Queen Elizabeth II Medical Centre

Child Places

• 15841 Anstey House
• 17642 A Block & R Block, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital
• 19841 G Block, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital

Statement of Significance

It has aesthetic value for its modernist form, concrete sun awnings and strip windows, typical of the Post-War International Style. It has high integrity for its continued use for health care since construction in 1958. It has historical significance for charting the history and accommodation of a major public and teaching hospital in Perth from 1958 to the present day. It represents changes in health care and practice in Western Australia.

Physical Description

A long rectangular, four storey brick construction building with concrete sun awnings and strips of windows and wall panels.

History

At the turn of the century the site of the Queen Elizabeth II Medical Centre in Nedlands was a grazing place for cattle owned by Edward Browne, the founder of Browne’s Dairy. The land was purchased by the State Government in 1910 and from 1922 controlled by the University of Western Australia under a 999-year lease from the Government. When the Chest Hospital was proposed the site was designated for development as a medical centre with a teaching hospital as the core. (QEII website) Construction work began in 1956 on the Perth Chest Hospital for the Department of Public Health. It was designed by the Department of Public Works architect, and the builder was H. A. Doust Pty Ltd. Thomas Street passed diagonally to the east of the site at the time the first two structures were designed. Owing to its bulk, the Chest Hospital was a prominent building against King's Park bushland to the east. The building opened in 1958. It was built to replace the Wooroloo Sanatorium and became the main treatment centre for tuberculosis (TB) and other pulmonary diseases. It represents the changing practice in treatment of TB following WWII, when drugs were used to combat the disease, rather than simply providing a place of isolation and nursing care. With the decline of TB cases the hospital began to admit general chest patients. The Perth Chest Hospital was renamed Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in 1963. It was renamed again in 1977 to The Queen Elizabeth 11 Medical Centre (QEII) at the time of Her Majesty's visit. At 2022, the former Perth Chest Hospital is a five storey building laid out in the form of an 'H' with two major wings facing north and south with an interconnecting link. The south face has yellow spandrels in the curtain walling and the north face has light blue panels. The main building has a reinforced concrete frame with salmon brick 'framing'. The metal-framed curtain walling has rendered framing and horizontal cantilevered cement-rendered sun screening. The link is brick faced with round windowed lift towers. This was once a prominent part of the eastern elevation but is now concealed from the streetscape. The roof plant on the north elevation is distinctively roofed with a reinforced concrete slab in the form of an extended sine curve with a filigree infilling. Extensive additions have been completed around the base of the building and to the south. The function of the building has been changed from ward accommodation to other purposes. The original form of the building is still visible and the prominent coloured north and south facades are still clearly evident.

Integrity/Authenticity

High

Condition

Good

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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