A New Hospital announced – 16 September 1866

If you were ill or injured in Brisbane Town between 1842 and 1866, this was the place you went. A relic of the convict settlement, it opened its doors under Dr Henry Cowper, and was stewarded into free settlement by Doctors Kinnear Robertson, David Ballow and Stephen Simpson.

By 1860, as the picture shows, the place was run-down and inadequate to the needs of the growing population.The announcement in the Brisbane Courier of the new building could not come soon enough.

NEW GENERAL HOSPITAL.
The superstructure of this building is about to be erected from designs and under the direction of Mr. C. Tiffin, Colonial Architect. The buildings at present to be erected are comprised of four wards, each capable of accommodating about fifty patients, with all the necessary bath and washing-rooms and store-rooms, wardsmen’s quarters, &c, with a ventilating tower upon the wards, which will be an effective feature of the building. There will also be the board and secretary’s-rooms, surgery, and surgeon’s residence, which form the centre part of the intended facade, which will, when finished, be about four hundred feet in length of different heights, and a broken front line, which will give an excellent architectural effect to the whole.
The building will be entirely of dressed stone, and on such an advantageous situation as will show at first sight the property of the choice of position, and the good taste of the architect. The terrace in front will give accommodation to the patients so far recovered as to be able to enjoy a walk in the open air. And, with the beautiful grounds of the Acclimatisation Society, with all its interesting objects immediately and constantly before them, the situation is not only healthful, but very pleasant.
The contract for the superstructure has been given to Mr. William Robertson, who had the previous contract, the amount being £14,414 – a preference of about £700 having been given to Mr. Robertson, on account of the satisfactory manner in which he carried out the works of the first contract. The buildings are to be completed and ready for occupation by the 1st of December 1866, and, from the spirited manner in which the works done were carried out, there is every reason to believe that the patients will have their Christmas dinner of next year in the new building.

Brisbane Courier (Qld.: 1864 – 1933), Saturday 16 September 1865, page 6