Where was the first hospital in Australia located?

Sydney Hospital began on 26 January, 1788 with the arrival of the First Fleet. Surgeon-General John White who headed the colony’s medical administration founded the hospital which began as a collection of tents known colloquially as the ‘sick tents’ in Dawes Point on the western side of Sydney Cove.

This facility was improved by the addition of a portable prefabricated building brought over with the Second Fleet.

The purpose of the hospital was to treat convicts, but medical services were also provided to the poor and, especially during the 1789 smallpox epidemic, some Aboriginal people.