The year is 1901. A Community Public Meeting is called & a Public Fund is established to build a hospital in Bellingen.
Two hundred and forty pounds in donations is promised by the community. Five hundred pounds is promised by the Government and with estimates of further donations, 1,100 pounds is raised to commence the construction of the first hospital in Bellingen.
Scott & Mary of Bellingen Cellars
In 1903 the “Raleigh District Hospital” was opened costing only 793 Pounds.
110 years later it is now 2013. The original hospital building no longer exists. Every piece of timber, roofing iron, floor or wall cladding has been replaced with new buildings. In 1977 Hewitt Block was built & in 1978 Hartley House was built.
The current roofs on these buildings are 36/35 years old and as technology has advanced new services have been installed on these roofs such as air conditioning equipment. With every installation there is a penetration of the roofing iron creating a risk of water entering the building.
With the roofs continuing to leak with every heavy rain event they must be replaced not patched as has been the case in the past.
The Bellingen Shire community is generously donating funds & goods (to raffle) to assist the Government to re-roof our hospital.
This week a cash donation was received from Scott & Mary of Bellingen Cellars for $500.00 to contribute to the Bellinger Health Action Group’s initiative to ‘re-roof Bellingen Hospital’. This donation is extraordinary & we are overwhelmed by their generosity. It takes you back to 1901 when the community rallied together to build our hospital.
We call upon all businesses & persons in our community who would like to donate to this project no matter how small to contact Barbara Moore on 6655 1898 or Pauline Murphy on 6655 1936 if you wish to make a donation or purchase a raffle ticket for our current raffle of ‘Roof-Fuss’ the Black angus.
We commenced with $35,000 in February. This rose to $36,418.22 on the 4th of April & with a further $1,460.00 raised in the past 12 days $37,878.22 is set aside to contribute to the cost of re-roofing our hospital.
Barbara Moore (President of BHAG Inc.)
18th April 2013
Save Bellingen Hospital 