Prince Henry Hospital Nursing and Medical Museum

11/09/2026

Day 7 History Week – Keeping Stories

World Class Nursing and Medical Care

As we celebrate the last day of History Week 2026 and its theme Keeping Stories, we honour the remarkable journey of the Coast and Prince Henry Hospital, founded as NSW’s first government run infectious diseases hospital and later transformed into teaching hospital and a centre of world class medical and nursing excellence.
From the graduation of the first five nurses in 1896, through to the establishment of the Nurses’ Education Centre in 1962 and the admission of the first undergraduate medical students in 1964, the hospital became a powerhouse of learning, training and innovation. Prince Henry achieved major milestones including NSW’s first kidney transplant in 1965, the opening of the hyperbaric chamber in 1971, and in 1987 the launch of the Cardiac Catheterisation Laboratory, Lithotriptor Centre and dedicated AIDS Unit, each shaping the future of healthcare in our state and local community.
Many of the patients who walked out of those hospital doors were able to do so because of the extraordinary nursing and medical care provided by the staff who served here.
Their history is our history, carried forward today through the stories shared of former Coast and Prince Henry Hospital which continues to be kept alive by the museum, the P.H.H.T.N.A and it’s volunteers today.

Join us this Sunday for a free guided tour of the former hospital site
- 10am Sunday 13th September (Tour length Approx 2 hrs)
Meeting at the Museum, 2 Brodie Ave Little Bay

09/09/2026

Day 6 History Week - Keeping Stories

The Horse Drawn Ambulance Service

The entrance to the Coast Hospital, the photo shows three of the six horse drawn ambulances maintained by the hospital during the early 1900s, the only complete ambulance service in Australia at this time, which were ready to deploy for use at a moments notice. If a medical practitioner called requesting the urgent admission of a patient to hospital, the Superintendent of the Coast rang the headquarters and gave the ambulance man on duty the relevant details. He harnessed the two horses to the horse ambulance and drove down to the Coast area to pick up the nurse on “ambulance duty”, who, after already being alerted, was ready with the emergency medical basket containing the necessary drugs and equipment. Together, they would travel to the patient’s home and transport them back to the Coast and in some cases other relevant hospitals.
The stables for the horses were located in what is now the surf lifesaving club on Murra Murra Place, next to Coast Chapel. The old stables are one of the two oldest buildings remaining on the former hospital site, the other building is Henry’s which is the brown cottage located across from the museum on Brodie Ave.

Photo 1: Horse Drawn Ambulance leaving the Coast Hospital gates
Photo 2: Nurse in the Interior of Coast Hospital Horse Drawn Ambulance c 1900s
Photo 3: Feeding the horses at the stable
Photo 4: The current Life Saving building, previously the horse stables.

Join us for a free guided walking tour of the former hospital site
10am Sunday 13th September
Meeting at the Prince Henry Hospital Nursing and Medical Museum

08/09/2026

Day 5 History Week – Keeping Stories

The Man Behind Macartney Oval Little Bay

The remarkable story behind Macartney Oval, once the landing site for rescue helicopters bringing injured patients to Prince Henry Hospital, and today named in honour of one of Australia’s cricketing greats.
Charles “Charlie” George Macartney (1886–1958) was one of the most brilliant right handed batsmen in Australian cricket history. Nicknamed “The Governor General” for his commanding, flamboyant style, he was admired by legends including Victor Trumper and Sir Donald Bradman, who credited Macartney’s dynamic batting as an inspiration.
After serving in France with the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) 3rd Division Artillery during WWI, Macartney returned to Test cricket, representing Australia from 1920–1927. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Macartney worked at Prince Henry Hospital as a personnel officer. Dr Walters, the Medical Superintendent, later appointed him curator of the hospital’s cricket oval, the ground that now bears his name on Jenner St in Little Bay.
Macartney passed away at Little Bay in 1958, aged 72. In 2007, he was posthumously inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame, cementing his place among the nation’s sporting icons.
A fitting tribute to a man whose brilliance on the field and service at Prince Henry continue to shape the story of Little Bay.

Join us for a free guided walking tour of the former hospital site.
10am Sunday 13th September (Approx 2hrs)
Meeting at Prince Henry Hospital Nursing and Medical Museum

Photo 1: Charles Macartney in Otago
Photo 2: Bronze Cap and Bat sculpture in Macartney Oval
Photo 3: Macartney Oval as it stands today on Jenner St Little Bay

07/09/2026

Day 4 History Week – Keeping Stories

The Sewing Room

The Sewing Room began in the 1890s on Ewing Avenue, between Pine Cottage and the present-day Coast Centre. Supporting the Coast Hospital with everything from linen making to uniform repairs and eventually crafting all nurses’ uniforms on site. Over the years it also served as the Nurses Dining Room, Lecture Hall and, later, the first Nursing and Medical Museum.
Relocated to Lister Avenue in the mid 1960s, the building then known as the Sewing Cottage was sadly lost to fire during redevelopment. Today, a sculptural treadle sewing machine marks its former location on Lister Avenue, honouring seamstresses like Miss Winifred C. Giles, who served the hospital for 44 years from 1925–1969.
Winifred C Giles began her career at Coast Hospital as a trainee nurse but became Head Seamstress.
When new trainees were accepted into the nursing school they would be sent to the sewing room to be measured for their uniforms. 3 months later, when they started, 3 uniforms would be stiff and neatly folded in a drawsheet on the end of the bed in the nurses’ residences. They always fitted.
When the hospital closed in 2003, the Sewing Rooms' work came to an end, but its story lives on through these memorials and the memories of those who worked there.

Join us for a free guided tour of the former hospital site.
10am Sunday 13th September
Meeting at the Prince Henry Hospital Nursing & Medical Museum

07/09/2026

Day 3 of History Week – Keeping Stories

Ticking Through Time: The Clock Tower

The clock tower on Pine Avenue has lived many lives before becoming a Little Bay landmark. The original clock face was built in 1878 for Sydney’s Garden Palace, it survived the 1882 fire, served briefly as Bourke’s town clock, and was later installed at the Coast Hospital in 1898, built by Henry Tucker Jones.

For thirty years it watched over patients and staff, during this time it was also used as a meat safe. The original tower was demolished in the 1930’s, the clock remained in storage on the hospital grounds until 1953, when it was placed in the brick tower we see today beside the Norfolk Island Pines and the historic Flowers Ward.

Now known as the RAAF Memorial Clock Tower, it was dedicated in 1953 to Flying Officer Norman F. Dwyer and Wing Commander Stanley G. Stilling, cousins who were both killed in action during WWII. Norman’s father, W. Dwyer, once managed the hospital.
Today it remains as one of the first landmarks you see upon driving through the old gatehouse posts on Pine Avenue.

Come and see the Clock Tower along with other state heritage listed sites on the former hospital grounds.

Join us for a free guided walking tour this Sunday 13th September @ 10am
Meeting at Prince Henry Nursing & Medical Museum 2 Brodie Ave Little Bay
(Approx. 2hrs)

06/09/2026

Day 2 of History Week – Keeping Stories

The Bob-a-Day Men

The Coast Hospital relied on a large and dedicated labour force whose work shaped the landscape we recognise today. These men tended the hospital grounds, maintained the vegetable garden, tended to the cattle and fowls, supported kitchen operations, and even constructed an ornamental lake once lined with hydrangeas and home to swans, peacocks and deer. Their efforts helped build the environment that still surrounds us.

In exchange for their labour, the men were provided with basic living quarters, huts located at the southern end of the Coast Hospital site, near what is now known as St Michaels Golf Club clubhouse. They also received a modest wage of one shilling a day, commonly known as a “bob”. The Bob‑a‑Day men continued working on the hospital grounds until 1933.
Many years later, after the hospital closure in 2003 and the site was later developed.
The Bob‑a‑Day Park was established to honour their contribution. Today, this park can be found at the end of Harvey Street in Little Bay, preserving the memory of the workers who helped shape the hospital’s historic landscape.

Celebrating History Week, there will be a free guided walking tour of the former hospital site. Meeting at the museum, No bookings required. (Approx. 2hrs)
10am Sunday 13th September

Photo 1: Paddy, a Bob-a-Day man, standing in front of one of the Flowers wards.
Photo 2: Bob-a-Day man (Credit - A Coast Chronicle The History of the Prince Henry Hospital by C.R Boughton Physician, Infectious Diseases Division, the Prince Henry Hospital)
Photo 3: Bob-a-Day Park - Little Bay
(Credit: https://princehenrycommunity.com.au)

05/09/2026

Day 1 of History Week - Keeping Stories
Today we will be looking at the changing face of the entrance to hospital grounds.
Standing at the entrance to the former Coast and Prince Henry Hospital are the iconic front gates.
Once the threshold between the outside world and a place of care, quarantine and community.
Over the decades, the face of these gates has changed many times, from the original sandstone entrance of the old Coast Hospital, then in 1934 the name of the hospital was renamed Prince Henry Hospital. Eventually the sandstone gates were demolished and replaced by the redbrick gates, the sandstone from the original Coast Hospital gates was repurposed, and used to build the sandstone plinth for the Wishing Bell that still stands along Pine Ave today.
As part of History Week’s theme “Keeping Stories”, we’re celebrating these memories with a guided walking tour of the hospital grounds, sharing the people, places and moments that unfolded beyond those gates.

Join us for a walk through time with a free guided tour of the former hospital site. Meeting at the museum, No booking required. (Approx. 2 hours)
- 10am Sunday 6th September
- 10am Sunday 13th September

Photo 1. Coast Hospital Gates
Photo 2. Prince Henry Hospital Gates circa 1938
Photo 3. Prince Henry Hospital Gates circa 2001
Photo 4. Remains of the gates as they stand today

01/09/2026

30/08/2026

Bedpan Diaries of PHH@
Settled for the Night

8 PM MEANT ONE THING: Evening round and back care

If you worked 3–11 back in the day…
you already know.

Visiting hours ended.
The hallway got quieter.
And the four of you lined up like a well-oiled machine.

One RN for medication
3 junior nurses or Enrolled nurses.
About 24 patients.
Start at one end of the hall… and work your way down.

Hands washed.
Faces freshened.
Teeth brushed.
Foleys emptied.
Linen straightened.

And then—

The back rub.

Not rushed.
Not skipped.

We’d warm the lotion between our palms first.
Because nobody wanted cold lotion on tired skin.

It sounds small.

But it wasn’t.

Patients relaxed.
Shoulders dropped.
Breathing slowed.

You could feel the difference.

Water pitchers refilled with fresh ice water.
Bathroom trips handled.
Lights dimmed.

And for the next few hours?

Hardly any call lights.

Because we didn’t just didn’t give out the medication.

We settled people in.

We made them comfortable.

We worked as a team — real team nursing.
No one drowning alone.
No one saying “that’s not my patient.”

And when you finally sat down for a minute?

You felt proud.

Not because it was glamorous.
But because it was thorough.

Older nurses know…

That 8 p.m. routine wasn’t just part of the shift.
It was the heart of the shift.

25/08/2026

Today we had the pleasure of welcoming the Nursing Graduates of August 1966 back to Prince Henry Hospital Museum and the Coast Chapel for their 60‑year reunion. Some nurses travelled from afar to reconnect with old friends, share memories, and revisit the place where their nursing journey first began.

It was a lovely day filled with stories, laughter, and reflections on their time training and working at PHH. We are honoured to help preserve these memories and celebrate the enduring bonds formed all those years ago.

Thank you to Jane Mahon for her touching words during the service, and to the PHHTNA Volunteers whose support and dedication helped make today truly memorable.