers and diseases in early Ipswich which were once considered very serious but which no longer affect the community.

One of the worst diseases was typhoid, transmitted by contaminated food or water. Its symptoms are high temperature, sweating and red spots on the chest and abdomen. Today, it is treatable and usually not very serious, but it used to be highly infectious, extremely serious and often fatal.

When this terrible disease broke out in the closed environment of a ship, many people died. Ships sometimes arrived in Australia still carrying typhoid and were then placed in quarantine at the mouth of the Brisbane River.

In October 1866, some German immigrants, mainly young women, arrived in Ipswich and were sent to the immigration depot at North Ipswich. It was then discovered that there had been typhoid aboard the ship. The authorities burned all clothing and belongings of the immigrants to try to prevent the spread of the disease. The poor immigrants were very upset to have lost everything just as they arrived.