Maroondah Hospital to be stripped of Indigenous name and renamed Queen Elizabeth II Hospital

The Andrews government is keeping calm and carrying on with its controversial plans to strip a hospital in Melbourne’s east of its Indigenous name – and rename it after Queen Elizabeth II.

Queen Elizabeth II opened the new Royal Children's Hospital in 2011. Picture: William West

The state government is pushing ahead with controversial plans to strip an eastern suburbs hospital of its Indigenous name, and rename it after Queen Elizabeth II.

Daniel Andrews sparked fierce debate in the lead-up to last year’s election when he pledged to rename Ringwood’s Maroondah Hospital after the late monarch, as part of a $1bn redevelopment of the site.

It prompted a petition against the move that attracted more than 50,000 signatures, and calls from the Greens to immediately reverse the decision.

The Victorian Health Building Authority this week flagged a range of upcoming tenders for the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital redevelopment (Maroondah) project.

It includes tenders for a project manager, principal consultant, quantity surveyor and service engineer.

“In 2022 the Andrews Labor government committed between $850 – 1,050 million to deliver a large-scale expansion and redevelopment of the Maroondah Hospital, leading to its renaming as the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital,” the notice said.

Daniel Andrews sparked fierce debate in the lead-up to last year’s election when he pledged to rename Ringwood’s Maroondah Hospital after the late monarch. Picture: Hamish Blair

“A strategic masterplan was prepared in late-2022 and involved extensive health service engagement.

“The strategic masterplan found that there are potentially feasible opportunities to expand and redevelop the site and its surrounds.

“Notwithstanding this, the site is fully developed, and any material expansion of services will be complex, require staged decanting and/or demolition activities to deliver improvements on the site.”

The VHBA is now working to progress masterplanning and feasibility study phases for inclusion into a future government business case submission.

Victorian Greens member for the North-East Metropolitan region, Aiv Puglielli, accused the government of erasing First Nations language and history.

“What is the Victorian Labor government thinking, changing the name of a hospital from a First Nations word to the name of a foreign monarch representing colonisation?” he said.

“It is a disrespectful decision that erases Woi-wurrung language. The Greens stand with First Nations communities and the tens of thousands of Victorians that are against this disrespectful decision.”

Shadow Minister for Health, Georgie Crozier, said: “The Andrews government’s priority must be to fix the issues at the Maroondah Hospital so that Victorians in that community can get the care they deserve and need, not be fixated on a name change.”

Mr Andrews has maintained the renaming of the hospital was appropriate.

“It’s a fitting recognition of the contribution that the late Queen made – a great patron of the NHS in Britain, a great patron of, for instance, the Royal Children’s Hospital. She opened two of those which is a pretty special thing to think to do,” he said last year.

“As for the naming of the hospital, we think that’s appropriate. What’s more, we’re going to get on and give the east something special … a brand-new $1bn hospital that will provide care and support for every family, right across this region.”