Page 15 - Pharmacy History 29 July 2006

Charters Towers
1892-1901
In his autobiography he indicates that the main reasons were to board the steamer “to take us to land of gold and most extraordinary freedom”. Their final destination was Charters Towers, Queensland, where successful gold mining began in 1872, but boomed from 1886 following the Colonial Exhibition of London. After 1900 the gold mining slumped.
Charters Towers was the residence of a former German friend (Max Schmidt) previously from Munich.
The brothers worked around the district and even tried their hand at prospecting for gold and during this period, 1893 to 1899, Frederick met Dr Francis Hare who was a physician as well as the inspector general of hospitals in Queensland. It was this association which resulted in Frederick becoming employed as a warder at the Charter’s Towers Hospital.
At the height of the gold-rush there were three lodges in Charters Towers, and these eventually combined to set up a Friendly Societies Dispensary in premises called the ‘Manchester Unity Medical Hall’, but locally known as the ‘medical hall’.
Frederick Staubwasser began his training in dispensing with Mr J Wilkinson
at the medical hall in 1900 while still working as a part time warder at the hospital, but in 1901 he left this job to concentrate full time on pharmacy.
At the end of this period Dr Hare appointed him dispenser at the new Diamantina Hospital in Brisbane, so he resigned his job at the Charters Towers Hospital and moved to the city, where his new position required his full time attendance seven days a week.
In his autobiography he thanks various medical officers for their
help and support since he arrived
in Australia, and especially Mr Wilkinson his pharmacy tutor and Dr Hare, whom he describes as
“my greatest benefactor since I left Germany... he was one of those English gentlemen who would do his utmost to help others to rise in the profession they had adopted.”
Frederick and Eliza, with children Louisa, Freda & Oscar, 1917.
volume 3 ■ no 29 ■ JULY 2006
Pharmacy History Australia ■ 15
The Diamantina
Hospital 1901–1938
The Diamantina Hospital for Chronic Diseases opened in 1901 on the site
of the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Woolloongabba, a Brisbane suburb. The foundation senior staff of the Diamantina Hospital in 1901 was
the matron Miss Florence Chatfield, medical superintendent Dr Francis Hare, dispenser/head wardsman Mr Frederick Staubwasser and visiting medical officer Dr Alfred Jefferis Turner.
These people worked very well together with mutual respect in this
independent public hospital which was originally an orphanage, and initially catered for 32 patients with chronic conditions such as pulmonary tuberculosis, cerebro-vascular diseases, cancer and epilepsy. The hospital was declared to be a Public Charitable Institution under the Charitable Institutions Management Act of 1866, and was under the direct control of the home secretary and his department until 1942.
When Dr Hare resigned in 1903, Miss Chatfield was appointed superintendent; then in 1904, Mr Staubwasser as assistant
(Cont. page 16)