Foundations of Care: Women Who Started Private Hospitals in Queensland

Dr Joanne Dolley - 2025 Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame Fellow.

Were you or a relative delivered by a midwife in a private hospital? Private hospitals owned and operated by nurses or midwives, were common throughout Queensland from the late 1800s to the mid-1900s. They were usually small maternity hospitals, sometimes known as “lying-in” hospitals, established by a nurse or pair of nurses in their own home, or a purposely purchased house converted to a hospital.

In the early 1800’s, as immigrant women moved to rural and remote areas of Queensland, they were often isolated and sought local help for childbirth.  A debt of gratitude is owed to Aboriginal women where, “away from the bigger towns, settler’s wives sometimes turned to Indigenous Women for their knowledge of pregnancy and childbirth” (1).  New settler women with some knowledge of childbirth started providing private midwifery services, though assisting with births at that time required little by way of formal qualification. Annie Myria Harlow (pictured below) assisted with childbirth in the Blackall district around the turn of the 20th century.(2) Annie would have been a welcome sight arriving on horseback. 

There were well over 100 private hospitals listed in the 1929 Queensland Post Office Directory (3), many of which were established by nurses and midwives throughout Queensland between the late 1800’s and the 1960’s. This is a brief outline of 10 such hospitals located on the map below. 

Cairns

Herries Private Hospital, situated at 180 McLeod Street, Cairns, was owned by nurse and midwife Janet Abercombie Herries, who ran it as a private hospital from 1921 to 1938 (4). The hospital could house about 10 patients. Clientele came not only from Cairns, but also further afield on the Tablelands, including Herberton and Mount Garnet. Local historian, Trisha Fielding (5), remarked that Matron Herries was a “tenacious businesswoman” and gave an example of her pursuing payment for services (6). The hospital closed when Matron Herries retired in 1939, but the family continued living there until the death of her last surviving son in 1996. The building has weathered several cyclones including one that blew the roof into the cemetery across the road. The heritage listing for this building notes that many of Cairns' older residents who were born there remember Matron Herries' hospital with affection.

Townsville

Lister Private Hospital, 11 Fryer Street, Townsville operated for approximately 10 years. In 1916, the Fryer Street house was leased to Matron Katherine Terry, who converted it into the Nestle Private Hospital. It was renamed Lister Private Hospital by 1919 (7). In 1926, Rooneys Ltd sold the property, which coincides with its conversion to Lister Flats. The building was originally and now known as Yongala Lodge.

Bowen, Palm Cottage Private Hospital

Nurse Louisa Amy Willcox Field established Palm Cottage Private Hospital in Bowen in 1908 and it operated until 1936.  Nurse Field’s nursing and midwife services were gratefully received by their local residents as expressed in her obituary: “Night after night she has spent at the bedside of a patient, - presenting a smiling face to the world by day. Noble, courageous, she has given unstintingly of herself in the service of suffering humanity. Brave spirit! The mothers of Bowen salute you." (9)

If you would like to know more about North Queensland midwifery, you might enjoy Trisha Fielding’s 2019 book, Neither mischievous nor meddlesome: the remarkable lives of North Queensland’s independent midwives 1890-1940 .

Mackay

Ormond Private Hospital, on the corner of Brisbane and Gordon Street, Mackay opened for patients in 1911. The hospital was sold after World War I to the Iwers sisters, who were nurses. They ran the hospital for nearly a decade. In 1927, it was sold to the Sisters of Mercy of the Rockhampton Diocese and they renamed it as Mackay Mater Misericordiae Hospital.

Maryborough

Maryborough had several lying-in hospitals established my women, one of which was St Mary’s Hospital, on the corner of John and Sussex Streets. St Mary’s was originally established by Dr. H. C. Garde in 1905, then owned by his nephew, Lee Garde, in 1914. Miss SS Francis had been the Matron at St Mary’s since 1923 and in 1928, she and her sisters purchased the hospital. A year after their purchase, they added a second story to be a maternity wing and childcare centre. From 1927 it was also a training hospital. The image below is of Dr. Garde’s house that he had commissioned, which was later used by the Francis sisters as their home and staff quarters (14). In 1946 the St Stephen’s Presbyterian Church took over running the hospital and renamed it St Stephen’s Private Hospital (15).

For a fascinating history of regional healthcare, take some time to visit the Wide Bay Hospital Museum at 36 Yaralla St, Maryborough. 

Sunshine Coast – Nambour

2/10th Australian General Hospital (AGH) colleagues, Sister Christian Oxley & Sister Dorothy Ralston established Selangor Private Hospital (17) in 1947. The name of the hospital originates from Sister Oxley’s time as a prisoner of war in Selangor war camp, Malaya from 1941 to 1945.  The war veteran nurses funded the hospital by a combination of a war service loan and personal savings. They purchased war-disposal equipment to set up small wards, an operating theatre and labour ward in the large house with two extensions. The building had nurses’ quarters underneath. 

Chris and Dorothy are pictured in this group portrait in the hospital grounds of the 2/10th Australian General Hospital (AGH) in Malacca, Malaya. The group of Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) staff and three physiotherapists sailed from Sydney in January 1941. (18)

Selangor Private Hospital was originally located in Currie Street, then Netherton Street, Nambour. It catered to maternity and general patients including veterans. The Selangor Private Hospital still exists today, albeit in a new building officially opened in 1960. (19)

Brisbane

In 1929, it is reported by the Heritage Department that there were approximately 60 small private hospitals operating in Brisbane. Many of these were owned and run by women. Aurelia Private Hospital in Barker Street, New Farm was one example. Matron M. J. Austin established this as a Private Maternity Hospital around 1925 and it was still listed as a hospital in the 1941 Queensland Post Office Directory. After Aurelia’s time as a hospital, it was converted to a guest house, but sadly the building was later demolished. 

The owner, Matron Austin, completed her midwife training in 1918 at the Lady Bowen Lying-In Hospital on Wickham Tce, Brisbane. (20)

Toowoomba

St Andrew’s Private Hospital in Toowoomba was owned by Matron L. Barrett. It was reported in the Cairns Post (22) in 1945, that Matron Barrett claimed that she had to cancel approximately 100 advance maternity bookings because the war-time Man-Power Authority had sent too many of her trained nurses to public hospitals. The hospital closed on June 30th, 1945 because of the difficulty finding nursing staff. 

There were a number of private hospitals in Toowoomba. For example, St Vincent’s Private Hospital was established in 1922 by the Sisters of Charity, supported by donations from the local community, and it still continues. (23)

Chinchilla

Granny Gaske and Granny Sommerfieldt are remembered in Chinchilla history as midwives who helped bring babies into the world in the late 1800’s. (24) In 1906, Chinchilla local history indicates that Nurse J. Fitzgerald rode her horse to maternity cases. By 1910, she started a maternity hospital in Hypatia Street, Chinchilla. This photograph from 1910 includes nurses with babies on the veranda of the hospital.   

Although the closing date is unknown, Nurse Fitzgerald was still listed in the “Private Hospital” section of the 1936 Post Office Directory. Nurse Fitzgerald was affectionally remembered for her good works with a plaque installed in the Catholic section of the local cemetery. 

Stanthorpe

Margaret Allison (nee Dunkeld), an immigrant from Scotland, inherited commercial properties in the Stanthorpe area when her husband died in 1890. Margaret used her resources to have Kyoomba Sanatorium built on land she owned between Stanthorpe and Sugarloaf. The first doctor to lease the hospital was Dr Helen Shaw. (27)  Kyoomba operated from 1908 as a private hospital until soldiers began returning from the front during World War 1. With so many returned soldiers suffering the effects of gas attacks in the trenches and/or suffering from tuberculosis (TB), Margaret made her Sanatorium available to the Red Cross. Later the Commonwealth took over management of and the hospital and it became known as  ‘Stanthorpe Military Sanatorium’ and Margaret sold the property to the Commonwealth Department of Defence.

The Rise and Fall of Women’s Hospitals

The rise of small private hospitals owned by women, mainly centred on maternity services. This form of health care business flourished in the early 1900’s, responding to a need at the time. Records of hospitals become clearer with the 1911 Queensland legislation stating that all hospitals should be registered by a qualified doctor or nurse with their local city council. 

In 1922, the Labor Government of Queensland passed the 1922 Maternity Act that provided for the establishment of government maternity hospitals and baby clinics in urban and rural Queensland for the use of both public and private patients. 

The decline in number of Lying-in hospitals may be due to the provision of government maternity hospitals throughout the state by the end of the 1930s (33). “By the end of World War II, 67% of Queensland births were in public maternity beds” (34).  A great service was provided by nurses and midwives at a time when state provision did not exist.  History shows that the nursing and midwife services of these enterprising women were gratefully received by their local residents, as demonstrated by notices of thanks in newspapers and in oral history mentions of the midwife who delivered them or their children. 

More information

For those who want to find out more about the Australian history of midwifery, the Australian College of Midwives’ ‘Midwifery History Project Group’ have created a resource at: https://australianmidwiferyhistory.org.au/

This blog is a work in progress, compiled mainly from State Library and State Archive resources, local history groups and heritage records. Please add your comments if you have any stories of your local private hospital or midwife history. If you have information or material that the State Library may consider for their catalogue, you would be most welcome to contact: qldmemory@slq.qld.gov.au.

Dr Joanne Dolley
2025 Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame Fellow
The Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame Fellowship  is generously supported by the John Allpass Charitable Foundation.

Read other blogs by Dr Joanne Dolley:

• Hair Salons to Hospitals – Histories of Queensland Businesswomen
• Capturing History: Women-owned Photographic Studios at the Turn of the 20th Century

References

1. Nurses of Australia. The Illustrated Story (2018). Burrows, D. NLA Publishing. P123.
2. Midwife sitting side saddle on a horse at Blackall, Queensland, ca.1900. John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Negative number: 143084.
3. Wise’s Directories author compiler & Archive Digital Books Australasia issuing body (2011) Queensland post office directory 1929. Modbury, South Australia: Archive Digital Books Australasia.
4. Herries Private Hospital, Queensland Heritage Register, 602137, updated 22 April 2025.
5. Fielding, Trisha (8 January 2015). "North Queensland History: Herries' Private Hospital - Cairns". North Queensland History. https://northqueenslandhistory.blogspot.com/2015/01/herries-private-hospital-cairns.html  Retrieved 12 August, 2025.
6. Fielding, Trisha (8 January 2015). "North Queensland History: Herries' Private Hospital - Cairns". North Queensland History. https://northqueenslandhistory.blogspot.com/2015/01/herries-private-hospital-cairns.html  Retrieved 12 August, 2025.
7. Fielding, T. (2019) Neither mischievous nor meddlesome : the remarkable lives of North Queensland’s independent midwives 1890 - 1940 / Trisha Fielding. Townsville, [Queensland: North Queensland History Press.
8. Yongala Lodge, Queensland Heritage register, 600878, updated 22 April 2025.
9. 1939 'OBITUARY.', Bowen Independent (Qld. : 1911 - 1954), 28 July, p. 2. , viewed 18 Sept 2025, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article194378947.
10. Nurse Field who ran a private hospital called Palm Cottage, Bowen. c. 1916. John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Negative number: 25615.
11. Fielding, T. (2019) Neither mischievous nor meddlesome : the remarkable lives of North Queensland’s independent midwives 1890 - 1940 / Trisha Fielding. Townsville, [Queensland: North Queensland History Press.
12. Ormond Private Hospital, Mackay Regional Council Libraries, Image number: qmc05304. (12)
13. Staff of the Ormond Private Hospital Mackay in 1912 before it was owned by the Iwers sisters. Original version: Copy print : black & white Daily mercury (Mackay, Qld.) ca. John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. 1912 Negative number: 200166
14. “ST. MARY'S HOSPITAL TO BE SOLD” , Maryborough Chronicle, Wide Bay and Burnett Advertiser (Qld. : 1860 - 1947) , Wed 7 Aug 1946 , P.6
15. Anon (1996) 50 years on and still caring : 50th anniversary celebration, St Stephen’s Private Hospital, Maryborough. Maryborough, Qld: St Stephen’s Private Hospital.
16. House that was the nurses’ quarters for St Mary’s Hospital, Maryborough. Residence of Dr H.C. Garde, John Street, Maryborough, ca. 1929. Original photograph Maryborough Wide Bay & Burnett Historical Society. John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. Image number: qmar00044.
17. Sunshine Coast Council. Backward Glance: Hospitals of the Sunshine Coast. Sunshine Coast Council, 7 October 2015. https://www.sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au/news/backward-glance-hospitals-of-the-sunshine-coast
18. Nurse Christian Oxley (back row, 3rd from right) & Sister Dorothy Ralston (2nd row, 3rd from right). Australian War Memorial Collection, Group Portrait in the Hospital Grounds, Malaya: Malacca, December 1941. Accession number: P01295.002. https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C203754.
19. Nambour Selangor Private Hospital History, Ramsay Health Care, https://www.nambourselangor.com.au/About-Us/History.
20. Aurelia Private Hospital on Bowen Terrace in New Farm, Brisbane, ca. 1929. John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. Negative number: 201595.
21. Matron Austin’s 1918 Midwifery training certificate. John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. Negative number: 171704.
22. 1945 'ST. ANDREW'S PRIVATE HOSPITAL', The Cairns Post (Qld. : 1909 - 1965), 2 August, p. 6. , viewed 10 Sept 2025, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article42468479
23. Smith, J. & St. Vincent’s Hospital (2022) Generations of Care : St Vincent’s Private Hospital Toowoomba in Pictures 1922-2022 / Jane Smith. Toowoomba, Qld: Jane Smith.
24. Anon (1978) A souvenir booklet to commemorate the centenary of Chinchilla. Chinchilla, Qld: Chinchilla Centenary Celebrations Committee. Anon (2005) Dr. Helen Shaw. Brisbane.
25. Nurses and babies seated out on the verandas of Nurse Fitzgerald's hospital, Chinchilla, ca. 1910. John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. Negative number: 4457.
26. Wise’s Directories author compiler & Archive Digital Books Australasia issuing body (2011) Queensland post office directory 1936. Modbury, South Australia: Archive Digital Books Australasia.
27. Dr. Helen Shaw. John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. Negative number: 168870. (27)
28. Tuberculosis Sanatorium at Stanthorpe, March 1918. John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. Negative number: 140966
29. Patient in his room at the Stanthorpe Sanatorium, ca. 1920. John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. Negative number: 140116.
30. Queensland Historical Acts - Health Act Amendment Act of 1911 (2 Geo V, No 26). Available online via Australasian Legal Information Institute website.
31. Queensland Historical Acts - Health Act Amendment Act of 1911 (2 Geo V, No 26). Available online via Australasian Legal Information Institute website.
32. 1928 'Maternity Hospitals', Daily Standard (Brisbane, Qld. : 1912 - 1936), 28 September, p. 5. , viewed 10 Sept 2025, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article186503581
33. Mossman District Hospital, Queensland Heritage Register, 602713, updated 22 April 2025.
34. Local Heritage Places, Brisbane City Council. https://heritage.brisbane.qld.gov.au/heritage-places/196