Spring was a time of celebration and ideas of rebirth, rejuvenation, renewal, resurrection and regrowth. Camden celebrated its ‘re-birth’ with a week-long spring festival held in the late 1960s in late October with a spring flower festival full of community events.
Spring, the season of re-birth, was celebrated in Sydney with the Waratah Festival which ran from 1956 to 1973. Originally festivals in Melbourne and Sydney were sparked by the thousands of people who flocked to see the visit of Queen Elizabeth in 1954. The optimism of the post-war years was initially celebrated in Melbourne with it Moomba Festival from March 1955 and then the following years by Sydney’s Waratah Festival in October.
The 1960s were a period of prosperity and optimism in the Camden district. One expression of local optimism and perhaps the inspiration for the Rose Festival may have been the new rose gardens in Macarthur Park which were planned and laid out in 1964, and planted out with 80 roses the following year.
Founder of the Camden Rose Festival
The founder of the Camden Rose Festival was insurance salesman JW Hill as fundraiser for Camden District Hospital. Hill was a keen volunteer and a member of a number of community organisations including Lions, RSL, Masons, scouting movement and an enthusiastic bowler, golfer and swimmer. (Camden Advertiser, 11 February 2009)
Hill led the organisation of the 1968 Rose Festival celebrations and involved the whole community. Festivities opened with a street parade along Argyle Street and were a highlight of the week. Festival publicity boasted that the parade would ‘feature decorated floats, vintage motor vehicles, commercial displays and costumed marchers’. (Camden News, 23 October 1968)
1968 street parade
‘Several thousand people’ lined Argyle Street and watched the procession of floats in the street parade which boasted a strong local line-up starting with ‘school children and members of the Air Training Corps, Scouts and Guides’ supported by five bands. (Camden News, 30 October 1968)
Cawdor Uniting Church Float in the 1968 Camden Rose Festival Street Parade. The driver of the horse team in local character and identity Vic Boardman. The old Commonweath Bank building is in the rear of the parade. (Camden Images)
Officials including the mayor, Alderman Ferguson, and local member of parliament, Max Dunbier MLA, supervised the parade from their vantage point near the post office. Parade floats included the Camden Historical Society which ‘entered a buggy and a team of horsemen in period costume’, Fossey’s store staff ‘featured girls in different national costumes’ while the fellows from Camden Apex Club provided a ‘humorous comment on National Dental Week’. The Camden Theatre Group float provided publicity for their up-coming show ‘The Pyjama Game’. (Camden News, 30 October 1968)
The Camden Rose Festival Street Parade with a float with a colonial farming theme. The old Commonwealth Bank building is in the rear next door to Clifton’s milk bar. (Camden Images)
Parade proceedings were briefly interrupted for a short time when ‘a motley crowd of roughnecks’ called the ‘Kelly Gang’ rode into town on their horses. The gang provided ‘hilarious’ entertainment when tried to hold-up the CBC Bank, but instead decided to kidnap a bank officer, Bob Green, and transported him and his ‘charlady’ to the Camden Showground. (Camden News, 30 October 1968)
The western side of Argyle Street (the Hume Highway) was closed off and there were a series of entertainers: at 11:00 there was the Issues; followed at 12.00 by young dancers from the Camden Ballroom and Latin American Dancing Academy.
Wheelbarrow derby
A wheelbarrow derby started at 1.00pm and finished at the bowling club with hotel sponsored-teams in racing colours expecting stiff competition. The winning Crown Hotel team was made up of local identities Charlie Mulley and Eric McGrath.
The day was topped with a traditional village-style sports day at Camden showground with tug-o-war where the Apex team over-powered the local police. There were foot races for local men with rolling-pin throwing for ‘ladies’ and a ‘diaper derby for toddlers’. The winner of the ‘beard-growing contest was Don Rolfe who won an electric razor. These activities were supported by a pet-zoo and model aeroplane display. (Camden News, 23 October 1968)
Festival art exhibition
Local artist and school-teacher Ken Rorke organised the festival art exhibition, which attracted over 500 entries. The success of the art prize was a fore-runner of what would eventually be the Camden Art Prize which started in 1972 after the last Rose Festival was held in 1971. There were sections for adults and children (infants, primary and secondary) supplemented with handicrafts. (Camden News, 23 October 1968)
Festival queen
The 1968 Rose Festival Queen Marilyn Fuller was crowned by 1967 Queen Michele Chambers at the showground festivities after the parade. Other festival queen entrants were Miss Hospital Beverley Thornton and Miss Apex Ngaire Davies. (Camden News, 30 October 1968.
Camden Rose Festival Queen for 1968 Miss Marilyn Fuller (left) receives her crown from 1967 Queen Miss Michele Chambers. On the right Miss Fuller thanked those who worked ‘so hard for her success’. Seated were Miss Hospital, Beverley Thornton and Miss Apex, Ngaire Davies. (Camden News, 30 October 1968)
Masked ball
Festivities in 1968 peaked with the masked ball held at the AH&I Hall on Saturday night 2 November 1968 which started at 8.00pm. Tickets were $3.75 with proceeds going to ‘local charities’. This was the second ball organised by the festival committee, president J Hill, secretary H Kitching and treasurer UH Parsons.
The CHN blogger attended an informative and interesting talk at Belgenny Farm in the Home Farm meeting hall. The presentation was delivered by Peter Watson from the Howell Living History Farm in Lambertville, New Jersey, USA.
Mr Watson, an advocate of the living history movement, was the guest of the chairman of the Belgenny Farm Trust Dr Cameron Archer. Mr Watson was on a speaking tour and had attended a living history conference while in Australia.
Peter Watson and Howell Farm
Peter Watson presented an interesting and far ranging talk about Howell Living History Farm in New Jersey and its programs.
A very informative talk by Mr Peter Watson from the Howell Living History Farm in Lambertville, New Jersey, USA. Mr Watson was the guest of Belgenny Farm Trust Chairman Dr Cameron Archer. The talk was held on 2 May 2018 at the Belgenny Farm community hall with an attentive crowd of local folk. (I Willis)
Mr Watson said, ‘The 130 acre farm was gifted to the community in 1974 by a state politician with the aim of showing how farming used to be done in New Jersey.
Howell Living History Farm is located within a one hour of around 15 million and the far has 65,000 visitors per year and 10,000 school children.
Mr Watson said,
‘We took about 10 years to get going and deal with the planning process, which was tenuous for the government authorities who own the farm.
Mr Watson said,
‘The main aim at the farm is the visitor experience. The farm represents New Jersey farming between 1890 and 1910 – a moment in time.’
Mr Watson says,
‘We do not want to allow history to get in the way of an education experience for the visitor. The farm visitors are attracted by nostalgia which is an important value for them.
Most historic farms are museums, according to Mr Watson and he said, ‘At Howell Living History Farm visitors become involved in activities.’
The farm uses original equipment using traditional methods and interpretation with living history.
The Living History Movement
Historian Patrick McCarthy considers that living history is concerned with (1) ‘first person’ interpretation or role play (2) adopting authentic appearance (3) re-creating the original historic site of the event.
Living historian Scott Magelssen maintains that living history museums ‘engage strategies in their performance of the past’, claiming to be ‘real history by virtue of their attention to detail’. Living history museums ‘do not merely represent the past; they make historical ‘truth’ for the visitor’. (pp. xii-xv)
According to Magelssen living history museums ‘produce history’ like textbooks, films or a lecture. Under the influence of post-modernism history ‘is on longer to be seen as the reconstruction of the past through scientific analysis’. Living history is a research tool. (pp. xii-xv) There are various interpretations on the way this is constructed, configured and delivered amongst the theorists.
Origins of living history museum movement
One of the early influencers of the living history movement in North America was Henry Ford who established his indoor and outdoor living museum experience in the Detroit suburb of Dearbourn in Michigan USA. It is the largest indoor-outdoor museum complex in the USA and attracts 1.6 million visitors. Ford opened the Greenfield Village to the public in 1933 as the first outdoor living museum in the USA and has over 100 buildings moved to the site dating from the 1700s. Henry Ford said of his museum
I am collecting the history of our people as written into things their hands made and used…. When we are through, we shall have reproduced American life as lived, and that, I think, is the best way of preserving at least a part of our history and tradition…
Living history @ Belgenny
Belgenny Farm is an authentic collection of colonial farm buildings that were once part of the Macarthur family’s Camden Park Estate.
The signage at the entrance to the Belgenny Farm complex at Camden NSW. (I Willis, 2018)
The Belgenny Farm website states that its education program adopts the principles of the living history movement. It states:
Schools enjoy a diverse range of hands-on curriculum based programs including the new Creamery Interpretative Centre. The Creamery showcases the dairy industry over the last 200 years and is supported by a virtual tour and online resources.
And more to the point:
Belgenny Farmwas established by John and Elizabeth Macarthur in 1805 and contains the earliest collection of colonial farm buildings in Australia. The property is a major educational centre with direct links to Australia’s agricultural history.
Sydney Living Museums
Sydney Living Museums is part of the living history museum movement and manages 12 historic properties across NSW. The stated role of SLM is to:
enrich and revitalise people’s lives with Sydney’s living history, and to hand the precious places in our care and their collections on to future generations to enjoy.
Sydney Living Museums’ Hyde Park Barracks in Macquarie Street Sydney. (Wikimedia)
Sydney Living Museums has a philosophy which aims to be part of the living history movement by being:
authentic; bold; collaborative; passionate; and a sociable host.
Originally known as the Historic Houses Trust (HHT) the first chairman stated that the organisation wanted to present
to refresh and unify our diverse range of properties and highlight our role and relevance for current and future generations.
Living history is storytelling
Living history is walking the ground of an historical event or place or building. Walking the ground shows the layers of meaning in history in a place or building.
Walking the ground is an authentic real experience.
Participants absorb the past that is located in the present of a place or a site. The past is the present and the past determines the present. It shapes, meaning and interpretation. It is the lived experience of a place.
Living history allows participants to be able to read: the layers of history of an area; the layers of meaning in a landscape; or the layers of history in a building.
It is like peeling off layers of paint from a wall when viewers peel back the layers of history of a site, building or place. Each layer has a special meaning – a special presence.
Lived experience leads to storytelling which is real and authentic.
Storytelling creates the meaning of the past and creates the characters of the past in the present. It allows the past to speak to the present.
Experience some of these stories at the Camden Museum.
Story telling by a volunteer at the Camden Museum for a school visit by Macarthur Anglican School (MAS, 2018)
While I was visiting a historical contact at Menangle I was shown a framed photograph of a winning display in the district exhibition at the 1937 Camden Show. The photograph was bordered by the prize winning ribbon from the Camden AH&I Society awarded to the Menangle Agriculture Bureau. The photograph peaked my interest as I was not familiar with the local agricultural bureaux. A search in the archive files at the Camden Historical Society including those the Camden Show Society yielded light on the matter either.
A framed photograph of the winning district display organised by the Menangle Agricultural Bureau at the 1937 Camden Show. The photograph is surrounded by the winning sash from the Camden AH&I Committee and has been framed for preservation. The organiser of the display was JT Carroll and the bureau president was HE Hunt and secretary F Veness. The framed photograph came to light in 2017 and was handed to Menangle resident Brian Peacock. This is rare photograph of an important day for the village of Menangle which was an example of an English-style estate village controlled by the Macarthur family’s Camden Park Estate.
So what happened at the 1937 Camden Show.
The Menangle Agricultural Bureau took out a first prize at the 1937 Camden Show in the district exhibit. The bureau had entered its agricultural display of fruit, vegetables and other produce. The Camden News reported the display was constructed with over 3000 apples. The Menangle Agricultural Bureau won against stiff competition from the Mount Hunter Agricultural Bureau. The only other competitor in that category.
So what is an agricultural bureau? When did they appear in the Camden district?
Agricultural bureaus were established in New South Wales in 1910 as an initiative of the New South Wales Department of Agriculture, according to the State Archives and Records of NSW.
The aims of the agricultural bureaux were to ‘connect with young rural people’. They were ‘to deliver lectures and demonstrations and special instructions to farmers, and to promote fellowship and social networks within rural communities’.
The bureaux appear to be one of a number of organisations that were part of an organised youth movement within the British Empire set up during the Edwardian period.
The State Archives maintains that the stated aims of the agricultural bureau movement fitted the general imperial youth movement of the time. In NSW ‘the main functions of the Bureau were to promote rural and adult education, to organise co-operative group effort to improve facilities, to train people in citizenship, leadership, and community responsibility’.
There was an anxiety amongst the ruling elites of the British Empire about the state of youth and there was a concerted campaign to inculcate the values of thrift, diligence and obedience. During the Edwardian period the youth movement spawned a number of youth organisations including Boy Scouts, Boys Brigade, Girl Guides, and a host of others. These organisations have been seen by some historians like Michael Childs Labour’s Apprentices as agents of patriotism, obedience and social passivity.
The agricultural bureaux were a farmer-controlled self-governing body which could received extension services from the NSW Department of Agriculture. They were apolitical and non-sectarian.
The state government kept firm control of the new organisation through the NSW Department of Agriculture initially provided lectures through the Department’s District Inspectors of Dairying and Agriculture. The state government went further and provided a subsidy to the bureaux members at the rate of 10/- per pound. In addition council members were reimbursed their expenses for attending meetings.
The activities of the early agricultural bureaus on the Camden district seem to indicate that the bureaus were less of a youth organisation and more of an adult farming group and included activities for the entire family.
One of the earliest agricultural bureaus to be established in the Camden area was at Orangeville around 1913.
The Camden News reported in April that members of the bureau were keen to gain all the scientific knowledge to develop their orchards. They had tried explosives in their orchards as a means of improving ‘sub-soiling’, initially under the trees and then next to the trees. The results of the experiment would not be known, it was reported, until the trees started to bare fruit.
In October 1913 the Orangeville Agriculture Bureau organised a picnic. Mr J Halliday organised the festivities for the ‘ladies and children’. There were 70 children present and prizes were organised for a number races and a competition amongst the ladies organised by Mr RH Taylor. The proceedings were livened up by Mr Joseph Dunbar on the gramophone. A tug-of-war was organised between the single and married men. Councillor CG Moore captained the married men and Mr AL Bennett ‘led the bachelors’. The married men won. Both men were candidates in the upcoming Nepean Shire elections. A short political address was given by Mr WG Watson, which was followed by games until sunset. Mr Taylor, the vice-chairman, thanked everyone for coming and stressed the advantages of becoming a member of the bureau.
A women’s extension service was organised within the body. The bureaus organised farmer training courses, while the women’s extension service organised domestic training courses. The agricultural bureaus were affiliated with a range of other rural organisations including the Bush Nursing Associations, The Rural Youth Organisation and a number of farming organisations.
The local agricultural bureaux disappeared after the Second World War, while the organisation carried on at a state level into the 1970s.
On the first Remembrance Day in Camden in 1946, the Camden News recorded the event with a poem.
They are not dead, that cannot be, They’re part of you and part of me, The smile, the nod, the steadfast look Could never perish at Tobruk. Nor could there fade on Bardia’s sand The cheery voice, the friendly hand, Though seas and lands and years divide, The Anzac lives – he had not died.
It was written by ‘a Digger who had served in two World Wars’.
Menangle Roll of Honour World War One (B Peacock)
George Sidman, the editor of the News, wrote:
‘The strongest of our emotions during this month will be the remembrance of those who have served and for who Remembrance Day has been set aside, and when you wear a Red Poppy, it will remind you at the sacrifice made by those gallant men. It will remind you of courage, of long patient effort and a final victory one’.
Local folk were reminded that poppies were sold throughout the British Empire to wear on Remembrance Day. The proceeds from the sale of the poppies in Camden were supervised by the Camden branch of the RSS&AILA (Returned Soldiers’, Sailors’ and Airmens’ Imperial League of Australia and later RSL). The Association promised to retain half of the funds raised to ‘assist local cases’. In 1946, Poppy Day was held on Friday, 8 November.
The Camden RSL Memorial Rose Garden is the site of the annual Anzac Day Dawn Service in Camden. It attracts thousands of people yearly and is a memory and commemoration site. (CRSL)
The Cultural and Recreation Website of the Australian Government reminds all that:
Originally called Armistice Day, this day commemorated the end of the hostilities for the Great War (World War I), the signing of the armistice, which occurred on 11 November 1918 – the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. Armistice Day was observed by the Allies as a way of remembering those who died, especially soldiers with ‘no known grave’.
On the first anniversary of the armistice, in 1919, one minute’s silence was instituted as part of the main commemorative ceremony. In London, in 1920, the commemoration was given added significance with the return of the remains of an unknown soldier from the battlefields of the Western Front.
The Flanders poppy became accepted throughout the allied nations as the flower of remembrance to be worn on Armistice Day. The red poppies were among the first plants that sprouted from the devastation of the battlefields of northern France and Belgium. ‘Soldiers’ folklore had it that the poppies were vivid red from having been nurtured in ground drenched with the blood of their comrades’.
Camden’s first Remembrance Day in 1946 was held at the St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church on the evening of the 10 November. Mr Buck, the minister, conducted the service, which was attended by the mayor and the aldermen from the council. There was also the local member, Mr Jeff Bate, members of the Camden sub-branch of the RSL, the Camden Red Cross, Voluntary Aids, and representatives from the Eastern Command Training School at Studley Park, Narellan. It was reported that:
The church was beautifully decorated with flowers, together with the Union Jack and Australian Flag on which was placed a laurel wreath, the tribute of the congregation of St Andrew’s to the Nation’s Fallen.
During the ceremony, the mayor, Alderman HS Kelloway, read out all the names of local men who had been killed in action in the First and Second World Wars.
Artist Greg Frawley’s ‘Ceasefire Moon’ (2015). Frawley says that in ‘Ceasefire Moon’ ‘I imagine a moment of peace under a Byzantine Moon where three wounded diggers face us, perhaps questioning what their sacrifice is all about and fearing future horrific battles they will face when they recover’.
Mr Buck spoke in his address of the solemn nature of the occasion and remarked:
‘Greater love hath no man than this, to-night we keep silence for those whom we can never forget – our own who gave their lives. With that gift no other gift compares. This service will have no meaning whatever for us unless – in Lincoln’s noble words “We highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain”.
Mr Buck concluded the service by adding:
May God help us all to highly, resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain.
WW1 Memorial Gates at Macarthur Park (Camden Remembers)
Over 700 locals and visitors were present for the official opening of the Camden District Hospital nurse’s quarters, better known as the ‘nurses home’ by the NSW Minister of Health WF Sheehan in June 1962. Official proceedings at the opening were led by hospital chairman FJ Sedgewick, who said the board had been working towards adding the new building for many years. (Camden News 27 June 1962)
Camden Hospital Nurses Quarters was opened in 1962 by the NSW Health Minister WF Sheehan. The building is influenced by 20th-century modernism and International Functionalism and was designed by architects Hobson and Boddington. The building is located on Menangle Road opposite the hospital complex. (I Willis, 2018)
Construction on the building had begun in mid-1961, cost £92,000 and was located on farmland purchased by the hospital board in 1949 opposite the hospital in Menangle Road on Windmill Hill. The three-story brick building had suspended concrete floors and was designed by architects Hobson and Boddington, influenced by mid-20th-century modernism and International Functionalism. Nurses’ accommodation was an improvement on wartime military barracks with 40 single rooms with separate bathrooms.
The Camden Hospital Nurses Quarters bathroom with striking colours and design typical of 20th-century modernism from 1962. It appears that the bathroom was renovated later with more recent fittings. This image was taken in 2008, illustrating the fundamental nature of the nurse’s accommodation within the building. (Camden Museum Archive)
Lack of accommodation
Finally, the hospital board thought a solution had been found to the hospital’s lack of nurses’ accommodation. Adequate accommodation for nurses had been an issue for hospital administrators from the hospital opening in 1902. Originally Camden nurses were provided two bedrooms within the hospital building, which soon proved inadequate. (A Social History of Camden District Hospital, by Doreen Lyon and Liz Vincent, 1998, p. 17) Nurses were quartered within a hospital complex based on the presumption that this was necessary because their 7-day 24-hour-shift roster meant they worked all hours. Added to this was Nightingale’s philosophy that the respectability and morality of the nurses had to be protected at all costs. The all-male Camden Hospital board took their responsibility seriously and considered there was a moral imperative to protect the respectability of their young single female nurses.
Camden District Hospital around 1930 in Menangle Road Camden. The nurses’ quarters, built in 1928, are on the right-hand side of the image. The original hospital building had an additional floor constructed in 1916. The first matron of the Camden District Hospital was Josephine Hubbard, assisted by Nurse Nelson with Senior Probationary Nurse Mary McNee. The medical officers were Dr West and Dr B Foulds. The hospital was administered by an all-male board of directors (Camden Images).
The Nightingale system hinged on the employment of women of unblemished characters as nurses…In the forty years since nursing has been made a respectable profession for women in Australia it had also acquired most of the dedicated overtones (and a great many of the rules, regulations, restrictions and inhibitions) of a religious order.
The blog Nurses For Nurses posts memories from one nurse about live-in-quarters at Lidcombe Hospital in 1971.
the large number of nurses who had to ‘live-in’ in the Nurses’ Quarters buildings (guarded by the bull-dog determination of the Home Sister, constantly on the look-out for those evil ‘boyfriends’ and male doctors!). These nurses were predominantly vulnerable, aged from 16 upwards, far, far from home in many cases. They needed friends, security, safety, comfort, respect, and a sense of ‘school pride’.
A group of second-year trainee nurses in uniform stood outside the Camden Hospital Nurses Quarters in 1965. (S Roberts)
The cloisters of Camden District Hospital
The nurses at Camden District Hospital lived in a cloistered environment within the hospital grounds in 1902, as they had done at Carrington Centennial Hospital for Convalescents and Incurable from the 1890s, like a pseudo-religious order in their veils and capes. According to the NSW Health Minister, Mr Sheehan,
‘The [new] building for the nurses I hope will be a home and comfort for them. It is consistent with the dignity of the service of the nurses in your community’. (Camden News 27 June 1962)
Duty and service were part of the ethos of nursing from the time of Florence Nightingale, and Camden’s ministering angels met their workplace obligation.
The Camden District Hospital and the 1928 Nurses Quarters on the right of photograph. The 1962 nurses’ quarters were built in the paddock on the right of the image. Menangle Road is the address of the hospital on Windmill Hill. (Camden Images)
There was comfort for the Camden community in the knowledge that the nurses’ quarters were on the road between the sacred heart of Camden at the St Johns Anglican Church and the Macarthur family’s pastoral empire at Camden Park Estate. The Macarthur family patriarchs had always been preoccupied with the town’s moral well-being, and the nurses’ respectability fitted this agenda. Mrs Elizabeth Macarthur Onslow was always mindful of the status of women and the moral dangers single nurses potentially faced in the town area. Mrs Onslow, her daughter Sibella and daughter-in-law Enid passed the hospital and the nurses’ quarters on their way to church and cast an observant eye over the complex to ensure all was well.
Lack of accommodation was a constant problem
Camden District Hospital was the primary medical facility between Liverpool and Bowral, and the Yerranderie silver field mines put pressure on the hospital. More patients meant a need for more staff. In 1907 a government grant allowed the hospital board to purchase a four-room cottage next to the hospital for £340 and convert it to nurses’ accommodation. (Camden News, 30 May 1907, 13 June 1907, 6 February 1908, 26 March 1908) Completed renovations in 1908 allowed the board to appoint a new probationary nurse, Miss Hattersley of Chatswood. (Camden News, 18 June 1908) The hospital’s status increased in 1915 when the Australasian Trained Nurses Association (ATNA) approved the hospital as a registered training school. (Camden News, 28 January 1915) Continuing pressure on the nurses’ accommodation stopped the hospital board from appointing a new probationary nurse in 1916. (Camden News, 6 July 1916) While things were looking up in 1924 when electricity was connected to the hospital. (Camden Crier, 6 April 1983)
The hospital continued to grow as the new mines in the Burragorang coalfields opened up, and adequate on-site nurses’ accommodation remained a constant headache for the hospital administration. In 1928 the hospital board approved the construction of a handsome two-storey brick nurses’ quarters for £2950 on the site of the existing timber cottage. (Camden News, 12 July 1928; SMH, 20 July 1928) The building design was influenced by the Interwar functionalist style. It was a proud addition to the town’s growing stock of Interwar architecture with its outdoor verandahs, tiled roof and formal hedged garden.
This handsome Interwar building is the Camden Hospital Nurse Quarters, built in 1928 on the 1907 nurses’ cottage site adjacent to the hospital on Menangle Road. The brick two-storey building has external verandahs and a formal hedged garden. The nurses’ home is one of several handsome Interwar buildings in Camden. It was demolished for the construction of the Hodge Hospital building in 1971. (Camden Images)
Temporary accommodation
Temporary nurses’ accommodation was added in December 1947 as each nurse was now entitled to a separate bedroom under the new Nurses Award. The hospital board purchased a surplus hut from Camden Airfield as war-related activities wound down, and the defence authorities sold the facilities. The hut was formerly a British RAF workshop hut, measured 71 by 18 feet, cost £175 and was relocated next to the hospital free of charge by Cleary Bros. RAF transport squadrons had been located at Camden Airfield from 1944, and local girls swooned over the presence of these ‘blue uniformed flyers’ and even married some of them. Hut renovations were carried out to create eight bedrooms, two store cupboards and bathroom accommodation for £370. Furnishings cost £375, with expenses met by the NSW Hospital Commission and the new building was opened by local politician Jeff Bate MHR. (Picton Post, 22 December 1947. Camden News, 1 January 1948)
Camden Airfield Hut No 72 was similar to the RAF airman’s hut that was relocated to Camden Hospital and used as temporary nurses’ accommodation in 1947. (I Willis)
As the Burragorang coalfields ramped up, so did the demands on the hospital, and the nurses’ accommodation crisis persisted. The issue restricted the ability of hospital authorities to employ additional nursing staff (Camden News, 21 September 1950), and the opening of the hospital’s new maternity wing in 1951 did not help. (Camden News, 4 March 1954)
Continuing accommodation crisis
The new 1962 nurses’ quarters did not solve the accommodation issue as the hospital grew from 74 beds in 1963 to 156 in 1983 (Macarthur Advertiser, 1 March 1983), and patient facilities improved with the opening of the 4-storey Hodge wing in 1971 on the site of the 1928 nurses’ quarters. (Camden News, 3 March 1971)
The Camden Hospital PB Hodge Block was opened in 1971 by NSW Health Minister AH Jago. This photo was taken by J Kooyman in 1995. (Camden Images)
The finish of hospital-based trained nurses
The last intake of hospital-based training for nurses took place at Camden Hospital in July 1984, and nurse education was transferred from hospitals to the colleges of advanced education in 1985. (A Social History of Camden District Hospital, by Doreen Lyon and Liz Vincent, 1998, p.58)
Camden Hospital Nurses Graduation from the Camden News 1974 June 26 (Camden Museum Archive)
Empty citadel
By this time, nursing staff were living off-site and the moral imperative of protecting the respectability and dignity of local nurses in a cloistered environment was challenged by feminism and the increased professionalism of the nursing profession.
In recent years the ghostly corridors of 1962 nurses’ quarters have remained eerily empty, reflecting a lot of good intentions that were never quite fulfilled. The buildings stand as a silent citadel to the past and act as a metaphor for the changing nature of the nursing profession, the downgrading of Camden Hospital, the imminent expansion of Campbelltown Hospital and the appearance of new medical facilities at Gregory Hills.
The Camden Hospital Nurses Quarters Lower Entry with the foundation stone set by the NSW Health Minister WF Sheahan. (I Willis, 2018)
Updated 10 May 2023. Originally posted on 7 November 2018.
Camden History Notes 
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