Despite the name, there appears to be no remaining evidence of a hospital being located on Hospital Hill Road at any time in the past history of Araluen. Rumours persist and some older residents have told me that their parents or grandparents knew about it, but all information seems to have been lost forever. So this note has been written to elicit any information about the hospital if it was ever built. This history should never be forgotten.
The land dedicated for the site of a hospital at Araluen in 1872, was revoked by the NSW Department of Lands in 1898, indicating that a hospital was never built.
The map shown above, dated 1867, clearly shows a block of land marked ‘Public Hospital’ (as outlined in green).
This is from the ‘Plan of the Villages of Araluen West Parish of Araluen County of St Vincent’. Later versions of this map have corrected ‘Araluen West’ to ‘Araluen North’. However, it appears that this hospital may have never been built.
In the News
On 6 June 1871, the Empire Magazine1Empire Magazine, 6 June 1871. reported ‘On entering the town, to the left lies the hospital. It is one of the best and most conspicuous buildings. The doctors are Dr. Gentle and Dr. Llewellyn. I was much pleased to hear they had only two or three inmates. These two gentlemen take every alternate week in Braidwood and the Valley, as there is no resident medical man.’
On 30 June 1877, the Australian Town and Country Journal2Australian Town and Country Journal, Saturday 30 June 1877 p 10. reported ‘The Araluen Hospital is an institution known only in the past history of the Happy Valley. The building is there, but the concern is nowhere, the staff of officials is no longer in existence. Patients are brought to Braidwood and the ultimate result will soon be that the building will also disappear, as is generally the case with uncared-for tenements. But there is a likelihood that things will not be allowed to go altogether to the dogs, as there is a talk of making a courthouse of the empty house for sickness.’
On 3 March 1883, the Australian Town and Country Journal3Australian Town and Country Journal, Saturday 3 March 1883, p 26. reported ‘There are also three churches, which are used sometimes, and a very fair hospital, which has been for some time empty. It is not, however, for this reason, as is often the case in a country town, allowed to go to ruin.’
On 2 January 1889, the Braidwood Dispatch and Mining Journal4Braidwood Dispatch and Mining Journal, Wednesday 2 January 1889, p 2. published an article entitled ‘Braidwood Land Board at Araluen‘ … ‘The Local Land Board held a sitting in Araluen to investigate the case of Mr. McCann, who had applied to purchase an unnecessary road of about two acres …‘.
‘This was accordingly done last Saturday, when Mr Moriarty, accompanied by Messrs. Aldcorn and Bunn, drove to the spot, a little to the north of Newtown, behind the old Araluen Hospital. They inspected the land, a spur of the mountain containing about eight or ten acres of land, and then adjourned to the Courthouse, where they looked at the evidence of Mr. A.U. Alley and other objectors. The evidence pointed out that the only access in flood times to the mountains behind the applicant’s house was through this land.‘ The road itself, however, appeared never to have been used, all the traffic (when there was some), going along a track on Mr McCann’s land.
So what we do know is that there had been an established hospital in 1871, which by 1883 was generally empty, and was still standing in 1889.
If anyone can shed any light on this subject, please contact the Araluen History Group at araluenvalleyhistory+enquiry@gmail.com as there are many ‘new’ locals who would like to resolve this mystery, and preserve the history of the valley.
