Many of the 736 convicts who survived the voyage of the First Fleet arrived suffering from dysentery, smallpox, scurvy, and typhoid. Soon after landing Governor Phillip and Surgeon-General John White established a tent hospital in The Rocks to care for the worst cases. Subsequent convict boatloads had even higher rates of death and disease.
By July 1788 a hospital building and laboratory had been erected which Phillip reported would last for some years, although it took until August for the roof to be completed because of heavy rain. A large plot of land was allocated to the hospital grounds for a garden and future expansion.
A portable hospital which was prefabricated in England from wood and copper arrived in New South Wales with the Second Fleet in 1790. By the time the colonists managed to erect the portable hospital there was a sick list of 480 people. The Second Fleet was managed by a company that had been involved in the North American slave Trade and they were paid for each convict embarked, not landed. John White remained as the Surgeon-General at Sydney Cove between 1788 and 1794.
In 1797 High Street was realigned. The realignment required the portable hospital to be pulled down and re-erected on a stone foundation slightly west of its original location. A store and dispensary were then erected to the north and west of the hospital buildings. Eventually there were three main hospital buildings and quiet a number of out buildings.
The hospital was continually added to and improved by each of the Governors until Governor Macquarie.
Stamps & Postal Products
1988 The Early Years – 37c Sydney Hospital 1803
