Derelict hospital becomes tourist drawcard
Posted on December 11, 2009, 9:09am and updated on December 12, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Mount Gambier’s old hospital has long been considered an eyesore across the city, but ironically it has become a tourism drawcard, according to nearby residents.
“Tourists stop and take photos at weekends and if you are out they ask how long the building has been the way it is and why something hasn’t been done — they can’t believe it,” one resident said.
“People walk up to it and take family photos.
“It must be for the ‘world’s worst places to visit’ like the Come To South Australia adverts.
“It’s disgusting and has become a tourist attraction, but for the wrong reasons.”
One neighbour said the safety of children who frequented the site was her key concern.
She said that on warm nights young people sat on top of the five-storey building with their legs dangling over the side.
“They climb the fence into the grounds and scale their way up the building,” she said.
“There is an empty lift shaft that goes from the top to bottom too, so I’m worried something might happen to someone.
“Nothing has yet and it has been there a long time, but it does concern me a great deal.”
She said children as young as seven through to youths in their 20s frequented the area, throwing rocks and tennis balls, often smashing windows at the disused building, and then turning their attention to surrounding houses that became targets.
“You can hear them smashing windows and we call the police — all the residents do — we live with it on a daily basis,” said the woman.
“Sometimes I hear explosions, which I think are firecrackers.”
The woman, who asked not to be named due to concerns vandals may target her home, said the hospital spoiled the town’s tourism image, with visitors often stopping at the site.
Mayor Steve Perryman said the old hospital had been private property since 1998 and he hoped recent revising of plans to create serviced apartments at the site would lead to progress.
“Council is as eager to see that site developed as anyone else in the community,” he said, explaining council had used its powers to call for minor works to tidy up the property in the past, but could not force owners to begin development.
JASON WALLACE
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The coucil should be putting on the screws to the developer — either a shovel is in the ground by June 30th or the deal is off and the land can be given to the community or to another more progressive developer. With all the public outrage it wont be long before the community walks up and holds its own working bee and pulls it down!
An absolute disgrace and eyesore on or town. No wonder we only got a comendation and not he award for tidy towns.
It is a magnet for vandalism, drug making, squatters and potential death and needs to go asap. Note to mention what it is doing to land values. I feel sorry for all the people who rushed in and bought the apartments and inflated prices as I dont reckon there value would be that good now.
The main street area will look great once all the developments are done plus with the new rsl that whole section will be as good as any regiional centre in Aust. Make the rail corridor and old hospital the next fast track project.
I’m a now-twenty-something youth who has been conducting tours of the old hospital building for almost a decade. When people call it a “disgrace” and an “eyesore” I am saddened.
This is a fantastic building with so much history — we have found so many fascinating things wandering around in there. How many of us were born in this very building?
When visitors come to town, that’s the first place I take them — under the fence, through the tunnel, up the dark stairwell to the children’s ward, out onto the roof… The place is now riddled with graffiti, but it doesn’t have to be.
It certainly is unsafe at the moment for those who go in without a guide, but it doesn’t have to stay that way. My dream is to see our old hospital turned into some kind of museum, but that will only happen if the contract is wrestled from the hands of private enterprise.
Might also want to tell them that whoever they paid to remove the asbestos just dumped it in the tunnels under the building.
With you Alexander make it awesome. Make it some for of museum
OLD Hospital you say.I know Mt. Gambier moved it’s hospital approximately 1989 to its present location.This move replaced the one that is referred to as the “old hospital” What do locals now call the true old (original) hospital? I am talking about the great red dolamite building that stood behind and mighter than the one that opened about 1960 or 1961. What has happened to that building and the Nurses quarters on opposite side if the main drive to the Hospital entrance? I have many memories of that area from the mid 1950’s Thank you
it was an infection riddled hole when it operated as a hospital, if you werent admitted with an infection, you got one while you were in there. why would anynone want to go there?
My parents met for the first time at the door of the old nurses home one Saturday night in the mid 1960s — she was a nurse and he was a local lad looking to pick up a nurse, after a few months my dad convinced my mum to go and watch the “luminous ducks” down at the lakes with him — 45 years later they are still happily married,
My childhood was spent in and around the hospital playing in the beautiful grounds while waiting for mum to finish a shift, as a patient with terrible croup – and no I never ended up with an infection, as the daughter of a well respect nurse and as the recipient of beautiful Christmas presents from long term patients who considered me, my mother and other staff, members of their extended family. My mother was one of the trailblazers of nursing here in Mt Gambier and her dedication and commitment to patients and the profession gives her every right to feel mortified whenever she looks up at the old hospital during visits to the Mount. While I am unsure of what the solution to the physical appearance of the site is I know for a fact that the history of health care here in the South East began on that site and made a difference to the lives of thousands of people and should be acknowledged for the place it has in the history of Mt Gambier.
We’ve got at least two “Lawyers” on this council, I’m sure they could find ways and means of making the so called “Developers” maintain their property like every other ratepayer has to, unless we’re trying not to step on any ones toes here.….
How about calling our old mate Mr. Holloway, our Planning Minister, he seems to like sticking his nose in when it comes to halting progress in this town.
The developers are showing utter contempt for the people of Mt Gambier allowing the site to look like it does, and so is the council for allowing it to get to this ridiculous state of affairs.
While we’re talking about derelict property in this town, how about we start on the owners of the old Buttercup building in the middle of Commercial Street, or maybe the old Fletcher Jones factory taking pride of place on Jubilee Highway?
Believe me, these old buildings are not tourism draw cards, they’re just damn good reasons for tourists never to return here.
I love it, it’s like a time capsule. Great for photography.
I visited Mount Gambier this week as a tourist and found this article while trying to find out the story of this strange building. Mount Gambier has a great tourism future and I think the town would benefit far more by making it a museum complex than by making it into luxury apartments.