History
AN AMBULANCE FOR MORNINGTON By Val Wilson and Peter McCullough
O
ne of the most significant dates in the history of Mornington is 18 July 1937; this marked the opening of the King George V Memorial Bush Nursing Hospital. The building, affectionately known as ‘The Bush’, housed eight beds in a single, two and three bed wards, a nursery, labour room, and an operating theatre. The hospital was to provide
for as many as seven patients but, in an emergency, it could care for as many as twelve. This was thought to be sufficient for the foreseeable future. It was the forty-eighth of its kind to be opened since the Victorian Bush Nursing Association was founded in 1910. continued next page...
Above: Delivery of the original ambulance in October 1925. Fred Bieri, inaugural secretary, circled. Below: King George V Memorial Bush Nursing Hospital at the time of its opening in July 1975.
February 2023
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PENINSULA