Internet and Book History Resources.

Other resources

While the ACHHA has the largest collection of memorabilia relating to the health service history of Central Queensland, there are always other sources where you may find interesting additional information.  Here are some examples.

Internet Resources
One of the most important on-line resources now available is the National Library of Australia Trove website. In particular, the many newspapers which have now been scanned and indexed are a valuable resource since events such as Hospital Board Meetings, building openings, epidemics etc are covered in great detail. Even the advertisements can be very informative. Depending on the newspaper, these resources provide a large amount of information from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries.

When the Trove website is open, just enter some search words e.g. Rockhampton Hospitals or a surname such as Axelsen.  Click on the reference items which appear to find more detail about the subject.

This simple search provides many links which may not be useful. Let's assume you have heard that Ida Axelsen worked at the Westwood Sanatorium. You can narrow your search by clicking on the Advanced Search box. Now type Axelsen and Westwood into the All of these words box. You will see that you immediatly have some results which directly answer your question.

You will often find that it is not a good idea to be too specific with your search terms, especially names. For example if you had entered Ida Axelsen you may have missed references in which Ida was identified as Miss Axelsen or Matron Axelsen.

Books and manuscripts
There are quite a number of publications which provide historical information about the delivery of health services in Central Queensland.  Here are some examples, arranged approximately by date of publication. By far the most important as far as nursing history in Rockhampton and the ACHHA Collection are concerned is the final one on the list written by Dr Wendy Madsen. When you are using the Rockhampton Regional Council website, you will see the search boxes right at the top of the page.

The Early History of Rockhampton (J T S Bird)
Mr J T S Bird wrote an early history of Rockhampton which was first published by The Morning Bulletin in 1904.  The history is particularly dedicated to the period up to 1870 and is largely based on information published in The Morning Bulletin and The Capricornian. The Rockhampton Council Library holds a copy of the original publication in its Special Collection.  A more accessible version has been made available by the Central Queensland Family History Association Inc which re-published the work in 1999 after retyping it.  These are available in both the Rockhampton Council Library and the CQU Library.  This publication contains limited but useful information on early developments of the hospital.

The Development of Rockhampton and District (A E Hermann)
Mr A E Hermann completed his extensive history of the development of Rockhampton and District in mid-1964.  Sadly, he died suddenly in April 1965 before the work could be published.  Fortunately, the Central Queensland Family History Association Inc re-typed the two-volume work from photocopies of the original manuscript and published it in 2002.  It is available in both the Rockhampton Council Library and the CQU Library.  The work contains a very large amount of detailed information about buildings, organisations and people who contributed to the first 100 years of development in this region.

Rockhampton – A History of City and District (Dr Lorna McDonald)
Dr Lorna McDonald’s history of Rockhampton was first published by the University of Queensland Press in 1981.  The Second Edition was published by the Rockhampton City Council in 2005.  The book includes a chapter ‘Caring for the Whole Person: Institutions’ which provides some information on the development of Rockhampton’s hospitals as well as information about some key individual contributors.  Both the CQU Library and the Rockhampton Council Library hold copies of this book.

Characters & Caritas (Edited by Dr Hilary Mercer, Peggy Carter and Professor John Pearn)
Characters & Caritas” is a small volume (77 pp) edited by Hilary Mercer, Peggy Carter and Professor John Pearn.  The book, available in both the Rockhampton Council Library and the CQU library, has six stories including one about Andy, the legendary Theatre Sister at Tannachy, written by Rhylla Webb, one about the Rockhampton Children’s Hospital (1885-1925) written by Dr Peter Roper, one about the Rockhampton Mater Misericordiae Hospital (1915-1992) written by Deborah Friel and another about the late Dr Charlie Whitchurch particularly when he was based in Emerald, written by Daniel Manahan.

Rockhampton and District: A Pictorial History (Oxford Press)
Rockhampton’s Oxford Press (which was a Division of Capricornia Newspapers Pty Ltd) published an extensive set of historical photographs in 1988 as a Bicentennial Commemorative Publication.  Among the many photographs are the Rockhampton General Hospital (ca. 1870), the Rockhampton Children’s Hospital (ca. 1900), the West Street Benevolent Home (ca. 1910), Kenmore (ca. 1920) and Avonleigh (ca. 1908).  Copies are held in both the Rockhampton Council Library and the CQU Library.

Nursing, Nurses and Their Work in Rockhampton, 1930-1950 (Dr Wendy Madsen)
Another source of information is a masters dissertation by Dr Wendy Madsen, a nurse, who wrote a thesis entitled “Nursing, nurses and their work in Rockhampton, 1930-1950”.  This is held in the CQU library.  Unfortunately it is not available for borrowing so must be read in the library.

Nursing Services in the Rockhampton District, 1911-1957 (Dr Wendy Madsen)
Dr Wendy Madsen, a Senior Lecturer in Nursing at Central Queensland University, completed her doctoral studies in 2005 at the Queensland University of Technology. Her research made extensive use of the records in the ACHHA Collection. While the thesis is not available for loan, it has been made available on-line through the Australian Digital Thesis Program. As with all such theses, it is a lengthy document of almost 400 pages. However there is no other work available which provides such a comprehensive treatment of nursing history in the Rockhampton region covering all forms of service provision in both the private and public sector. The thesis also discusses differences in nursing services between metropolitan and regional areas in Queensland.

The thesis is available through this QUT Library web page.