The Only Hospital for Miles

[and]

Hands On

[and]

Wheels of Progress – New Life; New Land; New Hope

Exhibited in: The Alternative Archive – Only Hospital For Miles Miles exhibition at the Lake Grace Regional Artspace

Media/Materials: oil paint and gauze on stretched canvas

Dimensions: 725mm x 965mm

Artist Statement:

My impression of the Lake Grace AIM is of a building erected in a time of limited resources, tremendous hardship and difficulties of distance for staff, supplies and patients to travel the miles to reach the hospital. Travelling miles over rough tracks for hours in cold, hot, windy, wet conditions.  These journeys involved wheels. Wheels became my focus, as once in the hospital, wheels are evident on the beds, screens, cots, all domestic appliances and equipment.

I have incorporated gauze in all three paintings to refer to bandages which symbolize the connection to the journey of life, the only hospital for miles and the wonderful role the nursing staff played serving the community in the early days.

Photograph: Rebecca Clark

Hands On

Media/Materials: oil paint and gauze on stretched canvas

Dimensions: 460mm x725mm

The establishment of the AIM Hospital in Lake Grace was a focal point in the development of this region.  This painting represents the need for mobility for the care of sick and aging patients, in this case a wheelchair.  Being hand-operated reflects an era when patients and staff relied on their own and each other’s strength, initiative and resilience to keep going and overcome the difficulties which recovery and nursing required at this time.  Wheels were needed to transport the patient to and from the only hospital for miles.  All hands on deck!

Photograph: Rebecca Clark

Wheels of Progress – New Life; New Land; New Hope

Media/Materials: Oil paint and gauze on stretched canvas.

Dimensions: 460mm x725 mm

The construction of the AIM Hospital in Lake Grace enabled women to have medical assistance for the delivery of their babies thus avoiding further separation from the support of their families and the long periods awaiting the birth in distant hospitals. Even so, the slow transport over rough tracks in all weather conditions made this a hazardous journey

Photograph: Rebecca Clark


Source: research assistance from Mrs Elsie Bishop, Mrs Sue Hall of the Newdegate Hainsworth Building – Pioneer  Museum;  “Lake Grace 100 Years – a community memoir; “Far Site – Women of the Salt Lake Country by Michelle Slarke; ” Across the Lake, 1911-1992 A History of Lake Grace” by Joh