A SIMPLE weatherboard home in Queanbeyan’s Campbell Street witnessed the birth of hundreds and hundreds of babies during its 30-year life as a maternity hospital.

“Yvonne”, a five-bedroom home at 75 Campbell Street, was built for the Johnston family in 1908, but was registered two years later as a “lying-in” birthing hospital by nurse Mary Johnston.

About 1700 babies were delivered at “Yvonne” between 1910 and 1944, before the hospital’s licence was suspended.

“The first mother to give birth there was Gladys Taylor who had a baby girl on May 24, 1910,” says amateur historian and Queanbeyan resident Phil Hawke.

“The last patient at ‘Yvonne’ was Patricia Hadlow whose daughter was born on November 16, 1944.”

After the last baby was born at “Yvonne”, Mrs Johnston converted the home into a boarding house that she managed until her death in 1948.

Three generations of the Johnston family continued living there until 1980.

Mr Hawke, who’s mother-in-law Pat Greenwood was born at “Yvonne” in 1927, says a lot of people have a personal connection to the house.

“Many people know someone who was born there or were born there themselves,” Mr Hawke says.

“It’s a special and well-known place for many Queanbeyan residents.”

Mr Hawke says private “lying-in” hospitals were prominent in Queanbeyan during the late 1880s and the early 1900s.

“There were about half a dozen of them operating in Queanbeyan during that period and most of them were named,” Mr Hawke says.

Besides “Yvonne” there was “Kinkora”, at 25 Campbell Street; “Raymond” and “Jululah” in Morisset Street; “Fairholme”, at 74 Lowe Street; “Auberne” in Rutledge Street and “Glenwarrie” in Macquoid Street.

Delving into the past, Mr Hawke has unearthed some interesting facts about the important role that private maternity hospitals played in delivering babies in earlier times. 

“Women about to give birth, who lived nearby would literally walk to the hospital, have their baby, and then walk back home again often with the baby in their arms,” Mr Hawke says.

“Other mothers-to-be would come into Queanbeyan on horse and sulky and stay with friends waiting for the right time to go to the hospital, they had to do that because there was just nowhere else to go.”
“Lying-in” hospitals existed many years before hospitals in Canberra and Queanbeyan began operating.

Previous generations of babies were delivered by midwives within these private homes, rather than in maternity wards in public hospitals.

Further along Campbell Street was “Kinkora”, another private nursing hospital, run by Sister Eva Darmody who had operated a maternity hospital at Sutton.

Mr Hawke recounts one of nurse Darmody’s greatest moments when she delivered a baby during one of Queanbeyan’s major floods. 

“Nurse Darmody was called to a maternity case on the east side of the river but she was stuck on the other side of the river,” says Mr Hawke.

“So, she got a lift to the railway bridge and walked across it and was met by another vehicle which took her to the expectant mother. 

“She then delivered the baby.”

Armed with determination and pride, nurse Darmody – like many of her time – would go on to care for generations of local families to come.

“Nurse Darmody was an incredible lady; she was one of 13 children and spent her childhood helping raise her brothers and sisters, perhaps the reason she never married. 

“She died in 1963 at the age of 83.”