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House with a history of hundreds of crying babies

“Yvonne”, at 75 Campbell Street… about 1700 babies were delivered there between 1910 and 1944. Photo: Belinda Strahorn

A SIMPLE weatherboard home in Queanbeyan’s Campbell Street witnessed the birth of hundreds and hundreds of babies during its 30-year life as a maternity hospital.

“Yvonne”, a five-bedroom home at 75 Campbell Street, was built for the Johnston family in 1908, but was registered two years later as a “lying-in” birthing hospital by nurse Mary Johnston.

About 1700 babies were delivered at “Yvonne” between 1910 and 1944, before the hospital’s licence was suspended.

“The first mother to give birth there was Gladys Taylor who had a baby girl on May 24, 1910,” says amateur historian and Queanbeyan resident Phill Hawke.

“The last patient at ‘Yvonne’ was Patricia Hadlow whose daughter was born on November 16, 1944.”

Nurse Mary Johnston… with two of the 1700 babies born at “Yvonne”.

After the last baby was born at “Yvonne”, Mrs Johnston converted the home into a boarding house that she managed until her death in 1948.

Three generations of the Johnston family continued living there until 1980.

Mr Hawke, whose mother-in-law Pat Greenwood was born at “Yvonne” in 1927, says a lot of people have a personal connection to the house.

“Many people know someone who was born there or were born there themselves,” Mr Hawke says.

“It’s a special and well-known place for many Queanbeyan residents.”

Mr Hawke says private “lying-in” hospitals were prominent in Queanbeyan during the late 1880s and the early 1900s.

“There were about half a dozen of them operating in Queanbeyan during that period and most of them were named,” Mr Hawke says.

Besides “Yvonne” there was “Kinkora”, at 25 Campbell Street; “Raymond” and “Jululah” in Morisset Street; “Fairholme”, at 74 Lowe Street; “Auberne” in Rutledge Street and “Glenwarrie” in Macquoid Street.

Delving into the past, Mr Hawke has unearthed some interesting facts about the important role that private maternity hospitals played in delivering babies in earlier times. 

“Women about to give birth, who lived nearby would literally walk to the hospital, have their baby, and then walk back home again often with the baby in their arms,” Mr Hawke says.

“Other mothers-to-be would come into Queanbeyan on horse and sulky and stay with friends waiting for the right time to go to the hospital. They had to do that because there was just nowhere else to go.”
“Lying-in” hospitals existed many years before hospitals in Canberra and Queanbeyan began operating.

Previous generations of babies were delivered by midwives within these private homes, rather than in maternity wards in public hospitals.

“Kinkora”, at 25 Campbell Street, another private nursing hospital, run by Sister Eva Darmody. Photo: Belinda Strahorn

Further along Campbell Street was “Kinkora”, another private nursing hospital, run by Sister Eva Darmody who had operated a maternity hospital at Sutton.

Mr Hawke recounts one of nurse Darmody’s greatest moments when she delivered a baby during one of Queanbeyan’s major floods. 

“Nurse Darmody was called to a maternity case on the east side of the river but she was stuck on the other side of the river,” says Mr Hawke.

“So, she got a lift to the railway bridge and walked across it and was met by another vehicle which took her to the expectant mother. 

“She then delivered the baby.”

Armed with determination and pride, nurse Darmody – like many of her time – would go on to care for generations of local families to come.

“Nurse Darmody was an incredible lady; she was one of 13 children and spent her childhood helping raise her brothers and sisters, perhaps the reason she never married. 

“She died in 1963 at the age of 83.”

 

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Belinda Strahorn

Belinda Strahorn

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2 Responses to House with a history of hundreds of crying babies

Narelle O'Rourke says: 14 October 2021 at 5:16 pm

Thank you to Phil Hawke “Yvonne”lying-in hospital and the owner of the licence Nurse Mary Johnston are mentioned in my books on Queanbeyan.i.e,”A Country nurse and midwife, the life ,career and times of Mary O’Rourke/Bowers MBE in the Queanbeyan District of New South Wales,1889-1973.”pub 1989. in “Women of the Monaro,”Soroptimist International of Canberra for my first prize entry “Midwives,Nurses and Nightingales,’for the Bicentenary 1988, and “Quick call Nursie the missus is havin’a baby, Midwives of the Queanbeyan, Monaro Canberra District”pub 2019,and “Queanbeyan its Hospital, Doctors Nurses, Chemists and Undertakers,” pub 2019 and “Sister Nancy Campbell saved from the rubbish tip,” pub 2021.as well as my oral history interview for the sale of “Yvonne” some years ago see Youtube with also interviews of local identities delivered at the lying-in hospital and history of midwifery in the district by courtesy Peter Blackshaw real estate. regards Narelle O’Rourke

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Mary Falzon says: 28 February 2024 at 9:54 am

My name Mary Bezzina born in Queanbeyan hospital my mother always said that I was the firist baby born in the new hospital I was born 29 10 1952 but another baby was born same time a minute later then me, but they gave the prize to the our lady she had a lot of children also I was number 7 baby for my mum Doris my parents came from malta ..

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