Denmark Arts Council Offices

Statement of Significance

The Denmark Infant Health Clinic has historic, social and representative heritage significance. The building of the clinic in the 1950s represents the growth of the town and its needs for community services as well as the move away from constructing timber buildings to ones of brick (another example is the Masonic Hall which was built in 1953). This is the only example of a government brick building within the CBD.

Physical Description

The Denmark Infant Health Clinic is an unremarkable building constructed from red/brown brick with timber framed windows. The former clinic is single storey and has little streetscape value as it is set high above Strickland St behind vegetation.

History

These historical notes have been derived from the Register of Heritage Places - Assessment Documentation of the Beverley Infant Health Centre. Prepared 19 August 2008. The Denmark Infant Health Clinic was built on Denmark town’s first school site in 1956. Interest in mother and child health dates from the turn of the 20th century over concerns about high levels of maternal and infant mortality. The Public Health Department attempted to counteract this through the establishment of the Midwives Registration Board and the employment of visiting nurses who could help ‘train’ mothers in infant health care. Although the Children’s Protection Society introduced to Perth a pilot infant health clinic around 1920, it was recognised that a state-wide infant welfare service was needed. As a result of a conference held in 1922 at the instigation of the Children’s Protection Society, the Infant Health Association of Western Australia was formed in 1923 to work in conjunction with the Public Health Department. In this year, three clinics with full time nurses began to operate in the Perth area and in 1924 clinics started in Fremantle and Northam. The number of infant health centres grew steadily over subsequent years. The centres received a £100 a year subsidy from the Health Department but relied largely on local government and community fund raising for support. Sub-centres were established as satellites of a centre where an Infant Health nurse was resident. In the 1930s, the service faced a funding crisis and the community felt the government should be providing a larger share of the financial support. The work of the Infant Health Nurse included weighing babies, discussing their progress and any problems with their health and development with the mother, and referring sick babies to a doctor or hospital. The Infant Health Centre was seen as an educational institution for mothers and one of the main aims of the clinic was to help and teach mothers how to provide for the good health of their infant ‘hoping to help her to produce a happy, healthy, well-adjusted Australian citizen’. Wartime stringencies cut deeply into the training of nurses and the financing of Infant Health Centres in the state, but their worth had been proven by 1942, when, after 20 years of operation, statistics showed that the infant mortality rate had been cut by 48% from 64 to 33 per 1,000 live births. On 1 July 1945, the State Government took over responsibility for Infant Health Centre nurses’ salaries and travelling expenses, with the assistance of the Lotteries Commission and local Road Boards, while it remained the responsibility of local committees to provide amenities and transport, significantly reducing the funds they needed to generate locally. There were at that time 31 infant health centres and 72 sub-centres in the state, providing a total of 3,180 consultations a week and serving 90% of infants and their mothers. Use of Infant Health Centres increased during the late 1950s to 1970s, with more children in the 1-2 and 2-5 year age brackets being seen as mothers continued to bring their children past the infant stage. In 1970, Infant Health Services were linked to the school medical service and referred to as Child Health Services. Infant Health Centres began to be referred to as Child Health Centres although there does not seem to have been any official change of title, with many centres still being called Infant Health Centres. In 1976, Child Health Services combined with Community Health Services to become Community & Child Health Services as it was deemed necessary that there should be a closer working relationship between the Child Health nurse and the local general practitioner. In the 1980s there was difficulty filling rural vacancies for nurses, combined with an increasing workload because of a rise of 10% in births from 1980-83. Rather than operate separate Infant Health Centres in isolation, it seemed preferable to provide service from larger health campuses with modern facilities and shared administration and building costs. Gradually, the various infant health centre buildings were vacated but some continued to occupy their own premises for some time. This was more common in rural areas where other health facilitities were not always available in the town. When Denmark Infant Health Centre was closed it stood vacant for sometime before becoming home to the Denmark Arts Council. The Arts Council still occupied the old health centre in 2009.

Integrity/Authenticity

Integrity: Most

Condition

Fair

Uses

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Last Update