On August 7th. 1858, an enthusiastic public meeting was held, chaired by Mining Warden Fenwick and held in the canvas "Olympic Theatre" at Deep Lead. The meeting resolved to establish a hospital, and elected a committee of 61 citizens for that purpose.
The need for a hospital was great, with meagre shelter from the elements, a restricted diet mainly of meat and flour, an inadequate and open polluted water supply, people succumbing to disease and accidents were common. Many suffered and died because there was no hospital to provide the shelter and care they needed.
An appeal was launched and the miners of Pleasant Creek and those settlers in the Wimmera, west to the South Australian border and North to the Mallee, responded generously. Ihe canvass yielded over £500. The Committee decided to erect a temporary hospital humediately.
On the 26th. February 1859, the temporary hospital of calico and bark on Doctors Hill midway between Commercial Street and Deep Lead was opened free of debt. A Government grant on the Basis of £3 for £1 local contribution was received. On March 5th. 1858 the Committee of Management was elected.
Ten acres of land on the Glenorchy Road near the new township of Stawell was gazetted as a site for a permanent hospital. Plans for the hospital were adopted in 1860, and on the December 31st. 1860, a foundation stone was laid on the site. The building of the new hospital was completed and occupied on June 21st. 1861, at a cost of £2,150. The Pleasant Creek Hospital opened free of debt. This building is now known as the Pleasant Creek Training Centre.
The Pleasant Creek Hospital had become too small for the needs of the area, and with the shift of the population to the Big Hill area it was decided to build a new hospital on the present site in Sloane Street, Stawell. This hospital was opened on June 20th. 1934.
This photo was taken in 1933 on the site of the First Hospital in the area, it was built half way between Commercial Road, Illawarra and Deep Lead. The site is the first left turn off Glenvale Road coming from the Western Highway.
The people in the picture are Mrs R. Barker and Mr G. T. Haase.