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It is commonly believed that the first attempt at political
assassination in Australia occurred in 1966 when Arthur Calwell, then leader of the ALP, was wounded. In
fact, Henry James O’Farrell, variously referred to as a ‘mad Fenian’ and ‘Irish fanatic’ attempted to
assassinate Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, second son of Queen Victoria, nearly 100 years earlier at a
picnic at Clontarf in Middle Harbour, in 1868. O’Farrell was dealt with summarily, and hanged without
ceremony at Darlinghurst Gaol three weeks later. It was well known that Queen Victoria did not like the
Fenians and it was of great concern to the good citizens of Sydney that her son should be injured in their
city.
Lucy Osburn, the new Lady Superintendent of the Sydney Infirmary, who had arrived in the colony only a few
days before the picnic, nursed him to health (the Prince, not Arthur Calwell). Henry Parkes, Premier of
NSW and Alfred Roberts, then a surgeon at the Sydney Infirmary, had arranged with Florence Nightingale for
the appointment of Miss Osburn and five trained nurses.
A ‘gold probe’ which was supposedly used to remove the bullet is held at this hospital. This is difficult
to understand as the Prince was never near this hospital which was built in 1882, 14 years after the
incident at Clontarf and in fact was built to commemorate the near-disaster (it is unlikely that the
original probe was of gold, as this metal would be too soft for the purpose). It seems likely that the
bullet was removed aboard the ship on which he served as an officer. He was then taken to Government House
where he was cared for by Miss Osburn. It seems that there is at least one other probe, supposedly used on
this occasion, in the hands of a well-known medical family in Sydney.
One of the men who saved the Prince’s life by throwing himself between O’Farrell and the Prince, was
William Vial, Grand Master of the Masonic Lodge which was the host of the picnic. Vial was given a claret
jug of exquisite workmanship and a sum of money in recognition of his heroism. William Vial donated the
money to inaugurate a fund to build a memorial to show the Queen that the city was duly sorry for the
terrible occurrence. After much acrimonious debate it was decided to build a new hospital, so it is
scarcely exaggerating to say that this hospital was built by a bullet.
It was first thought to build a home for sailors, as the Prince was a sailor. However there were such
homes already in existence and eventually 12 acres of Grose Farm, the site of the University of Sydney
fronting Missenden Road in Camperdown was made available.
The hospital was to cater for clinical studies of students of the Medical School, which had just been
approved by the Government. Once the original arguments were settled over when, where and how the proposed
hospital was to be built, it was planned as a hospital for the sick and poor and was designed as a
clinical school for the training of nurses and the teaching of medical students (the Medical School was to
open the following year, 1883).
It was the first hospital in Australia to be built in the modern manner with water from the town supply
and to have the sewer connected. Alfred Roberts continued to correspond with Florence Nightingale on the
building of the hospital and it was designed on principles she laid down to ensure cleanliness and
antisepsis for the patients.
The Prince Alfred Hospital was opened on 25th September 1882, with 146 patients. There were two large
pavilions ‘C’ and ‘D’ Blocks, one for male patients and the other for females. Two physicians and two
surgeons together with two junior surgeons and physicians each and an eye surgeon provided medical and
surgical treatment. The staff also consisted of the matron and 12 nurses with various men as porters and
gardeners. In the next 12 months over one thousand patients were admitted.
The training of nurses was of fundamental importance for the hospital. The first two matrons, Mrs Murray
and Miss Downs were splendid women who initiated and maintained an excellent standard of care for the
patients and strict discipline among the nurses.
The third matron, Miss Susan McGahey, is immortalised in the remarkable glass relief in the entrance of
the new RPA Women and Babies. Miss McGahey was slim and attractive and was the most innovative of the
early matrons. She attended the inaugural International Conference of Nurses and the Board to institute a
preliminary training school for nurses. This idea was rejected out of hand by Professor Anderson Stuart as
being too costly. Despite this, the nurse training at Prince Alfred Hospital was so highly regarded that
nurses from the hospital were keenly sought as matrons for many hospitals, including Sydney Hospital, the
Coast Hospital, North Shore and Rydalmere. They were also highly regarded as ‘specials’ to nurse private
patients in their homes.
The head porter held sway over the front hall in the administration block which was the busy centre of the
hospital. It served as the casualty department waiting area and outpatient clinics were also held. The
chapel was upstairs, as were various facilities such as the sewing room. The resident medical officers
occupied the upper floor of the building. The hospital continued to grow from its inception, with the
building of the first operating theatre and wards to hold surgical patients, and opened in 1877.
As part of the centenary celebrations in 1888, an exhibition of women’s industries was held in the Sydney
Town Hall. This exhibition included an examination for “sick nurses” and the Prince Alfred nurses featured
prominently, winning the gold medal and several silver medals. School teachers, typewriters and
photographers were also featured among the women’s occupations.
A nurses’ home was completed in 1892, the first in Australia and the nurses who had been living in
cottages in Missenden Road were now able to live in the purpose-built home.
Two large ward pavilions were the next additions and were known as the Albert and Victoria, consisting of
three wards each. These were opened in 1904 by the then Duke of York (later King George V). Lack of
available finance prevented the new wards being fully utilised for patients, so nurses were housed in A
block until additional bedrooms were added to the nurses’ home between 1908 and 1912.
At the end of the World War I a recreation hall was built by donations to provide for rehabilitation
patients who were then using A block. Soon after this the old isolation cottages were demolished and there
was no further building until a new isolation pavilion was opened in 1928.
1928 also saw the opening of a large modern operating theatre complex consisting of eight theatres,
anaesthetic rooms, change rooms, store rooms and sterilising rooms. This complex was built on top of D
block. The 1930s, with the hospital under the chairmanship of Dr Herbert Schlink (later knighted) saw a
great deal of building. Yet another nurses’ home, Gloucester House, the psychiatry building with
neurosurgery, X-ray department, outpatients department and a laundry and maintenance/engineering
department.
The King George V Memorial Hospital for Mothers and Babies was completed in 1941 and the Fairfax building
for pathology and bacteriology was opened in 1943. The only further building during WWII consisted of
several “temporary” huts to accommodate the nurses for the King George V Hospital and two similar huts
behind KGV for infectious patients.
Page Chest Pavilion, Blackburn Pavilion and the huge Queen Mary Nurses’ home were all built in the 50s.
The original Pavilion wards were also re-furbished and modernised at this time. Then the Edinburgh
Pavilion, E block was opened in 1984 and then the national cyclotron was built. The oncology/radiation
area was re-built, also the audiovisual department. The car park was built opposite the Queen Mary
Building. The Queen Elizabeth rehabilitation building has been converted for the treatment of haematology,
orthopaedics and rheumatic conditions. The accident and emergency department was moved, enlarged and
modernised and now has an ambulance entrance off Missenden Road.
Needless to say, most of the early buildings have been demolished, including the C and D blocks and the
original operating theatre block (later Prince’s block), to make way for all the building. The latest
building is the ultra-modern clinical services building, inside which, RPA Women and Babies was officially
opened at the end of 2002.
This summary of the growth of Royal Prince Alfred Hospital does not include any reference to the
innovative medical, surgical and technological advances which have grown apace within these buildings.
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