Mercy Care existence hangs in the balance

I hoped to capture the feelings we all have for familiar surrounds, to understand and value the best features of the town and district, buildings, parks, places of beauty and recreation, the fascinating countryside with its industries and villages; to reveal, through history, stories of the people involved, how we became who we are today.

When talking about buildings, I have pictured how and why they were built and what changes they’ve undergone. 

Last week I pointed out how even ruins tell our story to us and those growing up now and to those still to come, reminding us who we are and what sort of town we have.

This week I write about a place of crucial importance in our history, vital to the identity of our town, a vital link in our story. 

A friend rang me on  June 14 in alarm; in the shire council’s regular page of notification of public matters was: “Proposed Development: Demolition – former Mercy Care Hospital, dining room, workshop and shed…” The application does not reveal subsequent plans.

The owner - a Sydney businessman - plans to demolish the most prominent building on the Campbell Street frontage.  

The site extends from Berthong to Allanan Streets and Campbell to Bruce. 

Only  the convent cloister, chapel and nurses’ quarters would survive. 

This means complete removal of the earliest structure on the site, (102 years of our history) with its 1960s additions, the maternity ward (Berthong Street), the dining room and the workshop and store rooms (all on the Bruce Street side of the block).

If this building is demolished, with it goes one of the most important links with the story of the great Monsignor Hennessy and the Catholic Parish of Young. 

It is a remarkable story, ours was the first hospital in country NSW built by a Roman Catholic parish.  

Fr Hennessy persuaded the Sisters of the Sacred Heart to come to Young and run this new venture.

An alternative use must  be found for the former hospital building.  

I invite all readers to imagine how the the building could be restored to its appearance when it was first opened in 1911. 

I remember the fine verandahs on the Campbell Street frontage. The handsome double height verandah facing Berthong Street received the northern sunshine; here patients spent their time recuperating and socialising with visitors. 

The street corner and lovely verandahs disappeared in the rebuilding schemes of the 1960s. The roofs of dark slate with red terracotta cresting and tall rubble-plastered chimneys on the skyline were replaced with tiles at the same time. 

To help to preserve this historic structure we need to come up with a scheme for its use. 

The larger spaces could provide an excellent home for our museum.  

I have not had a chance to raise the subject with the members of the local historical society, and for that I apologise. 

What is urgent, it seems to me, is to keep the main building and whatever other smaller buildings on the site that might be useful. 

If it were thought of as a new home for our museum, it could provide roughly three times the area for the museum’s large and valuable collection, and allow proper climate-control and lighting.  

The nurses’ quarters could serve as apartments. 

The convent and chapel could serve several uses. 

So, the buildings offer a new home for a very fine collection, building tourism, extra housing,  and jobs in town.

I am being bold, of course. There is no doubt the museum needs a better home than the old class-rooms of the 1883 Public School. But there might be some other use for the Mercy. 

Perhaps the Regional School of Music could expand, using the chapel for performance; or the ANU Medical School could base its Young activities here rather than in Lynch Street. 

It is absolutely urgent we - you and me together - act quickly to express interest in the old place, or it will soon bite the dust.