| Historical notes: | Historically, the area was also important to Aboriginal people, Pacific Islanders and Aboriginal people suffering from leprosy were treated at the Leprosy Lazarate at the coast hospital. Two cemeteries were associated with the coast hospital. A number of Pacific Islanders were buried in one of these and there is a strong oral tradition in the La Perouse Aboriginal community that Aboriginal people are buried here as well. The area thus has strong social significance to the La Perous community. The Little Bay area is also important to this community becasue Aborignal people continue to use this locality as a place to obtain food and this assists in maintaining traditional knowledge about such practices. The first use of the Little Bay area for medical care wasin 1879, when three Chinese lepers werw isolated in huts near the Bay. following an outbreak of smallpox in hte winter of 1881, the Colonial Government decided to establish an infectious disease hospital to replace the inadequate facilities at the only other isolation site, North Head Quarantine Station and 500 acres were reserved at Little Bay. Whilst the colonial architect was instructed to erect a suitable pavililn hospital on the land, the first hospital facilities were contained in bell tents near the beach and admissions to the tents started on 5 September 1881. When the construction of the Coast Hospital was completed, it consisted of six pavilion wards and two private pavilion wards joined by a covered verandah, two specially isolated pavilion ward, together with quarters for medical and nursing staff and various other buildings. The buildings were constructed in wood and corrugated iron, being finally demolished following World War II. The water supply for the hospital proper was obtained from the stream entering the southern side of Little Bay, across which a dam was constructed. In addition to the hosital accommodation, a separate sanatorium, consisting of five pavilions, was constructed in a section known as the Healthy Ground, located directly above Little Bay to the north-east of the hospital proper and fenced off from it. By 1886, the sanatorium was used for infectious cases, a role it fulfilled until its demolition in 1937. Part of the Healthy Ground is now occupied by the Marks Pavilion. In 1890 a new Lazaret was erected on the north side of Little Bay to house leprosy patients, the buidings in this complex being finally demolisehd in 1966. Early in the 20th century it was recommended that a gradual rebuilding of the general section of the hospital should be made. By 1913 the Minister for Health, Fred Flowers, had prepared an extensive rebuiding scheme which included the construction of twenty wards. The foundation stone was laid on 7 November 1914 and by the end fo the War (1918) six pavilions had been completed. The project was never completed. In 1934 the name of the Coast Hospital was changed, not wihtout opposition, to the Prince Henry Hospital, to commemorate the visit then of Henry, Duke of Gloucester. An extensive buidling program was embarked on during the 1930s. The significant buildings and sites include the follwing 1) the Flowers Hospital, 2) store, formerly lecture hall, 3) managers (pine) cottage, 4) six residential cottages, 5)( two military wards, 6) the 1930s nurses home, 7) sewing room, the former superintendent's cottage, 8) institute of tropical medicine, 9) nurses memorial chapel, 10) golf club house, th former laundry, 11) memorial clocktower and clock 12) phoenix palms, coral trees and Norfolk Island pines, 13) dam and pond, 14) site of stables and workshops complex, 15) site of male Lazaret, 16) rock pool, 17) road formation between chapel and dam, 18) road formation approaching the cemetery, 19) road formation between St Michael's Golf Links and Jennifer Street, 20) the cemetery, 21) tramway formation. |
