General Hospital. Launceston, Tasmania, Australia ca. 1868
By Remembering the Past Australia / August 12, 2020 / Australia / 0 Comments
Place:
Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
Date:
ca. 1868
Historical Information:
This image is part of the Colonial Office photographic collection held at The National Archives UK.
During the first fifty years of white settlement in Tasmania, the government provided a medical and ‘hospital’ service of sorts, mainly to soldiers and convicts. With the growing number of free citizens, a joint community-government hospital situated in the former British Hotel became the Cornwall Hospital and Infirmary. It had many inadequacies, including beds taken up by the chronically ill (a problem that now, 150 years later, governments have neglected to overcome).
A government enquiry recommended a new 102-bed hospital, which was occupied in 1863 and named the Launceston General Hospital. [The Companion to Tasmanian History. Launceston General Hospital.]
Description:
Photograph of the General Hospital at Launceston, Tasmania, Australia. The original photo was taken ca. 1868.
From the collection of:
