About Sydney Hospital
Sydney Hospital is the oldest hospital in Australia. In fact, it is as old as the colony itself, having been founded in 1788, the year the First Fleet arrived. Sydney Hospital has been in its present location at Macquarie Street since 1811. Today that location is in the Central Business District of Sydney. The hospital has 113 inpatient beds. Its specialist services attract patients from all over New South Wales.
The first batch of 736 convicts sent to Australia from Portsmouth, England were suffering from dysentery, smallpox, scurvy, and typhoid on arrival. Governor Phillip and Surgeon-General John White established a tent hospital along what is now George Street in The Rocks to care for the worst cases. Needless to say, there was a high incidence of death. A portable hospital prefabricated in England from wood and copper arrived in Sydney with the Second Fleet, in 1790.
Upon arriving in the Colony of New South Wales at the end of 1810, Governor Macquarie discovered that Sydney's hospital was nothing more than tents shelters. He set aside land on the western edge of the Government Domain for a new hospital and created a new road - Macquarie Street - to provide access to it. However, his plans were derailed because the British Government refused to fund the hospital. Consequently, Governor Macquarie entered into a contract with a consortium of businessmen - Garnham Blaxcell, Alexander Riley and, later, D'Arcy Wentworth - to erect the new hospital. They were to receive convict labour and supplies and a monopoly on rum imports from which they expected to recoup the cost of the building and gain considerable profits. The contract, signed on 6 November 1810, allowed them to import 45,000 (later increased to 60,000) gallons of rum to sell to colonists. Because of this rather peculiar arrangement, Sydney Hospital was originally called the Rum Hospital.
It is not clear who designed the Sydney Hospital complex. It would be either Governor Macquarie or John O'Hearen. John O'Hearen is the likely designer, as he even signed himself as "architect" in correspondences related to the project.
When the hospital was nearing completion in 1815, the now famous convict architect Francis Greenway (who designed St James' Church nearby) was asked to inspect it. He condemned it, saying it "must soon fall into ruin". He pointed out short cuts in the construction, weak joins, rotting stonework and more. Although Governor Macquarie ordered the contractors to remedy the defects, by 1820, the southern wing was already deemed unsafe. Francis Greenway was commissioned to undertake repair works on both wings and rearrange the internal space. More repairs were done in 1826. Many of the defects were hidden away until recent restoration carried out in the 1980s.
By 1984, restoration of the Sydney Hospital building was complete. Together with its "twin" the former Sydney Mint, Sydney Hospital is the oldest building on Macquarie Street and the oldest public building in the City of Sydney.
Getting there
Location: Macquarie Street
Buses to take: Sydney Explorer, Elizabeth St routes
Nearby Sights
Hyde Park Barracks
Mrs Macquaries Chair
Parliament House
Royal Botanic Gardens
St James' Church
Sydney Mint
The Domain
Conservatorium of Music
Government House
Port Denison
State Library of NSW
Woolloomooloo finger Wharf
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Sydney Hospital Location Map
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Sydney Hospital
Author: Danausi (public domain)
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