Moruya's pioneer doctors

Paul and Grace thought they might like to try something like that before heading to Queensland which was their ultimate goal. They came down to Moruya to check it out.

Here they met the local Catholic priest, members of the Hospital Board and solicitor Hugh McHugh who had an office in the old Bank of NSW building. He offered to make available the rest of the old bank building as living quarters.

This building was in a poor state and being used as a boarding house. The Bannons accepted, renovations commenced and the surgery opened on July 1, 1954.

Many locals, loyal to Dr Mackay, were not very welcoming to this "squatter", including the matron of the hospital, Matron Harris. However people gradually warmed to him.

The hospital was in a poor state and there were even parts of the floor where termites had eaten their way through.

Eventually the new hospital opened with a vastly improved operating theatre where Dr Mackay and Dr Bannon performed routine surgery, occasionally helping each other out as anaesthetists.

Anaesthetics used were ether or chloroform, although Dr Mackay came to favour spinal anaesthesia because of the lack of anaesthetists.

Blood for transfusions was a serious problem. Blood mostly had to come from Sydney by plane.

A panel of over 300 local blood donors who could be called to the hospital in emergencies, was drawn up. Matron Harris would reward them with a glass of hospital brandy.

The ambulance was staffed by volunteer drivers. Mrs Mackay, wife of Dr Mackay, was one of them.

She drove at death-defying speed with sirens blaring from emergency scenes to Moruya hospital or to Sydney and Canberra.

Access to specialists was a major problem. A team of back-up specialists was built up. They were prepared to respond at very short notice, some piloting their own plane.

One such specialist was Gilbert Wallace, obstetrics specialist in Cooma. His record was 55 minutes from being phoned to appearing in the operating theatre at Moruya.

On one occasion he received a call from Dr Bannon who had a woman in the process of giving birth to twins. The first twin, a boy, had been born easily but there was trouble with the birth of the second baby.

After the first delivery an attempt had been made to turn the second one but then everything had stopped.

Dr Bannon whisked the woman around to be x-rayed. Here it was discovered the baby had its leg up around its neck and the Cooma specialist had to be called in. It was a late May evening and the runway at the aerodrome was quite dark.

Luckily new landing night time lights had just been installed. Prior to this if there was a night-time emergency, a call would go out at the Golf Club and men would race down to the airport in their cars to shine the lights on the runway.

The specialist arrived and was rushed to the hospital. As many of the nursing staff as could fit in the labour ward were there to observe the specialist work his miracle.

The baby, a girl, was straightened out and pulled out, looking a little blue but the specialist assured the anxious observers that she would be fine, and she was!

The mother did not even see the specialist - he arrived while she was under anaesthetic and was gone by the time she came to. A happy result.

Geoff Harrington, an obstetrics specialist from Canberra, would drive down from there.

Punt operators at Nelligen and Batemans Bay ensured they were on the correct side of the river to take him across immediately he arrived at their punts which were the only way to cross the rivers at that time.

John Kettle, a surgeon from Wollongong, and Tony Hodgkinson, an orthopaedic specialist from Sydney, were two others who piloted their own planes and could respond quickly.

Like many other doctors before him, Dr Bannon had clashes with the hospital board. In the mid 1960s he went to a board meeting to protest at the sacking of two Irish nurses only to find when he got there that he was expected to answer a complaint against him made by the Matron. He promptly resigned.

Queensland was again looking good. Locals were horrified. After an investigation by the Health Commission, Dr Bannon withdrew his resignation on condition that the two nurses were reinstated.

Equipment at the hospital gradually improved. The maternity ward got a proper delivery bed and a humidity crib, the mortuary got a refrigerator.

On one occasion Dr Bannon and Dr Laurie Brunton of Narooma had the unenviable job of performing a post-mortem examination under the direction of Dr Percy, government pathologist in Sydney.

The body had been found in the river at Buckenboura, badly decomposed. The smell permeated the hospital. The organs requested by the pathologist were removed and the body was prepared for burial under the supervision of Police Sergeant Farnsworth.

As the coffin was being lowered into the ground, Dr Mackay came racing up in his car. There had been a last minute message from the pathologist to say he also needed the right hand. Back to the hospital.

On many an occasion Dr Bannon was the only doctor in the town, especially after Dr Mackay retired. Even after a family visit to the beach or the pictures he would ring the exchange to see if anyone had been trying to contact him urgently.

Holidays were a rarity. A move to Queensland was forgotten. Dr Bannon and his family became part of the fabric of Moruya. Grace died in 1983 and Paul, who spent the rest of his days in the district, in 2014.

Times changed and the population grew. There are now many doctors practising in the district.

Visit https://ehive.com/collections/5495/moruya-and-district-historical-society-museum and use the search term medical to find details on some items held in the Museum.