| Historical notes: | ABORIGINAL OCCUPATION OF THE LIVERPOOL REGION
Some 40,000 years before the establishment of any sort of health facility on the Georges River or even the colonisation of Liverpool, this land was occupied by the Darug people and the neighbouring Tharawal and Gandangara tribes. The land was known as Gunyungalung and the Georges River was the natural boundary between the Darug, or 'woods' tribe, and the 'coast' tribes of Tharawal and Gandangara. Although there was a long and established occupation of the site prior to colonisation, there are no known Aboriginal sites within the former Liverpool Hospital complex.
(Keating, 1996; www.liverpool.nsw.gov.au/aboriginalpeople.htm; Tuck & Douglas, 2002)
COLONISATION, EUROPEAN SETTLEMENT AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FIRST LIVERPOOL HOSPITAL
In 1810, following the lead of the prominent pioneer Thomas Moore, Governor Lachlan Macquarie set out on a surveying expedition along the newly discovered Georges River. On the undulating Cumberland Plain and the banks of the Georges River, Governor Macquarie located the new township of Liverpool. From this township, of the developing colony.
The construction of a hospital, to accommodate and service the health requirements of a predominantly convict population, was an early development in Liverpool and one granted a picturesque location on the banks of the Georges River. Macquarie chose this position because he envisioned the hospital building to be striking when viewed from either the river itself or from the township.
Macquarie's original use of this location was as the site of the first Liverpool hospital, built in 1810. This first hospital was a small brick, three-room construction built to accommodate up to 30 patients. For a growing population such as Liverpool's, this first hospital quickly became overcrowded and under-equipped to service the township. Although coming to the end of his time as governor, Macquarie undertook one of his grandest projects in the construction of the second (and surviving) Liverpool Hospital. This project was to become part of Macquarie's lasting legacy and it was the last major design involving Francis Greenway, Macquarie's appointed Civil Architect.
(Cserhalmi, CMP Vol 1, 1994; Liverpool Heritage Study Vol 1, 1992)
CONSTRUCTION OF LIVERPOOL HOSPITAL (BLOCK B)
In 1820, Macquarie called upon Greenway to draw up the early designs for the new Liverpool Hospital. Following Macquarie's return to England in 1822 and the downgrading of significant colonial investment in public works, the designs for the Liverpool Hospital were reassessed and altered by Greenway to suit the needs of the incoming governor, Sir Thomas Brisbane. To the north of the first 1810 hospital, construction of the new facility commenced in 1822 but, following the laying of the foundations and a quarrel over the prepared estimates and bills, Greenway was dismissed by Governor Brisbane and a new government architect, Standish Lawrence Harris, was appointed. Harris inspected the foundations already in place and concluded that, due to poor materials and workmanship, the footings should be removed and relaid. By the end of 1822, these foundations had been replaced and construction of the walls was underway.
With Greenway's departure in 1822 and the growing attention being paid to the extended public budget, progress on the hospital construction slowed. Although attributed to Greenway, there is conflicting evidence as to whose design the current construction actually reflects. Since leaving the project in 1822, and the official starting date of construction in 1824, there is a significant chance that Greenway's plans were reviewed and altered according to the direction of the governor of the time. The earliest surviving plans of the hospital construction, 'Plans and Elevation of the General Hospital Liverpool', date from 1825/26. Being unsigned, there is no tangible evidence to indicate whether the original Greenway designs survived intact or in an altered form. With Brisbane's time as governor of the colony coming to an end in 1825, and the arrival of the Governor Ralph Darling, the construction of the hospital was, once again, continued under the direction of a new governor. Although the walls of the hospital were complete and the roof construction was underway, it is possible that the plans may well have undergone changes after 1825.
By December 1829, construction of Liverpool Hospital was complete. After seven years and multiple suspected changes to its original design, the final building was a distinct departure from the simple box-like structures of many public buildings in the colony. This creative design, although possibly altered, is attributed to Greenway's design skills and the influence of the former Governor Macquarie on the creation of the civic environment in the colony.
Despite construction commencing in 1822 (though officially in 1824), the main building of the former Liverpool Hospital complex has a distinctive '1825' embossed sandstone plaque above the entrance. As this date does not correlate with either the commencement or conclusion of construction, it is undetermined what the date actually relates to. Perhaps it is the date of the earliest surviving plans, but this reference remains unsubstantiated.
While construction of the main building was underway, convict labourers also constructed the brick wall surrounding the complex, that has survived largely intact. By 1829, convict bricklayers and stonemasons had built a 10-foot high wall, with stone entrance pillars, that was to remain, almost in its entirety, as a historical boundary for the site. This has limited physical expansion of the site through its history and ensured that, while it did not expand, the buildings and the land had a continual history of adaption, modification and reuse.
(Cserhalmi, CMP Vol 1 & 4, 1994; Liverpool Heritage Study Vol 1, 1992; Tuck & Douglas, 2002; Keating, 1996)
COLONIAL MEDICAL SERVICE HOSPITAL (1830-51)
Following the completion of the construction of the main building in 1829 (there were some outbuildings to be completed in the following years), the Liverpool Hospital was officially opened with the Colonial Medical Service tenanting the new building. With Liverpool being the new centre for the dispatch of convict labour gangs in the colony, the objective of the health service was to care for the significant convict population in the area. Control of the new hospital was undertaken by James Bowman, the Principal Surgeon and head of the Service. The facility was available to convicts labouring for the government free of charge. A fee, of between one and three shillings, was charged for free settlers and to convicts assigned to private colonists (Cserhalmi, CMP Vol 1, 1994; Liverpool Heritage Study Vol 1, 1992; Tuck & Douglas, 2002; Kelly, 2007).
The large convict population of Liverpool's early years fell away with the cessation of transportation to NSW from 1840 and the population of the promising new township started to decline. Without the population numbers needed to support the hospital, and with the inmate's accommodation and facilities becoming increasingly unhygienic and inadequate, the hospital soon lost its purpose and was vacated by the Colonial Medical Service in 1845.
(Cserhalmi, CMP Vol 1, 1994; Liverpool Heritage Study Vol 1, 1992; Tuck & Douglas, 2002; Kelly, 2007)
BENEVOLENT SOCIETY (1851-62)
The hospital site lay vacant for a short time but in 1850 both the Roman Catholic Church and the Benevolent Society were vying for the use of the site. The Benevolent Society, a government-supported organisation that Governor Macquarie had established in 1820, was a facility to care for the sick, destitute and aging population in Sydney and, with the original Sydney Asylum (near present-day Central Station) becoming increasingly overcrowded, the Society needed to acquire a new branch and expand quickly. The Society assessed the Liverpool site and, following approval for their use, opened this branch of the Benevolent Society in 1851, with the transfer of 240 male inmates. To reuse the site, additional buildings and alterations were required and the Government Architect, Edmund Blacket* was called upon to make the necessary alterations and preparations to convert the hospital site to an asylum at a cost of 525 pounds. For his efforts, Blacket was made an Honorary Life Member of the Society. Despite the changes, the site was never adequate for the needs of the Benevolent Society, and it was becoming overcrowded even in 1852. Using the labour of the asylum inmates, further changes were made to accommodate additional beds but, by 1862, the Government had grown dissatisfied with the work of the Benevolent Society and it took over control and the future running of the facility.
(Cserhalmi, CMP Vol 1, 1994; Tuck & Douglas, 2002; Kelly, 2007; DPWS Heritage Design Services, 2002; Keating, 1996).
*James Johnstone Barnet (1827-1904) was made acting Colonial Architect in 1862 and appointed Colonial Architect from 1865-90. He was born in Scotland and studied in London under Charles Richardson, RIBA and William Dyce, Professor of Fine Arts at King's College, London. He was strongly influenced by Charles Robert Cockerell, leading classical theorist at the time and by the fine arts, particularly works of painters Claude Lorrain and JRM Turner. He arrived in Sydney in 1854 and worked as a self-employed builder. He served as Edmund Blacket's clerk of works on the foundations of the Randwick (Destitute Childrens') Asylum. Blacket then appointed Barnet as clerk-of-works on the Great Hall at Sydney University. By 1859 he was appointed second clerk of works at the Colonial Architect's Office and in 1861 was Acting Colonial Architect. Thus began a long career. He dominated public architecture in NSW, as the longest-serving Colonial Architect in Australian history. Until he resigned in 1890 his office undertook some 12,000 works, Barnet himself designing almost 1000. They included those edifices so vital to promoting communication, the law and safe sea arrivals in colonial Australia. Altogether there were 169 post and telegraph offices, 130 courthouses, 155 police buildings, 110 lockups and 20 lighthouses, including the present Macquarie Lighthouse on South Head, which replaced the earlier one designed by Francis Greenway. Barnet's vision for Sydney is most clearly seen in the Customs House at Circular Quay, the General Post Office in Martin Place and the Lands Department and Colonial Secretary's Office in Bridge Street. There he applied the classicism he had absorbed in London, with a theatricality which came from his knowledge of art (Le Sueur, 2016, 6).
GOVERNMENT ASYLUM (1862-1918)
The Government's takeover of the asylum signalled a major change in policy for health care in the colony. Approximately 403 patients were residing at the asylum at this time and the government appointed a Superintendent, Thomas Burnside, a retired army sergeant, to take over the day-to-day running of the facility. His wife, Mary Burnside, was appointed as the Matron to continue with the care of the patients in residence, alongside her husband. Following Thomas' death in 1869, William Strong was appointed as Medical Superintendent, from 1871 to 1886. He and Mary Burnside formed a remarkable professional team that, by the late 1870s, had cared for no fewer than 700 destitute, aged and infirm patients. In 1886, Strong was replaced by Joseph Aloysius Beattie, a hard but fair superintendent who remained at the Liverpool Asylum until his retirement in 1916 (Beattie retired after a stroke. He died in 1920). To compensate for the low salary for the professional medical superintendents at the asylum, Beattie was entitled to run a private practice from the site, even though this took him away from his work for long periods each day. Following his retirement, Beattie's private practice was taken on by his successors Dr MacDonald and Dr J. Pirie (Cserhalmi, 2002).
The Government Asylum period was one of great change to the site. With the rate of admissions growing steadily, the main hospital building was in need of extension and more permanent additions to accommodate the increasing numbers of inmates requiring care. The surviving wings flanking the main building (Blocks A & C) were designed by Edmund Blacket and constructed in 1866 and 1874, respectively. In an effort to be architecturally sympathetic to the design of the main hospital building, Blacket constructed these two-storey brick and slate wings to complement, without detracting from, the dominant physical presence of the 1820s hospital building (Block B)(ibid, 2002).
As well as these adjoining wings, the former Liverpool Hospital complex has seen a long sequence of construction over the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, reflecting the changing needs of the site as a health facility. Many of these additions, alterations and constructions occurred while the Government was in control of the asylum because the once-model establishment was slowly disintegrating and was in dire need of repairs and new facilities. Block F was designed and constructed by Government Architect WL Vernon, c1902-07*, to replace the former kitchen and laundry buildings that dated from the early nineteenth century. The kitchen had always been in a separate building, away from the hospital because of an existing fear of fire, but by the early twentieth century, it was decided to enclose the various structures and combine a number of small buildings into the single complex. Block F is also dominated by a tall brick chimneystack. Although the stack is believed to have been rebuilt (c1940s), the base appears to be original, dating from c1902 (Cserhalmi, 2002).
*Walter Liberty Vernon (1846-1914) was both architect and soldier. Born in England, he ran successful practices in Hastings and London and had estimable connections in artistic and architectural circles. In 1883 he had a recurrence of bronchitic asthma and was advised to leave the damp of England. He and his wife sailed to New South Wales. Before leaving, he gained a commission to build new premises for Messrs David Jones and Co., in Sydney's George Street. In 1890 he was appointed Government Architect - the first to hold that title - in the newly reorganised branch of the Public Works Department. He saw his role as building 'monuments to art'. His major buildings, such as the Art Gallery of New South Wales (1904-6) are large in scale, finely wrought in sandstone, and maintaining the classical tradition. Among others are the Mitchell Wing of the State Library, Fisher Library at the University of Sydney and Central Railway Station. He also added to a number of buildings designed by his predecessors, including Customs House, the GPO and Chief Secretary's Building - with changes which did not meet with the approval of his immediate predecessor, James Barnet who, nine years after his resignation, denounced Vernon's additions in an essay and documentation of his own works. In England, Vernon had delighted his clients with buildings in the fashionable Queen Anne style. In NSW, a number of British trained architects who were proponents of the Arts and Crafts style joined his office and under their influence, Vernon changed his approach to suburban projects. Buildings such as the Darlinghurst First Station (Federation Free style, 1910) took on the scale and character of their surroundings. Under Vernon's leadership, an impressive array of buildings was produced which were distinguished by interesting brickwork and careful climatic considerations, by shady verandahs, sheltered courtyards and provision for cross-flow ventilation. Examples are courthouses in Parkes (1904), Wellington (1912) and Bourke, Lands Offices in Dubbo (1897) and Orange (1904) and the Post Office in Wellington (1904)(Le Sueur, 2016, 7).
The forecourt space to the main hospital building (Block B) is distinguished by landmark plantings of a number of mature, significant trees including a hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii); Bunya pine (A.bidwillii) and a Norfolk Island pine (A.heterophylla). These may date from c.1850s but at least date from the Government Asylum era. Bunya pines were only 'discovered' by Europeans in 1848 and brought from Queensland to NSW soon after, being rapidly planted in key private and public gardens since - notably Government buildings such as court houses, schools, hospitals. Hoop pines have been used from earlier, c.1820s onward and Norfolk Island pines from earlier still. These araucaria trees featured in a c.1920s drawing of the hospital made by architect and artist William Hardy Wilson in his book 'Old Colonial Buildings of NSW and Tasmania'. Block C has a mature native cypress/Port Jackson pine (Callitris rhomoidea) and a number of mature tree ferns (Alsophila sp. or Cyathea sp.) close to or against the building (Stuart Read, pers.comm, 1/7/2009).
LIVERPOOL STATE HOSPITAL AND ASYLUM (1918-58)
To accommodate the State hospital functions, this period of the former Liverpool Hospital complex saw major alterations and further additions to the site. The site had become one of the major hospitals in the Sydney metropolitan area and, by the early twentieth century, the government had every intention of extending the Liverpool Asylum to accommodate its additional hospital functions. Even though early negotiations had already progressed, the outbreak of the First World War saw the sale of the adjoining land fail to eventuate and, with the convict-built brick wall surrounding the complex, there was little opportunity to undertake further constructions to expand the facility. The remaining option for the Government, in order to continue its use of the hospital complex, was to redevelop and modify the existing buildings within the boundary walls. The intention was to bring the hospital complex up to current twentieth century standards. With new facilities provided to serve and care for the wider community, the Liverpool Hospital became one of the main state hospitals during this time.
However, by 1958, the existing buildings had become increasingly inadequate for the needs of the hospital and, being unable to easily adapt the built fabric to modern medical practices, the hospital was forced to move to a neighbouring location. This closure of the hospital, after almost 150 years, and its transfer to new facilities on an adjoining site, ended a long-standing and continuous history of servicing the health needs of the Liverpool community at this site. The 1960s saw the beginning of a new use for the site, as a tertiary education facility.
(Cserhalmi, CMP Vol 1 & 4, 1994; Thorp, 1993; Kelly, 2007)
LIVERPOOL TECHNICAL COLLEGE (1960-present)
Following the closure of the hospital complex as a medical facility, the site and its existing buildings were acquired in June 1960 and converted for use as a Technical College. By July 1961, the conversion was complete and the College was opened. The College initiated a building conversion program that saw the demolition of some twentieth century additions to the site and the construction of a number of new buildings (Blocks J & K). Later, the College became the South Western Sydney Institute of TAFE.
(Cserhalmi, CMP Vol 1, 1994; Tuck & Douglas, 2002; Kelly, 2007; Liverpool Heritage Study Vol 1, 1992; Cserhalmi, 2006)
COMPARISONS WITH OTHER NSW CONVICT AND COLONIAL HOSPITALS
The survival of the former Liverpool Hospital is rare in terms of early hospitals in NSW. The earliest hospital in Sydney, established in 1788, was a portable tent hospital at George Street, The Rocks. In 1810, Governor Macquarie started construction on the Sydney (Rum) Hospital, completed in 1816. This was the first permanent hospital in the colony but only the northern wing (now Parliament House) and the southern wing (now The Mint) have survived. The central wing was demolished and rebuilt in the late nineteenth century as the present Sydney Hospital.
The Parramatta Hospital was the oldest continually occupied site for public health in Australia (for 200 years) but this site has undergone various changes over its history. The original 1789 hospital was replaced by two convict-era hospitals (1792 & 1818) that were then replaced by the 1896-1901 building that was severely modified over the twentieth century. Demolished in 2004, the site has been redeveloped as the Parramatta Justice Precinct with the insitu conservation of the most significant archaeology of the convict and colonial hospital buildings (1792-1901).
As one of the oldest existing hospital complexes in Australia, there are few sites with comparable built fabric and archaeology, which equate to that of the former Liverpool Hospital.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Hospital; http://www.wsahs.nsw.gov.au/services/publicaffairs/JefferyHouseInternet.htm) |