Heritage listing application submitted for Bundaberg Hospital Nurses’ Quarters

The historic Bundaberg Hospital nurses’ quarters is one of the few remaining buildings of its type in Qld, and could be protected from the bulldozers if a campaign to get it heritage listed succeeds.

The nurses quarters at Bundaberg Hospital could enjoy the protection of heritage listing if an application to have the historic building listed on the Queensland Heritage Register is successful.

The nurses’ quarters at Bundaberg Hospital could enjoy the protection of heritage listing if an application to have the historic building listed on the Queensland Heritage Register is successful.

The application lodged by the Bundaberg Regional Heritage Group in October 2023 seeks heritage listing for the quarters built in 1914 on the basis of its aesthetic significance and strong cultural association with the nursing profession in the Bundaberg community and beyond.

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As told in the comprehensive history included in the application, the need for nurses’ accommodation came about through a shift away from community-based, untrained nurses to a corps of registered nurses who would be allocated to hospitals throughout the state.

One of the few remaining nurses' quarters in Queensland, the building was completed in 1914 and has undergone numerous renovations and extensions through the following decades.

Bundaberg Regional Heritage Group member Jenny Goss, who was team leader for the application, said the building was a living testament to the evolution of nursing to a more professional era populated mostly by young, single women.

“It’s got considerable history with the profession, not only in Bundaberg, but in Queensland,” Ms Goss said.

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“You can trace the development of why they build these things at the time for the protection of the young females that were going into the profession.”

Completed in 1914, soon after the ribbon was cut on the new Bundaberg hospital, the original nurses’ quarters was a simple single-story brick building with eleven rooms, seven for day nurses and four for night nurses.

Three more rooms were added in 1919, and the quarters received its most significant alterations in 1937 when it was converted to a two-storey building with 28 bedrooms and a spacious dormitory.

The nurses quarters at Bundaberg Hospital could enjoy the protection of heritage listing if an application to have the historic building listed on the Queensland Heritage Register is successful.

Speaking to the Courier Mail at the time, Bundaberg Hospitals Board chairman A.E. Aitkin said the board “had no right to expect any girl to leave her home and devote her life to hospital service unless they could give her a home as decent and attractive as her own”.

After a series of further renovations and extensions made as recently as 1971, part of the nurses’ quarters are still used for accomodation to this day with the remainder of the building used as offices.

Ms Goss said her team of four worked for “a couple of months” on the application, driven by a desire to protect the historic building from demolition with the opening of the New Bundaberg Hospital looming, currently estimated for late 2027.

Bundaberg Regional Heritage Group member Jenny Goss said the nurses quarters are a living testament to the evolution of nursing to a more professional era populated mostly by young, single woman.

“You’d hate to see what happened to the original hospital building happen to this one as well,” she said.

“You’d hate to see it go, it’s too much a part of Bundaberg’s history to lose it.”

After the controversial demolition of Anzac Pool and the relocation of the 110-year old Queenslander Consuelo, Ms Goss said there were signs of positive change by the Bundaberg council towards better recognising the importance of the region’s heritage buildings.

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The Bundaberg Regional Heritage Group is now closely engaged with the council, having input into the incorporation of heritage recognition into council’s planning scheme including providing a database of heritage properties.

Ms Goss expects to receive a response from the Department of Environment, Science and Innovation at some time between March 1 and May 1, 2024 regarding the application’s referral to the Queensland Heritage Council.

Originally published as Heritage listing application submitted for Bundaberg Hospital Nurses’ Quarters