The final chapter in the Discovering Our Doctors project will be opened on May 9 as part of Forbes Heritage 2019.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The project began as a showcase for doctors from the Harold Street Medical Centre and Cross Street Surgery, telling their story in the new Forbes Medical Centre.
The first panel was unveiled in 2013 and tells the story of Dr Ivan McLean of the Harold Street Medical Centre.
Since then, the panels have featured Dr Frederick Kelleher in 2014; Doctors John Dyce and John Dent (Harold Street) in 2015; Doctors Edward Palmer (Templar Street) and Edward McDonald (independent), in 2016; Doctors Geoffrey Young, Henry Delohery and Jim Delohery in 2017; and doctors Blaise Braganza and Apollonia Lobo (Cross Street) in 2018.
The final two doctors to be featured in 2019 will be Katherine Stanley (Harold Street) and Untung Laksito (Cross Street).
The project’s initial objective was to share the stories of the doctors who had come together from the town's two practices to form the Forbes Medical Centre.
However, it soon became apparent that without nurses and hospitals the story of the medicos of the town was incomplete. In 2018, three panels telling the story of Forbes' nurses was unveiled.
"In fact, no research existed on the nurses of the town and the information available at the Forbes Family History Group on the private hospitals and aged care is fragmented at best, panel researcher and writer Kerry Neaylon said.
This year, the story will continue to expand with panels on the Forbes Hospital, Private Hospitals and Aged Care.
"Research has uncovered the origins of the Harold Street practice in 1877 which will result in a full chronology," Ms Neaylon said.
Although more recent (1933), the same chronology applies to Cross Street. Dr Kelleher practised initially out of the Vandenberg Hotel, then the family home in Templar Street.
It was not until he retired that the practice, purchased by Dr Laksito, moved to Cross Street.
The Time Line Panel not only contains details of the ‘panel’ medicos but the principal doctors of the Forbes Medical Centre together with the other medicos from both former practices and those associated with the Private Hospitals – Brentwood and Crombie.
Invitations to this year's unveiling have been extended to all families of showcased doctors, former doctors, administration and nursing staff of Harold Street Medical Centre, Cross Street Surgery, and the Forbes Medical Centre.
Members of the community are also invited to attend, but bookings are essential. The unveiling is at Forbes Town Hall at 6.30pm on May 9, 2019.
Please RSVP through Janet or Lara at Forbes Shire Council on 6850 2300 by May 2.