A Tower of the Queen Victoria Women's Ward, Ballarat Base Hospital - Sturt Street, Ballarat
During the gold rush that hit Ballarat in the 1850s the Government Camp provided medical support for the growing central Victorian community, but mainly for officers and not for miners and the general community who could not afford to pay for medical help. Those wounded at the Eureka Stockade in 1854 received varying attention and the need for a hospital became apparent. A year later building of a hospital commenced.
By 1899, the Ballarat Base Hospital had grown dramatically, becoming a building as grand as the gold rich city itself, built in Picturesque Gothic style popular in England in the late part of the Nineteenth Century which emerged as a romantic movement from picturesque architects such as John Nash (1752 – 1835). The Queen Victoria Women’s Ward overlooks Ballarat’s premier boulevard, Sturt Street. Built of red brick with stone detailing it has deeply recessed windows and Flemish Gothic Revival towers and long balconies of cast iron lacework. Interestingly out of character for the building’s overall design is its Romanesque colonnade of arches on the ground floor.
Today, the Ballarat Base Hospital is a regional hub for medical treatment and employs over 3,000 staff.
A Tower of the Queen Victoria Women's Ward, Ballarat Base Hospital - Sturt Street, Ballarat
During the gold rush that hit Ballarat in the 1850s the Government Camp provided medical support for the growing central Victorian community, but mainly for officers and not for miners and the general community who could not afford to pay for medical help. Those wounded at the Eureka Stockade in 1854 received varying attention and the need for a hospital became apparent. A year later building of a hospital commenced.
By 1899, the Ballarat Base Hospital had grown dramatically, becoming a building as grand as the gold rich city itself, built in Picturesque Gothic style popular in England in the late part of the Nineteenth Century which emerged as a romantic movement from picturesque architects such as John Nash (1752 – 1835). The Queen Victoria Women’s Ward overlooks Ballarat’s premier boulevard, Sturt Street. Built of red brick with stone detailing it has deeply recessed windows and Flemish Gothic Revival towers and long balconies of cast iron lacework. Interestingly out of character for the building’s overall design is its Romanesque colonnade of arches on the ground floor.
Today, the Ballarat Base Hospital is a regional hub for medical treatment and employs over 3,000 staff.