Hawthorn Album: Former Women's Venereal Disease Clinic 372- Former Women's Venereal Disease Clinic 372- 378 Little Lonsdale Street Melbourne

The humorous part about Victoria university’s attempt to demolish this historically important building and replace it with a skyscraper is that they are a replacing a building of historic importance to Australian women with a phallus. The 32-storey high-rise phallus will ''reinvigorate'' that area of the city, says.Victoria University's director of phacilities, Gary Carter, said the university had owned the Little Lonsdale site for 10 years.

''The university recognises that there are some heritage concerns about buildings on the site, but it is our understanding that any heritage listing is largely on the basis of the buildings' social history, rather than their architectural significance,'' ''The university recognises that there are some heritage concerns about buildings on the site, but it is our understanding that any heritage listing is largely on the basis of the buildings' social history, rather than their architectural significance,'' he said in a statement.In other words the dickhead will make a token gesture.

I am imagining a red syphilitic sore on the side of the phallus and painting it with red and yellow enamel representing pus and blood. The inside of the building should be decorated with pictures of the infected.

http://www.smh.com.au/business/property/a-rash-decision-bid-to-demolish-historic-vd-clinic-sparks-anger-20120411-1wsb8.html

“The building was inspected in March 2012. The former clinic is a two storey building with Georgian Revival style influences in compositional arrangement of the facade and selection of building elements, however the idiom is deployed in an eclectic manner rather than an academic manner in this case. The building has a red brick facade with entry portico, the front has an over scaled, dentilated cornice and steeply pitched tile roof to the front with gabled parapet walls to each end. The facade is symmetrically composed with central entry porch and balconies to the first floor. The overall building is composed with this modest architectural frontispiece facade bookending the utilitarian two level rear section which comprises the majority of the building This rear section has a hipped tile roof and rear roof top balcony which is partially infilled with a later lightweight additions.”

“The Review indicates the site meets three of nine National Estate Register criteria, these being, broadly: Criterion A4: Demonstrates well the course and pattern of history, important historic events Criterion E1: Aesthetic importance to the community or cultural group, typically judged as representing an architectural style Criterion G1: Social importance to the community, as demonstrated by documentation or sustained community expression of value for the place”

“The building is associated with its founding use as a clinic for treatment of Women's' venereal disease following a rise in disease following World War One. This was a specific health program developed in response to a rising community need at the time.”

Melbourne Planning Scheme Former Women's Venereal Disease Clinic 372- 378 Little Lonsdale Street Melbourne. Expert Evidence Prepared by Michael Taylor Architect and Conservation consultant Pty Ltd

VENEREAL DISEASE.The Age

Friday 20 September 1918

Cabinet Told of Ravages. '.

Some plain facts relating to the ravages of venereal disease. in Melbourne were told the State Cabinet hay-the Chief Secretary (Mr. Bowser)."The prevailing condition of affairs in

our midst," he said subsequently, "isso terrible that I asked the Cabinet to take immediate action. ' The time has arrived for us; to put- aside the. idea that _ the ;subject is too ? unsavoury' to publicly discuss." The Cabinet .was impressed by Mr. Bowser's report, and a plan of campaign was launched to cope with the disease. .

Mr. Bowser's, report was based on the inquiries made in .Melbourne and suburbs by Dr.' Robertson, Chairman of the Board of Public Health. In effect, the Cabinet was told that from July i, 1917, to April 30 last, no fewer than 6,346 persons-5217 males and1129 females-were reported as suffering from disease in Melbourne alone. From the country there were not more than 230 cases reported during the months in question. Disease was so prevalent that doctors 'and nurses had contracted it while attending to midwifery cases, and little children had become victims through' contact with towels, sponges arid other ar-ticles handled by affected adults.-The spread of venereal disease in all its forms was becoming so alarming that was imperative that the State should immediately take effective steps in the interests of the people as a whole.

the Cabinet decided that the night clinic for men, commenced > by Mr. McLeod when Chief Secretary, at the offices of the Board of Public Health, and facing . Little Lonsdale Street, should be opened as speedily as possible. Last week Mr. Bowser authorised the expenditure of Í200 to equipthe clinic. It will be efficiently staffed, and ready for the reception of on three nights a week for men two nights for women. The cost of maintenance will, it is expected, amount to ¿1000 a year.

Regarding a separate night- clinic for women, the Cabinet adopted the recommendation of Mr. Bowser, thatà building be provided at a cost of£500, on the land between the offices of the Health Department and the Melbourne Mint, adjacent to the Queen Victoria Hospital for Women. The maintenance of this clinic will, it is expected, cost £400 a year. It will be conducted in conjunction with the Queen Victoria Hospital. Plans for this building will be at once pre-pared by the Public Works Department, and the Clinic will, if possible, be ready for use_ in about two months. The women's clinic, however, is to be à tentative arrangement, pending the arrangement of a suitable hospital for women on the same land at a cost_ of£5000, and also accommodation, being provided at the general hospital for the treatment of victims. The present proposal of the Cabinet is that after the patients have gone through certain treatment they shall be detained for the completion of the cure. The men-will be sent to Langwarrin,and the women to some similar internment hospital. Mr. Bowser said that the Cabinet was determined that the Act requiring victims to notify and be treated should be rigidly enforced.

Dr. Robertson's observations regarding the children who were suffer-ing from the disease :were. That many difficulties surrounded their treatment. It was intimated to the Cabinet that the Children's Hospital was prepared to accommodate and treat as many children as possible. In view of this offer, the Cabinet resolved that '£600 a year be granted to the hospital

for the maintenance of ten beds for infant sufferers of the disease. The Cabinet was also informed that at the Alfred Hospital, where by arrangement a night clinic had been established, 60 cases a night of both men and women were being treated. It was agreed that the committee of management of this hospital be asked to give an estimate to the Cabinet of the annual cost of continuing the work of treating venereal cases there. Yesterday's decisions of the Cabinet regarding the disease may be regarded as only the beginning of a scheme to combat it.

the Age 20 September 1918

In pursuance of its scheme for treating

venereal patients, the Health department

has called for tenders for a building to be

erected in Little Lonsdale street behind

the Board of Health offices. The estimated

cost of the structure will be £7000, and it

is proposed to use the accommodation for

women. A women's clinic will be located

there, and there will be about twenty beds

for in-patients. The new building will not

be a substitute for Studley Hall, which, was