Mater celebrates its centenary

“This, I hope, is the beginning of a big work that will do much good.” Mother Patrick Potter, 27 February 1906

On 4 January 2006, Mater Health Services will celebrate 100 years of providing exceptional care.

It was on this day in 1906, the Sisters of Mercy opened their first 20-bed private hospital, named “Aubigny”, in a former residential home in Brisbane's North Quay.

Thanks to the aspirations of this group of dedicated women who wanted to “do much good”, Mater has since grown to a campus at South Brisbane which has six hospitals for insured and non-insured patients, Mater Medical Research Institute and a seventh hospital at Redland.

Today, Mater is recognised as one of the state's leading health care providers and continues to provide compassionate care for the sick and needy as it did a century ago.

Throughout our centenary year, Mater will reflect on our achievements, our success stories, our people and our future. To do this, a number of events and promotional activities will occur throughout the year to commemorate this very special occasion.

In the last 100 years some of our achievements include;

• Mater hospitals installed Queensland's first deep x-ray therapy machine to treat cancer in 1928.
• Mater established the first neurological unit in 1954.
• Mater conducted the first retrieval of a premature baby from rural Queensland in 1977 using former premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Peterson's plane.
• Mater Private Emergency Care Centre opened in 1989 and it was the first emergency centre in any Queensland private hospital.
• In 1999, Mater Children's Hospital became the transplant centre for Queensland for children and adolescent renal transplants.
• Mater specialists performed the first in-utero surgery for twin to twin transfusion syndrome in Australia in 2002
• The Queensland Integrated Refugee Community Health ( QIRCH ) clinic at the Mater was established in 2002, the only clinic of its kind in Australia that provides integrated health care for all refugees including asylum seekers.