Hospital Auxiliary Members Making a Difference

Hospital Auxiliary Members Making a Difference

Kyabram Hospital Auxiliary marks end of extraordinary 90-year legacy of service

It is with deep sadness and sincere gratitude that the Kyabram Hospital Auxiliary announces its disbandment, bringing to a close more than nine decades of outstanding volunteer service to the hospital and wider community.

Established in 1933 alongside Kyabram’s first community hospital, the Kyabram Ladies Auxiliary was formed to help establish and equip the town’s first non-private hospital, an eight-bed cottage hospital in Allan Street that opened to patients on 29 July 1933. From the very beginning, members played a vital role in ensuring the hospital could function, making and washing linen, supplying beds, blankets, crockery and nursery items, baking cakes, providing flowers, and raising funds to install a patient buzzer system.

Just two years later, from 1935–1936, the Auxiliary joined with surrounding district groups to support the hospital’s first major expansion. Their efforts helped fund a new operating theatre, labour ward, sterilising room and laundry, while the former theatre was converted into an additional three-bed ward. The extension was officially opened on 22 January 1936, marking an important milestone in the growth of local healthcare services.

During a difficult period in 1945, when the hospital faced severe staffing shortages and illness, the Auxiliary was revitalised at a public meeting attended by 17 women. Members immediately established rosters to assist with serving meals, bathing babies and supporting inpatient care, while also repairing linen, sewing baby clothing and providing essential items such as pillows and blankets.

As the hospital evolved, so too did the Auxiliary’s contribution. Following the opening of the new Kyabram and District Memorial Community Hospital in 1960, built debt-free after years of community fundraising, the Auxiliary continued to strengthen its support. In 1961, members held the first garden party in the hospital grounds, an event that grew into the much-loved annual hospital fete. The Auxiliary also established the hospital kiosk with a £40 loan, which was repaid within seven months and went on to become a lasting source of support for patient care.

In the decades that followed, the Auxiliary made significant financial contributions to hospital development and equipment, including $12,000 towards furnishings for the A.G. Hutchinson Wing in 1972, $11,000 for air conditioning in 1974, $18,000 for geriatric extensions in 1976, $12,500 for the Day Hospital in 1982, $60,400 for the Tehan Wing in 1989, and $32,302 for a new operating table in 1992. By 1993, the Auxiliary was estimated to have contributed approximately $212,000 over the preceding 28 years alone.

In more recent years, the Auxiliary has continued this proud tradition by supporting important improvements within the hospital, including the purchase of a new insufflator to assist with clinical care, as well as furniture and furnishings to improve comfort and support for patients and their families during their time in hospital. These contributions have made a meaningful and lasting difference to the patient experience.

Through countless fundraising efforts, including fetes, street stalls, op shop operations, social events, and the hospital kiosk, generations of members have devoted thousands of voluntary hours to improving healthcare services and patient comfort in Kyabram and surrounding districts.

Hospital staff and community leaders have expressed deep appreciation for the Auxiliary’s extraordinary contribution over its lifetime. Its work has left an enduring legacy across multiple generations of hospital development.

Members reflected on the organisation’s long history and service with quiet pride at their farewell afternoon High Tea on Friday June 26th. Mary Kendall said she was “just happy to have been part of it for so many years and proud of what the Auxiliary has achieved.” Margaret Chalker said it has been “a wonderful group to be involved with and a great way to support the hospital.”

While the Auxiliary’s formal activities will now conclude, its spirit of generosity, service and community care will remain deeply embedded in the hospital’s history and identity.

“Embrace each moment with courage and determination, for it is through challenges that we grow. Remember, success is not measured by the absence of obstacles, but by the strength to overcome them.”

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