"The Bush"

 

At a meeting in the Memorial Clubrooms on 28 January, 1937, it was unhesitatingly recommended that a Bush Nursing Hospital be set up in Mornington. The hospital was to provide for seven patients normally, but on an emergency basis, would take twelve people, and that estimate of the needs of the district was thought, "ample for a few years to come".

A membership fee of twenty-five shillings per year was fixed for a married man, including his family up to eighteen years, and the single membership was twelve shillings and sixpence a year.

The cost of the hospital was estimated at approximately £2,760, and the equipment and furniture were to be purchased for £350.

On 18 July, 1937, the King George V Memorial Bush Nursing Hospital opened to great fanfare on the current site in Main Street Mornington. It was named in memory of the monarch who had died the previous year.

The original building, affectionately known as ‘The Bush’, housed eight beds in single, two and three bed wards, a nursery and labour room, and an operating theatre.