A Brief History

Old Colonial Hospital

In July 2005, Royal Perth Hospital celebrated its 150th anniversary.

It was on July 14, 1855 that Western Australia's first dedicated Hospital building opened in Murray Street.

The convict-built Hospital was formally named the Colonial Hospital and was later renamed the Perth Public Hospital, the Perth Hospital and, in 1946, the Royal Perth Hospital.

When the first white settlers arrived at the Swan River Colony aboard the Parmelia in 1829, the first Colonial Surgeon, Dr Charles Simmons, cared for the sick among them in a tent on Garden Island.

In later years they were cared for by acting Colonial Surgeon Dr William Milligan in a tent near Barrack Street and, later, in a former stables building and rented homes around Irwin Street by Dr Alexander Collie and Dr James Crichton.

During the 1800s, sick people were usually treated at home and it was only the poor and lower classes that received care through government funding.

In the 1840s, a public outcry about the lack of services for the ill led to the planning of a dedicated Hospital building - but this never eventuated.  Planning re-started in the 1850s; there was to be a ward each for males and females, and the basement was to contain a kitchen, scullery, store, cells for "lunatics" and nurses’ quarters.

The Colony was experiencing a shortage of manpower and materials and there were frequent delays in the construction process.  Tenders were called for bricks in 1852 and for plastering in 1853.  The most serious setback was in 1854 when the foundations gave way and the building had to be redesigned.

The building cost Treasury £4,782 and commenced operations with about 30 beds.

The original Hospital building still exists on the corner of Murray Street and Victoria Square - though additions and extensions now hide its Murray Street facade.  It has heritage listing and houses the medical library, offices and the old "cafeteria" function space.

In 1939 plans were drawn for a new major multi-storey building and the old A Block was demolished to make room for a new A Block (now known as South Block), which still houses most of the wards.  Work on South Block was abandoned during the war and it was finally opened in 1949.

The creation of the North Block building was also beset by delays - the Tonkin State Government approved the development in 1972 but in 1979 the Commonwealth Government discontinued funding for the project and construction was abandoned, leaving a skeleton of concrete floors and supporting columns.  It was finally completed and opened in 1988.

The RPH Medical Research Foundation building is the Hospital's most modern building and opened on Murray Street in 1993.