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Health & Hospitals
Nurses at Broken Hill
The provision of healthcare services in Broken Hill was almost entirely reliant upon women. These services were crucial in a community that bore witness to horrific mining injuries, malnutrition, high infant mortality, and disease caused by poor hygiene, lack of water and refuse from the mines. Four midwives were registered in Broken Hill from 1892, but the hospital consisted of one room adjoining a tent. From 1889, the Sisters of Mercy helped to care for the orphaned, sick and poor, while female volunteers cooked, sewed and cleaned for religious and lay welfare associations. Several nurses, such as Margarethe Von Puttkamer and later Elsie Simper, established private hospitals. By the 1930s the situation was no better, and Marion Strang spent her savings fitting out a home for the elderly after the geriatric ward at the hospital was closed for financial reasons. Finally, in 1941, a new, fully air-conditioned hospital opened at Broken Hill and by the 1950s was recognised as one of the best nurse training hospitals in the state.