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Dictionary of Sydney

The Dictionary of Sydney
Multimedia
New premises — with room to grow 1924

The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

New premises — with room to grow 1924

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

(Mitchell Library)

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Biffin, Harriett Eliza Rachel Forster Hospital

Subjects

Hospitals

Organisation

Rachel Forster Hospital

Places

Redfern

Buildings

Clyde House

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State Library of New South Wales

Rachel Forster Hospital

The Rachel Forster Hospital has provided services to women since 1922 including training for female doctors, and later nurses. Until the 1960s its staff were almost exclusively female. It became a public hospital in 1930 and developed into a centre for innovation in the treatment of breast cancer and orthopaedic surgery before closing in 2000.

Biffin, Harriett Eliza

Harriett Biffin was a pioneer Sydney woman doctor. One of the second group of women to graduate in medicine at the University of Sydney in 1898, she was the first to establish a women’s joint medical practice in Sydney and a suburban general medical practice, and founded both The Medical Women’s Society of New South Wales and the Rachel Forster Hospital with Dr Lucy Edith Gullett.

Hospitals

Rachel Forster Hospital

Women's hospital established in 1922 in Surry Hills by Lucy Gullett and Harriet Biffin before moving to Redfern. It was named for Lady Forster, the wife of the Governor General.

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Redfern

Inner-city suburb located immediately south of the central business district whose sandhills were first settled by Chinese market gardeners and later by Aboriginal people who migrated to work in the local factories. Today it is a rich blend of public housing, renovated terraces, light industry and arts precincts.

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Clyde House

Two storey Victorian Filigree style residence built by timber merchant George Hudson for his son which later became the first Rachel Forster Hospital building.

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