BUSHkids 2017-18 Annual Report

1961

1978

On a visit to Maryborough in 1934, Queensland Governor Sir Leslie Orme Wilson suggested the Maryborough branch of ex-servicemen’s Christian philanthropic organisation TOC H should investigate the idea of bringing needy children to the coast for a break from the rigours of Outback life. TOC H developed the idea into a more comprehensive medical scheme, bringing children from Queensland’s Central West for summer camps in Pialba where they received medical and dental care. The following year, this grew into the statewide Queensland Bush Children’s Health Scheme . In 1938, the Scheme opened its first Home on the Esplanade at Torquay to accommodate disadvantaged kids from South Western Queensland. This was replaced by a purpose- built facility in 1960. In 1984, after major refurbishment, the Torquay Home was converted into the Scheme’s specialist home for children aged from birth to 16 with profound multiple disabilities, with support to accommodate up to 24 children with severe disabilities at a time. In the 1990s, as BUSHkids began its operational pivot towards delivering services in regional communities, the Torquay Home was closed in 1997. The old Home still stands and in 2018 is a backpacker’s hostel. Below left: a happy group of kids in 1947, revitalised after six weeks at the Hervey Bay seaside and about to head home to Outback Queensland. Background: the Torquay Home’s bus driver Bill Cook in 1987, looking after one of the profoundly disabled kids staying at the Home.

29

2015

Our ‘spiritual home’ – Maryborough and Hervey Bay.