Sydney Hospital

The Sydney Hospital, also derisively called Rum Hospital, located in downtown Sydney in Macquarie Street. From 1788 to 1816 the first hospital was on the Australian continent only of tents. The new massive three -building complex of the hospital could arise in 1816 only because it was funded by an award of a Rumimport and Rumvertriebsmonopols by the colonial government of New South Wales.

To the north lies the main building, the Sydney Hospital, and the Parliament House; The Mint south, the historic Mint.

The buildings have gradually been used not only as a hospital, but also for other purposes; For example, in 1829 rooms for the first Parliament of New South Wales were installed in the northern wing of the year. The hospital from 1816 is the oldest public building in Sydney and housed the first school for nurses in Australia. In the south wing of the hospital complex addition was the first Mint in a British colony.

At the time of its completion in 1816, the hospital had 200 beds. Today it operates 113 beds with an emergency ward of 6 beds. It specializes in ophthalmology, hand surgery and venereal diseases and is associated with the Department of Ophthalmology and Eye Protection at the University of Sydney.

Tent Hospital

Many of the first convicts with the First Fleet from Portsmouth in the UK, the Botany Bay penal colony reached in Australia in 1788, were ill on the sailing ships of dysentery, typhus and scurvy due to the catastrophic hygienic conditions. Later the disease was added to smallpox. The first governor of the British colony of New South Wales, Arthur Phillip, and the botanist and surgical chief physician John White, who worked in the hospital from 1788 to 1794, built in the west of Sydney on the Rocks on a tent Hospital, and the sick convicts of the colony arriving on ships diseased persons should provide medical care.

The site of the former tent hospital is located on what is now George Street along the Nurses Walk.

New

When the governor Lachlan Macquarie saw the conditions of the tent hospital after his arrival in 1810 in New South Wales, he decided to close this and build massive buildings in eastern Sydney at Macquarie Street named after him. The British government provided, however, no funds for construction are available. Macquarie then entered into with Blaxcell Garnham, Alexander Riley and D' Arcy Wentworth a contract for the financing and construction of the hospital now and put them in return convicts available and secured them a monopoly for Rumimport and distribution than 45,000 ( 204 574 liters ) or later more than 65,000 gallons ( 295 496 liters) of rum. In terms of financial performance of the private partner and the amount of rum, if it were 60,000 or 65,000 gallons, there are different estimates.

Francis Greenway, an architect and a British convict, was commissioned to assess the quality, sustainability and style of the building. His judgment about the quality of construction was: "must soon fall into ruin" ( soon there will be a ruin) The architectural style was qualified by Greenway neither historical nor modern, in particular, he criticized the proportions of the columns of the building. Although Macquarie contractors asked to eliminate the structural defects and 1820 and 1826 major repairs were carried out, a large part could be eliminated only in the course of restoration from 1980.

Building

The buildings were built in the period 1811-1816. They consisted of a main building and two wings of the hospital for surgery. Today The two northern form the Parliament House and the southern The Mint, at times a Mint, has been preserved in its original style.

It is not known who designed the built in Georgian style building. It is believed that both Macquarie and John O'Hearen, who later described himself as an architect, were involved. From the beginning it was an attempt to use the buildings and otherwise. With the start of construction a useful discussion began. Part of the building was then used as a court and by the municipal administration.

Parliament House

The Legislative Council ( Legislative Assembly ) of New South Wales occupied premises of the surgical department and gathered there for the first time on August 21, 1829. The surgery remained until 1848 in the buildings, although other rooms were occupied by the colonial government and the convict officers and administrations. From 1829 to 1848, the Legislative Council was in the house and the other rooms were used by the colonial government until 1852, to the Legislative Council took over the entire northern wing. 1836 a collection of animals and birds has been issued in the building. The Library of Parliament was built in 1840 and spun off in 1983 to 1988 in the new administrative building of the Parliaments at Macquarie Street.

Hospital main building

Sydney Hospital main house with a fountain

The main building of the hospital was for a architectural competition in 1880 by Thomas Rowe demolished and rebuilt to a design in classic Victorian style. After criticism of the draft, the architect John Kirkpatrick completed the new hospital in 1894 in a customized style. Only the main building now houses the Sydney Hospital.

The training of nurses began in 1868 as Florence Nightingale, Lucy Osburn and five British nurses commissioned it. The neo-Gothic Nightingale - wing from 1869, near the main entrance, at that time housed the first school for nurses in Australia.

In the following period, there was little use and structural changes. From 1974 to 1983 buildings were torn down next to the old building complex for a new parliament building, lobby and central administration and restored the existing hospital buildings.

The Sydney Eye Hospital ( Eye Hospital of Sydney ) was integrated in 1996 into the building of the Sydney Hospital.

Sydney Mint

The southern wing, which is now called The Mint was then used from 1823 as a hospital pharmacy and as a military hospital and from the military administration. In 1851 there was the first gold rush in New South Wales and gold circulated unchecked. To control the amount of gold, the south wing to the first state mint outside the UK was expanded in 1854. This mint was operated until 1926.

In the subsequent period up to the 1970s, various government administrations and courts have been integrated into the building. 1982 was built in the building a museum of decorative art, coins and stamps. 1995, this museum was rededicated and built an exhibition about the role of gold in the time of the first gold rush in Australia, which was dismantled in 1997. Since 1998, the building is owned by the Historic Houses Trust. This part of the building was preserved essentially in its original condition.