Brislington Medical and Nursing Museum in Parramatta, New South Wales | History Museum

Brislington Medical and Nursing Museum

Locality: Parramatta, New South Wales

Phone: +61 2 4751 4360

Address: Cnr George & Marsden Street 2150 Parramatta, NSW, Australia

Website: http://www.brislington.net

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• Medical and health
• History Museum

25.01.2022 INTERNATIONAL NURSES DAY

24.01.2022 An invitation to our Open Day Garden Party. On Saturday 2nd November, 2019 Brislington will offer free guided tours of this special museum and historic house. Coffee cart, snacks, chats with historians, volunteers, outdoor painters from Parramatta Art Society, music from RAPT folk group and the Gramaphone Man. 10am - 3pm Presented by Brislington and City of Parramatta for the Foundation Festival 2019.

23.01.2022 Remembering Parramatta's WW2 Nurses on this VJ DAY. Sister Lillian Smairl Patient Care for 51 years. 1898 1987.... Graduated R.P.A Hospital in 1921. Left R.P.A in 1923 and spent 14 years working at St Luke’s Hospital and Parramatta District Hospital. Went to England in 1937 to work at four hospitals. Joined the Queen Alexandra Royal Naval Nursing Service and was called up when WW1 was declared. Appointed to Royal Naval Hospital, Chatham, where she was in charge of casualty and receiving evacuees from Dunkirk. Awarded the Royal Red Cross medal and invested at Buckingham Palace by King George VI. Joined the hospital ship, Vasna at Scarpa Flow and served in the North Sea, India and Africa. Injured in action at the landing at Madagasca and was invalided to Australia. In 1946 she returned to R.P.A.H. and in 1966 became Deputy Matron. Retired 1969.

18.01.2022 Willow Grove, Parramatta under threat of demolition in 20 days! This building is one of a few private hospitals where women gave birth in the late 1800s through to mid 20th Century. Doctors who are commemorated at Brislington worked at this hospital, formerly known as "Estella", and encouraged "lying-in care" as well as medical and surgical care for patients. Most notably Drs Waugh and Whiting who were highly regarded within the community.Our history and heritage needs to be treated with respect.Conservation and preservation ...not destruction. Once lost it is gone forever.

18.01.2022 The World Health Organization (WHO) has designated 2020 as the Year of the Nurse and Midwife, in honour of the 200th birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale. Lucy Osburn (1 April 1836 22 December 1891) was an English nurse trained at the School of Nursing founded by Florence Nightingale (now part of King's College London). She is regarded as the founder of modern nursing in Australia.

15.01.2022 The annual Riot Day at the Parramatta Female Factory today saw tours, talks and trade tables promoting this important site. Remaining buildings and structures of the Female Factory complex include sections of boundary walls, the Matron’s Residence, Dispensary and Hospital Lying in (Maternity) Ward, the Superintendent Storekeepers quarters, the 1826 Crime Class penitentiary and the Factory Clock and Bell.

11.01.2022 Respecting the past, preserving our heritage? ...... The NSW Government again ignoring the people's concerns.

09.01.2022 Brislington volunteers will be participating, dressed as vintage nurses. We encourage all to support this important show of resolve in protecting our heritage in Parramatta.

09.01.2022 Brislington will be open on Australia Day, 9:30am - 4:00pm. Come along and explore medical care history in the district, from colonial days to 1980s.A short walk from Parramatta Park activities!

07.01.2022 2020 INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF THE NURSE AND MIDWIFE Considering the immeasurable value of our frontline nurses in our covid-19 global pandemic, we thought you’d l...ike to hear the story of Nurse Maria Swann who died while nursing Alderman Thomas Gallagher plagued with influenza pandemic of 1890 in the rooms of WillowGrove. Cumberland Mercury 11 November 1891, It is ever a privilege, as it is a duty, to give honour where honour is due. The name of MARIA SWANN should be held in tender and reverent remembrance in Parramatta for all time to come. She was only a woman, engaged in the comparatively humble, though always essentially noble, profession of a nurse, but she was also a true heroine; and like others of earth's brightest and best, she fell at her post of duty, and died the death of the martyr. THE story is a very simple one, yet withal, touching and grand, and teaching a lesson of incalculable value, if read aright; the great lesson, inculcated nearly 19 centuries ago by the CHRIST Himself, the lesson of obedience to Duty, of self-forgetfulness, of self- sacrifice, even unto death. NURSE SWANN had undertaken the task of attending to one, whom his fellow citizens would fain have seen spared, in an illness, which ended at length in death. She did her duty, day and night, unceasingly, unweariedly as none, but a tender, conscientious woman, imbued with a true love of her fellows, can do it. Her charge was hovering between life and death; needing every moment's care and attention, kept alive perchance a while longer only by that care and attention and the medical skill exhibited in our late friend's case. MARIA SWANN never hesitated a single moment when the simple choice lay between her sacred duty and the imminent risk disease and possible death. The medical men in charge of Mr. GALLAGHER urged her to desist from further work; warned her that she was continuing it at the great risk of her own life. Her answer was simple. She pointed to the bed which a few days later proved the deathbed of him she had been called upon to nurse. There was her post of duty and she preferred to cling to it. WHEN that duty was done, ere yet the last sad offices were performed for her charge, she lay down on her bed, suffered in patience and died. SIMPLE the story is and sad, but is it not touching and beautiful? Does the death of MARIA SWANN not teach us, who are left behind yet, a great and noble lesson? Does it not prove that, after all, Poor Humanity has its bright and pure side, as well as its dark one? All honour then to the true heroine who fell at the post of duty. (Pictured are volunteers from Brislington Medical and Nursing Museum with NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association Assistant Secretary Judith Kiejda announcing their support of CFMEU Construction & General NSW greenban August 2020).

06.01.2022 Brislington will be reopening on Tuesday 16th June. Two visitors per hour, please book ahead. No groups until further notice. Covid safety precautions will be in place. Thank you for your support.

05.01.2022 Brislington volunteers were proud to support and contribute towards the knitters for this project - save our heritage!

03.01.2022 Nurses’ Duties 1887 In addition to caring for her 50 patients, each nurse will follow these regulations. Daily sweep and mop floors of the ward, dust patients’ furniture and window sills.... Maintain an even temperature in the ward by bringing in a scuttle of coal for the day’s business. Light is important for observing the patient’s condition, therefore, each day fill kerosene lamps, clean chimneys and clean wicks. Wash windows once a week. The nurse’s notes are important in aiding the physician’s work. Make your pens carefully. You may whittle nibs to your individual taste. Each nurse on duty will report every day at 7am and leave at 8pm except on the Sabbath on which she will be off duty from 12 noon to 2pm. Graduate nurses in good standing with the Director of Nurses will be given an evening off each week for courting purposes, or two evenings a week if she attends church regularly. Each nurse should lay aside from each pay day a goodly sum of her earnings for her benefit during her declining years so that she will not become a burden. Any nurse who smokes, uses liquor in any form, gets her hair done at a beauty shop or frequents dance halls will give the Director of Nurses good reason to suspect her worth. The nurse who performs her labours and serves her patients and doctors faithfully and without fault for a period of 5 years will be given 12/6 a week, providing there are no hospital debts outstanding.

01.01.2022 Open Day Garden Party at Brislington to celebrate the Parramatta Foundation Festival 2019. Thankyou to those who visited our museum today for tours, talks, music, art and coffee.