Paddington Child Health Centre

From the turn of the century a greater public commitment to maternal health had emerged, and childcare increasingly became the domain of professional male ‘experts’. Combined with the realisation that Australia was a large country with a low population, motherhood was no longer a private matter but a public duty. A perception existed that Australia needed to ‘populate or perish’ or risk invasion from the Asian nations to the north.

The first clinics were erected in Queensland during the 1920s following the Maternity Act of 1922. The Act was a turning point in the development of health services for women and infants in Queensland. The Act provided for the establishment of maternity hospitals and baby clinics throughout the state. Sixteen baby clinics were erected in a ten year period beginning in 1924. The Paddington clinic was the first to be erected since 1935, and was the first in the Modernist style.

The proposed site for the new clinic was a triangular shaped block of land bounded by Given Terrace and Guthrie Street, Paddington and was inspected by Premier Edward Hanlon in July 1946. Hanlon represented the Brisbane electorate of Ithaca for 26 years, serving in Queensland ministries for a total of just under twenty years, and was Premier of the state from 1946 until his death in 1952. 

Between 1932 and 1944 Hanlon had served as Home Secretary and then as Secretary for Health and Home Affairs, during which time he did a great deal to encourage the growth of Queensland’s public hospital system and to improve numerous aspects of social welfare. One of seven children of Irish immigrants, Hanlon was born on 1 October 1887 in the Brisbane working class suburb of Paddington, attending the Red Hill convent and later the Petrie Terrace State School.

Constructed circa 1952, the clinic was designed by Percy Blick, an Architect with the Department of Public Works. It would house separate clinics for babies, young children (1-5 years), expectant mothers and a post-natal clinic. Blick had trained in London and graduated shortly before the war. He immigrated to Australia after the conflict and found employment with the department in 1948.

In 2001 the clinic continues to serve the needs of the parents and children of the local area as the Paddington Child Health Centre. A plaque on the front of the building reads:

In Memory of The Honourable Edward Hanlon, MLA for Ithaca, Premier of the State of Queensland 1946-1952, Minister for Health and Home Affairs 1932-1944.

The single storey brick building occupies most of its site. It appears to have a flat roof with a parapet around it with a projecting section at the front. Several ventilation grills are visible underneath this projecting section.

The entrance curves wide on a radius projected from the point of intersection of the two streets and is given protection and prominence by a concrete portico supported on blade concrete columns that mirrors this curvature. The entrance is composed of a series of glass French doors with fanlights above. 

The building is elevated from street level and has a lower level basement at the rear of the building, and a ramp located at the front. 

Although changing medical practices have meant some internal readaptation, the building is remarkably intact and still retains its original signage.

1. Brisbane City Council Water Supply & Sewerage Detail Plans

2. Department of Natural Resources, Queensland Certificates of title and other records.

3. Fitzgerald, Ross. From 1915 To The Early 1980’s: A History of Queensland, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1984

4. McBride, Frank and Helen Taylor. Brisbane 100 Stories. Brisbane: BCC. 1997

5. McKellar's Map of Brisbane and Suburbs. Brisbane: Surveyor-General’s Office, 1895

6. Murphy, DJ and Joyce, RB. Queensland Political Portraits 1859-1952, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1978

7. Puelar, Margaret and Blake, Thomas. Queensland Health Heritage Survey, Vol 1, October 1996