At the turn of the century the site of the Queen Elizabeth II Medical Centre (QEIIMC) was a grazing place for a cattle owned by Edward Browne, the founder of Browne’s Dairy. In 1910 the land was purchased by the State Government.(1)
In 1953, the land of the QEIIMC was designated for development as a medical centre with a teaching hospital as the core. In a report of the Commissioner for Public Health in 1953 it was stated:
“As the hospital will not primarily serve a defined area but will also supply the teaching and research facilities for the state, its ultimate size ids dictated not so much by population in the area but by the maximum size of a workable hospital” (2)
The Perth Medical Trust
From 1922 the site of the medical centre has been controlled by the University of Western Australia (UWA) under a 999 year lease form the State Government. When the Chest Hospital was proposed the 75 acre block was largely undeveloped.
Wishing to establish a medical centre, the WA Government wanted to revest the land in the Crown. An agreement between UWA and the government maintained some say for the University over the future of the site. Their say was embodied in the Perth Medical Centre Trust which controls and manages the Medical Centre site. It has no part in the operation of the institutions and organisations at QEIIMC. Another member of the Trust (now called the QEIIMC Trust) is the Health Department of WA.
Notes:
(1) Polizzotto, Carolyn – A Fair Sized Town – published by Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital & The Centre for WA History 1988 p16
(2) Appendix 1 1953 Report of the Commissioner for Public Health published WA 1955
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