Musgrave House
| Musgrave House | |
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Musgrave House, 1999
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| Location | 8 Allpass Parade, Shorncliffe, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia |
| Coordinates | 27°19′48″S 153°04′59″E / 27.3299°S 153.083°ECoordinates: 27°19′48″S 153°04′59″E / 27.3299°S 153.083°E |
| Design period | 1870s - 1890s (late 19th century) |
| Built | 1884 - 1920s |
| Architect | Richard Gailey |
| Official name: Musgrave House, Lady Musgrave Sanitorium for Sick Children | |
| Type | state heritage (built) |
| Designated | 22 October 1999 |
| Reference no. | 601499 |
| Significant period | 1880s 1920s (fabric) 1880s-1931 (historical) |
| Significant components | kitchen/kitchen house, toilet block/earth closet/water closet, shed/s, ward - enclosed |
 Location of Musgrave House in Queensland
Location of Musgrave House in Queensland
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Musgrave House is a heritage-listed sanatorium at 8 Allpass Parade, Shorncliffe, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Richard Gailey and built from 1884 to 1920s. It is also known as Lady Musgrave Sanitorium for Sick Children. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 22 October 1999.
Located on a spacious corner block facing Cabbage Tree Creek, Musgrave House is a low set timber building with a high pitched, hipped roof designed by renowned Brisbane architect Richard Gailey. Built in 1884 as a convalescent home for children from the Hospital for Sick Children, Musgrave House dates from the time when Sandgate and Shorncliffe were crowded with boarding houses and convalescent homes. Since 1939, Musgrave House has continuously operated as a boarding house for men.
In its inception, the Lady Musgrave Sanatorium for Sick Children reflects prominent nineteenth century ideas about health and childhood. Providing health facilities was not a main concern for the colonial government of Queensland, caring for the sick was considered a task for voluntary groups and charitable organisations. The idea of hospitals specifically for children was itself a new idea and had evolved steadily throughout the nineteenth century. Children's hospitals were increasingly established throughout the world in the latter half of the century. The vivid impressions left by a visit to children accommodated in adult wards in Brisbane led Mary McConnel of Cressbrook Station to launch the idea of a children's hospital for the colony. Indeed, at this time children under five years of age were denied treatment at the General Hospital. Thus, the Hospital for Sick Children in Brisbane was founded in 1878 and was the second in Australia.
Statistics from the 1860s and 70s show how perilous life was for the children of colonial Queensland. In 1866, the Queensland Registrar-General announced that the infant mortality rate was "out of all proportion great", 49.25% of all deaths in 1863 were of children under the age of five. Half the children born in 1877 died before reaching the age of five. Dysentery, diarrhoea and typhoid were rife, along with many other illnesses unknown to medical practitioners of the time. At the same time, there was growing recognition of childhood as a distinct stage of life and less acceptance of the moralistic view that providing facilities for children encouraged mothers to abdicate their maternal responsibilities.
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