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September 6, 2001

Overland Australia - Update 38

Adelaide House-The first hospital in Central Australia

The building of the first outpost Bush hospital, a “Place for People in Central Australia”, began in January, 1913, the vision of Rev. John Flynn, from Moliagul in Victoria. Flynn’s story of the need for a medical facility in the remote locations of the Outback, prompted a group of Presbyterian children to raise over $1000 toward its completion.

Standing in the doorway of the stone structure, which was completed in 1926, gives a perspective of the project that was undertaken. Preservation of the building as a museum pays tribute to the extraordinary vision of its founder, the architectural design and engineering of its builders, and the selfless toil of the nurses who tended to the populations in the remote areas. The letter I read from a settler on the Finke River to Flynn stated the concerns at the absence of medical help:

“We have been married 11 years and got six children in family. Our first born was a girl…next was a boy born at Charlotte Waters N T where there was no doctor or nurse…I had to do everything myself…The next born was a girl…the wife had to travel 150km…the next was a boy…I had to do everything myself…A man in the bush country with a wife and family deserves a lot of consideration where there are no doctors, nurses, or schools. All we have to help us is medical books…I am only a poor man pulling hard against the stream”

Construction of the hospital was no easy task. World War I was in full swing and fund raising efforts were difficult. By April, 1920, work began on the stone structure. Jack Williams, builder of the local ‘gaol’ (jail) had quarried his own stone and burned the lime for the mortar which formed the foundation and walls. His supply problem was the absence of timber and iron needed as supports for the windows and doors. Sections of the old Ghan railroad line were transported by camels to the Alice for use in the cellar walls. Timber was carted from Oodnadatta by the first available wagon team. Experienced carpenters from Adelaide who could complete the great roof span for the hospital and engine room were commissioned to complete the structure.

Knowing the 1920s was a time period of drought, I was curious to know how patients withstood the heat in the building, which had to be closed up mid day to combat dusty conditions. “Flynn consulted a well known ventilation expert,” the museum guide explained. “The cooling air entered the cellar via a two meter high tunnel under the floor. A zig-zag arrangement of sacking suspended from the roof of the tunnel, to be kept wet in hot weather, cooled the air and filtered out the dust…It was drawn through stone ducts into the wards and evacuated out by convection…through the lantern roof above.” An efficient design, the Architectural Science Unit of the University of Queensland has restored the cooling system to test its suitability for adaption in the hot dry areas of Australia.

In November, 1926, the first successful field radio transmission of a telegram was sent in Australia from the Hermannsberg Mission to Alice, then via Overland Telegraph to Tanunda. The technology to accomplish this came from Rev. Flynn’s partner, Alf Traeger, creator of the Pedal Radio, which was utilized at Adelaide House. This unique device incorporated bicycle pedals to create the power source for transmission. “Hmmm, human powered by bicycle pedals,” I’m thinking! And, all of this from the Engine Room constructed to create power for the hospital as well!

The Bush was no longer completely isolated as a new era had been ushered in. Medical safety and social development through the use of the two-way radio for communication, a field hospital to aid those in medical need, and the newly formed Flying Doctors Service, to administer to emergency cases in the Bush, fulfilled John Flynn’s dream of creating “A Place for People.”

April

Posted on September 6, 2001 2:54 PM