The Diamantina Health Care Museum Association of the Princess Alexandra Hospital is a non-profit institution, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits material of significance in health and nursing care, including development and support services.
Members of the Association believe that people and practice are health care's history, and they work towards the public celebration, documentation and interpretation of the rich history of health care, people and staff at Princess Alexandra Hospital and its predecessors on the site.
Ultimately this will include the role of technological innovation in contributing to advances in care. The Association will address contemporary issues as well as providing links to the wealth of past hospital practice and the energy and commitment of staff.
A multi-strand approach has been adopted by the Association with displays in cases throughout the Hospital and this site on the web.
The Association's name acknowledges two broad histories. Contessa Diamantina Roma,* Lady Bowen, initiated several charitable organisations in Brisbane, and the Princess Alexandra site has a long historical connection with health care. The latter includes the establishment on 5 August 1901 of the Diamantina Hospital for chronic disease, South Brisbane Auxiliary Hospital in 1943, the new South Brisbane Hospital in 1956, and its identity since 1960 as Princess Alexandra Hospital. The title also acknowledges the Association's charter as an organisation concerned with broad health and nursing care issues. There is a particular focus on the history of activity on this site, including indigenous history, and community relationships to that activity. The Association will look at special developments initiated at the Hospital and their subsequent broader application, including non-medical solutions or other technical involvements, which have made these developments possible.
*Contessa Diamantina Roma (1833-93), wife of Queensland's first Governor (from 1859-67), Sir George Bowen, was born at Zante in the Ionian Islands. She was the first Greek resident in the new Queensland colony. An attractive and popular figure, she was an advocate for Greek culture and philosophy. Information on the Contessa is taken from Dr Owen Harris's research which is to be published as a paper.
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© The State of Queensland (Queensland Health) 2008.