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The People’s Hospital Tales from the surgeon's table

Local ties, local pride

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Staff and local residents compete in a fund-raising raft race on the Maribyrnong.

Western Health archives

Local ties, local pride


In the era before Medibank and the introduction of a more stable and secure funding base for hospitals, many western suburbs’ residents and businesses, and hospital staff raised funds for Footscray Hospital.


In the 50s and 60s almost every school in the western suburbs took part in the hospital’s annual egg appeal, raising money to buy equipment such as children’s cots and x-ray machines. Sporting clubs and community groups held their own fund-raisers.

Senior Sister Miss Margaret Eardley receives a $50 donation in 1969 from pupils at Sunshine State School for the purchase of a bedside locker.

Senior Sister Miss Margaret Eardley receives a $50 donation in 1969 from pupils at Sunshine State School for the purchase of a bedside locker.

Western Health archives

The Footscray Lions Club and the Rotary Club held charity golf days. The Footscray Community Singers, formed by residents in 1932 to buoy people’s spirits during the Depression, raised money for the hospital for 25 years.

Local families and business leaders, such as the Forge family, who ran Footscray’s flagship department store, Forge’s, became prominent philanthropists and major donors to the hospital.

Family ties. Professor Edward Janus, Western Health’s Director of Research and Head of General Medicine with his partner Di Leorke (centre) and Julie Slobozian at Footscray Hospital’s 60th anniversary celebrations.

Family ties. Professor Edward Janus, Western Health’s Director of Research and Head of General Medicine with his partner Di Leorke (centre) and Julie Slobozian at Footscray Hospital’s 60th anniversary celebrations. Ms Leorke and Ms Slobozian are the granddaughters of J Kelso Duncan, a leader of the 1919 Hospital Movement, who campaigned for more than 30 years to have Footscray Hospital built.

Western Health archives

Annual hospital balls and fetes were organised by the hospital’s auxiliaries and staff. The extensive network of auxiliaries, made up of volunteers and run mainly by women, stretched across the western suburbs. It included an auxiliary founded by children in 1962 – the Hospital Jays – whose membership consisted of 160 boys and girls from Footscray and other local communities.

The Hospital Jays, a children’s auxiliary, present a resuscitation trolley valued at £150 to the hospital in 1963. From left to right: Linda and Alfred Crusius, Mr Leyton Caudwell, Ken Pannell (founder of the Jays), Matron Mavis Mitchell, Deputy Matron J. Alexander, June Dunn, Janet Messenger, Maree Thompson, Robert Thompson, Frank Thompson, Len Sheppard, Grant Hammid, Geraldine Cunningham, Marlene Barlow and Mr Eric Farnsworth. About 160 children were members of the Hospital Jays in 1963.

The Hospital Jays, a children’s auxiliary, present a resuscitation trolley valued at £150 to the hospital in 1963. From left to right: Linda and Alfred Crusius, Mr Leyton Caudwell, Ken Pannell (founder of the Jays), Matron Mavis Mitchell, Deputy Matron J. Alexander, June Dunn, Janet Messenger, Maree Thompson, Robert Thompson, Frank Thompson, Len Sheppard, Grant Hammid, Geraldine Cunningham, Marlene Barlow and Mr Eric Farnsworth. About 160 children were members of the Hospital Jays in 1963.

Western Health archives

But as more women entered the workforce or embarked on higher education in the 1970s, the number of auxiliaries started to shrink.

In 1973 hospital president Roy Parsons lamented the difficulties faced by the auxiliaries and the demise of the Ladies Space Committee, an auxiliary whose dwindling membership had forced it to disband.

By 1975 the hospital’s auxiliaries had fallen to about 10 – Central Auxiliary, Eleanor Auxiliary for Children, Kingsville Auxiliary, Maribyrnong Auxiliary, Plus Twenty Set Auxiliary, Riverview Auxiliary, Wembley Auxiliary, West Footscray Auxiliary, Staff Activities Organisation and the Hospital Helpers Organisation.

In 1979 two new auxiliaries joined the hospital – the Greek Auxiliary and the Hospital Helpers’ Craft Group – and the annual hospital fete continued to be the most successful combined auxiliary activity – raising $10,000 for the hospital. But the glory days of a multitude of neighbourhood auxiliaries were over.

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Revellers at the hospital’s annual fete.

Western Health archives

The declining number of residents joining auxiliaries in the early 1980s led the hospital to review its fundraising and devote more effort to reaching out to local people and potential donors. It reorganised the public relations department and upgraded it to division status within the hospital’s structure.

A new avenue for philanthropic funds was created in 2012 with the establishment of the Western Health Foundation. The charity raises funds for Western Health and accepts donations.

June Hansen (left) and Betty Millett have won national and state awards for their extraordinary devotion to volunteer work at Footscray Hospital.

June Hansen (left) and Betty Millett have won national and state awards for their extraordinary devotion to volunteer work at Footscray Hospital. Ms Hansen began volunteering at the hospital in 1989, providing support to patients with cancer and helping patients and families in the Emergency Department. Ms Millett’s family have been members of the Maribyrnong Auxiliary for more than 45 years. Her mother, Mary Boucher, joined in 1970, selling fruit from the back of trucks at Footscray Market to raise money for the hospital, and later became auxiliary president. Ms Millett is now auxiliary president, leading a team of volunteers who run the  hospital’s opportunity shop. Ms Millett’s granddaughters are also auxiliary members.

Western Health archives

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