Hospital Precinct - Sydney, NSW
Posted by: 
denben
S 33° 51.604 E 151° 12.492
56H E 334249 N 6251914
This plaque is located on a building situated on Nurses Walk in the Rocks, an historic area of Sydney's city centre.
Waymark Code: WMMYBR
Location: New South Wales, Australia
Date Posted: 11/23/2014
Views: 13
Nurses Walk in The Rocks cuts across where the site of the early hospital once was.
The plaque reads:
"At the beginning od February 1788, shortly after the founding of the new colony of New South Wales on 26th January by Captain Arthur Phillip, the erection of the first hospital was commenced on this site.
The original hospital was initiated by the Principal Surgeon, John White, and was completed by twelve convict carpenters and sixteen men hired from the ships of the First Fleet.
During the first two years of the colony the Hospital was further enlarged to accommodate sixty patients, and eighty in times of stress, but it was always overtaxed as sickness was rife due to the lack of vegetables.
In June 1790, the Second Fleet arrived and increased the number of sick to 488 patients. Fortunately, one of the vessels the "Justinian" brought a "Moveable Hospital for His Majesty's distant possessions". It was pre-fabricated in England from wood and copper and was erected with all speed. In addition, it was necessary to pitch about 100 tents around the hospital, each tent containing four patients and one blanket. In 1797, the realignment of the High Street (later George Street) caused the portable hospital to be pulled down and it was re-erected on a stone foundation slightly west of its original location. A Hospital Store and Dispensary were then built in the grounds which occupied two acres to the west and north of the hospital buildings. The Hospital continued to be used until 1816 when the patients were moved to the new Sydney Hospital which has been erected on the present Macquarie Street site.
The area vacated by the original hospital was soon claimed by Samuel Terry, William Davis, John Dalley, William Charles and Elizabeth Charlotte Broughton who, by 1848, had each erected shops and dwellings on their claimed properties. Due to the proximity of Sydney Cove, the area developed rapidly between 1845 and 1890 into a bustling commercial area. Hotels with names such as the "Fortune of War", "Torres Strait Hotel" and "The Shipwrights Arms" clearly expressed the maritime link between The Rocks and the sea."
Age/Event Date: 1788
Type of Historic Marker: Plaque only
Related Website: [Web Link]
Type of Historic Marker if other: Not listed
Historic Resources.: Not listed
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