Ashgrove Private Hospital (former)

The land on which the house is situated was part of portion 645 granted to Edward Henry Cox in 1868. In 1875, this portion was purchased by Alexander Stewart, a wealthy merchant who resided at the nearby Glen Lyon country estate. After the death of Stewart in 1918, the majority of his estate was sold to property developer T.M. Burke who developed the Glenlyon Gardens Estate and other nearby residential estates during the mid-1920s. The design of Glenlyon Gardens and adjacent streets featured curvilinear streets, large allotments and newly provided electricity. The extension of the tramline to Oleander Drive on Waterworks Road in 1924 had made the city easily accessible by public transport. This and the high standard of the residential allotments on offer attracted great interest from those wishing to live in the area. It was during the interwar period that Ashgrove became a well populated suburb. With the increase in population came a need for schools and other amenities such as a local hospital.

In 1926, Flora Grandison acquired two adjoining allotments in Elimatta Drive near the corner with Waterworks Road. At this time, Mrs Grandison applied to the Brisbane City Council to build a timber residence on the site. The builder engaged was A. Braun, and the cost of the house estimated at £800. In February 1928, Mrs Grandison acquired the adjoining 16 perch lot on the corner of Elimatta Drive and Waterworks Road. The land was mortgaged to the Oddfellows Friendly Society in August 1928, possibly to finance the construction of their home. The Grandisons lived in the house until they sold their property to Miss Mary Eleanor Chapman in 1933. 

In 1934, Mary Chapman was the Matron of the Ashgrove Private Hospital, situated in Elimatta Drive between Kadanga and Aloomba Roads. The hospital is first listed in the street in 1930-31 with Miss E.A. Vicar as the matron. After Mary Chapman bought 309 Waterworks Road, the Ashgrove Private Hospital relocated to this site. The hospital was primarily a maternity hospital, but some small surgical procedures such as children's tonsillectomies were also performed. Children were nursed on the verandah of the house. The hospital also accommodated unmarried mothers, some of whom relinquished their babies for adoption. In 1958, the hospital was sold to Alice Mary Mickle, who became the new matron. 

During the 1920s, Brisbane's expectant mothers had several options when deciding on where to give birth to their babies. In the 19th century, the majority of women had given birth at home, attended by relatives, friends, a midwife, or in the case of wealthier women, a medical practitioner. From the late 19th century, women also had the options of giving birth in a small establishment run by a midwife, a larger private hospital attended by a doctor or in a charitable or religious institution such as the Lady Bowen Lying-In Hospital established in Brisbane in 1864.

The early decades of the 20th century saw a move towards the medicalisation of childbirth and maternal health, whereby pregnancy and birth were constructed as medical conditions requiring the intervention and advice of 'experts' rather than as natural events. To cater to this increased medical interest in obstetrics, many small private hospitals opened in Brisbane. In 1922, in an effort to reduce maternal and infant mortality rates, increase the birthrate and instruct mothers on the 'correct' methods of childrearing, the Labor Government of Queensland passed the 1922 Maternity Act. This Act 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. By 1938, the government had built 94 maternity hospitals across the state. By the end of World War II, 67% of Queensland births were in public maternity beds.

The number of private hospitals in Brisbane, including maternity hospitals, rose dramatically during the 1920s. In 1910, only 10 private hospitals are listed in Brisbane. By 1929, this number had risen to 60, excluding Sandgate and Wynnum. With the opening of the Women's Hospital at Herston in 1938 and other public facilities, the need for small private maternity hospitals decreased.  By 1949, the number of private hospitals had dropped to around 24, including the Boothville Salvation Army Mothers' Hospital at Windsor and the Fermoy Maternity Hospital at Auchenflower. The Ashgrove Private Hospital closed in the late 1960s and was sold in 1969.

Since the 1960s, 309 Waterworks Road has changed hands three times. During the 1970s it was a boarding house. It is currently rented by a Christian missionary group, Youth With A Mission, who have named the property, Outreach House.

Surviving evidence of the house's former use as a hospital includes an external ramp, an old fire alarm system and three bedrooms behind the house which were formerly nurses' quarters. The former reception desk and original wooden louvres on the verandah also remain.

The building at 309 Waterworks Road is important to many people in the local and wider community who were born at the Ashgrove Private Hospital or gave birth there.

1. Brisbane City Council Building Register 1926

2. Blake, T., Kennedy, M., Pullar, M., Queensland Health Heritage Survey, Vols. 1 & 2, October 1996

3. Taylor, Helen, Brisbane 100 Stories, Brisbane, Brisbane City Council, 1997

4. Post Office Directories.

5. Selby, Wendy. "Maternity hospitals and baby clinics: a twentieth century Australian frontier" in John Pearn & Mervyn Cobcroft, eds. Fevers and Frontiers. Brisbane: Amphion Press, University of Queensland, 1990), pp.197-212

6. Titles Office Records