No separate children’s ward.

Until 1904 The Maitland Hospital had ‘no separate ward for children’.

This changed when the new 1905 building was under construction and what had been the surgical ward in the second floor of the hospital’s original building was converted to a children’s ward.

The Maitland Mercury described the new children’s ward with its ‘four window openings [that] overlook the grounds … a spacious verandah running the whole length of the building’, ‘beautifully lighted, and exceedingly well ventilated’. There was ‘a handsome majolica-tiled hearth and grate’ and ‘a stamped ceiling painted in a light shade of green, with a rich brown border, white-coloured plastered walls, a plain brown linoleum floor-covering.’  The ward was furnished through a fundraising campaign. (Maitland Mercury, 16 January 1905)

Children’s ward, about 1906.

(University of Newcastle Special Collections)

Over the next couple of decades the space was not always used as a dedicated children’s ward. In 1907 Thomas Pyman, who had initiated the 1903-1904 fundraising to furnish the hospital, expressed concern ‘that the children’s ward in your hospital is not being devoted to the use originally intended’ and, as noted in 1936, the ward at one stage was used as a ‘dormitory for nurses’.

 In 1936, it reopened as a children’s ward with ‘the conversion of the first floor of the administration block to a maternity and children’s ward’ (Maitland Mercury, 14 August 1936). The children’s ward verandah was photographed.

The verandah of the children’s ward, 1936.

Photograph taken by Howard Harris.

(Maitland Hospital Collection 165.127)

Patients on the verandah of the children’s ward, 1942.

One of a group of photographs taken to mark the centenary of The Maitland Hospital.

(Maitland Hospital Collection 165.134)

Revitalised on a couple of occasions, the ward remained in the same location until the early 1940s when the old children’s ward was converted to a maternity ward, and new facilities with ‘a maximum of sun and light conditions’ were created on level 2 in the 1905 building, in the space which, in 2021, was occupied by physiotherapy.

In 1951 artist Pixie O’Harris created murals for the walls of the children’s ward as part of her state wide efforts to enhance hospital environments for children. Paediatrician Keith Howard, who joined the hospital in 1979, remembers the O’Harris murals. One, he recalls, ‘had not been improved by the … need for installation of a piped oxygen outlet near the midriff of a fairy!’. Keith Howard also remembers ‘an aquarium of colourful fish, donated by Dr Wilson Kwa, GP, in Maitland.’

Admiring the fish tank in the children’s ward.

(Maitland Hospital Collection 48)

One of a number of prints made from photoengraving plates in the Maitland Hospital Collection.

Maitland Hospital Assistant Secretary Ron Pickett presents an Ivac intravenous machine to Val Simm, sister-in-charge of the children’s ward, two-year-old patient Fiona Bowtell is in Sister Simm’s arms, 1981.

Published in Maitland Mercury, 8 January 1981.

(Maitland Hospital Collection 280)

In 1983 the children’s ward underwent another significant renovation and improvement. This, unfortunately, saw the disappearance of the O’Harris murals. In their place, as Keith Howard observes, Don Brook and Dick Breiner ‘made up for this’ and painted the walls with ‘Don’s cartoon style and Dick’s realistic pictures of Australian wildlife’.  The ward was also, as the Maitland Mercury (7 April 1983) observed, ‘decorated with brightly coloured curtains and furniture’.

Janet Ausling, sister-in-charge of the children’s ward, holding 11 month old David Murrell with Brett McNaughton in the refurbished children’s ward, April 1983.

Published in Maitland Mercury, 7 April 1983.

(Newcastle Regional Library 362.11/MAI)

Brad Cole shares a memory from his time as a patient in the children’s ward in about 1983-1984. He writes:

I remember when I was in hospital recovering I used to hop on the floor polisher with the cleaner and go up and down the halls of the children’s ward.

Ted Jeffries and Eric Scheer of East Maitland Masonic Lodge present a cheque to Judy Callinan, relieving nurse and unit manager of the children’s ward, 1994.

Published in Maitland Mercury, 7 July 1994.

(Maitland and District Historical Society Pamphlet File)

A further relocation occurred in 1996. Level 3 of the newly built Block C included a new children’s ward.

Posted: 19 July 2021

Updated: 5 February 2022