Turrawan Private Hospital (former)

Queensland saw numerous private hospitals constructed during the first half of the twentieth century, some by churches, and others conducted for profit by private individuals and organisations. Turrawan was one such for-profit hospital. However, it was not typical of the doctor-run private hospital of the twentieth century. Many other private hospitals had a life expectancy tied to the professional career (and eventual retirement) of the owner. Facilities were often poor and large capital investments were rare.

In 1929 a group of local residents had petitioned against the approval of a private hospital on the corner of London and Liverpool Streets, designed by E. Ryan and building tender awarded to Charters & Ryan.. The grounds for the objection were not recorded in the Council Minutes, but the petition was unsuccessful.

Amy Olive Aitkin bought a little over one-quarter of an acre on “New Sandgate Road” in June 1932. She raised a mortgage against the land in November 1932, evidently to fund the building of Turrawan. Aitkin had already been running the “Turrawin” Private hospital on the northern corner of Sandgate and London Roads for approximately four years.

Architect Eric P. Trewern designed a new brick hospital for Matron Aitkin in October 1932. The hospital, described in Brisbane City Council Minutes as “a handsome brick structure of two stories with tiled roof, and a semi-detached block at rear for staff … an exceptionally fine hospital” was approved in November 1932. The hospital building was to cost £3,000. Less than three years later Trewern designed additions to this main building. A wing was added to the northeastern wall, to provide additional operating theatres and other rooms, and another bedroom was added to the first floor nurse’s quarters at the rear. A further mortgage was raised against the property at this time.

This section of Sandgate Road housed a number of medical practitioners’ surgeries from the 1920s, including three on this side of the road between Adelaide Street and London Road.

From January 1937 responsibility for supervising private hospitals passed from Local Authorities to the Queensland Department of Health. With increasing sophistication of surgery and anaesthesia many of the smaller hospitals which had previously met the required standards began to fall short of the requirements imposed by the Government. By the end of the Second World War well over one hundred private hospitals had closed. Turrawan, however, was one of the few independent private hospitals which continued to offer more highly-developed facilities, thus ensuring its viability for a further four decades or so.

In 1960 Aitkin purchased the subdivision immediately to the south of the hospital, the premises of Dr Errol S. Meyers since the late 1920s. Meyers’ wife Myrtle had purchased the land in 1928 and Dr Meyers appeared in the Post Office Directories soon afterwards. It appears likely that that the timber building which housed Meyers’ practice facing Sandgate Road was shifted to a position close to the rear boundary of the consolidated Turrawan block, to form nurses’ quarters.

Matron Aitkin retained ownership of the property until its 1971 sale to Aitkin Properties Ltd. Turrawan was offered for sale by the owners in 1998, when it was purchased by Uniting Health Care. It continued to operate as a hospital few several more years, before its closure and 2003 sale to Clayfield College.

This is a two-storey L-shaped building with gables to the roof ends and orderly symmetric rows of windows at both levels. A smaller lower gabled structure projecting provides articulation and interest to its south-western elevation which is also visible from the street. The double storey porch, located at the opposite returning corner has now glazed openings.

The building, which has had only minor alterations, appears to be both externally and internally in fairly original condition as well as well-maintained.

The nurses’ quarters comprise a high-set timber building relocated from Sandgate Road to the rear of the consolidated Turrawan block.

1. Brisbane City Council Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board, Detail Plans

2. Courier Mail, 4 July 2003

3. Department of Natural Resources. Queensland Certificates of Title

4. John Oxley Library photographs & clippings files

5. Leggett, C.A.C., “The organisations and development of the Queensland hospitals in the twentieth century”, MA thesis, UQ, 1976

6. McKellar’s Estate Maps of Brisbane, 1895

7. Nundah & District Historical Society files

8. Presentation Sisters, Clayfield Annals, n.d.

9. Queensland Post Office Directories, 1887-1949

10. Watson, Donald & Judith McKay, A Directory of Queensland Architects to 1940, UQ Library, 1984