5 March 1958 Queen Elizabeth Hospital
5 March 1958 Queen Elizabeth Hospital
The Queen Elizabeth Hospital at Woodville was officially opened on 5 March 1958 by the Queen Mother who unveiled a portrait of Queen Elizabeth in the foyer.
In the early 1950s it was realised that a new public hospital, preferably in the north-western area of Adelaide, was needed to relieve the demands on the Royal Adelaide Hospital. The site at Woodville was chosen as it was centrally situated in the fast expanding industrial area between the city and the Port. The first building to be completed was the Nurses Home in 1954, and this was used partly as a maternity block. The main maternity block was completed by the Architect-in-Chief's Department in May 1957 and was opened for patients on 6 September. With extra work for the Government the work on the General Hospital block was contracted to a private firm and this was opened in 1959.
The final cost of the hospital was £7 million. It is the state's second largest teaching hospital and is affiliated with the University of Adelaide. In the last 30 years the hospital has been added to and updated and operates one of the best renal units in Australia. The first successful kidney transplant was performed there on 21 February 1965.
Sunday Mail, 29 February 1964, Newspaper Cuttings Book, Volume 3, p. 104. SSLM.
usan Marsden, A History of Woodville, 1977, pp. 220-222.