3.1 The Public Buildings

Hospital

Practical moves for a hospital had begun in the 1930s with a meeting at the Mechanics Institute where discussion ranged over the need for a new hospital or a motorised ambulance service. A Bush Nursing Hospital Committee was formed with voices from further down the peninsula (Mrs Gavan Duffy for example) calling for ambulances. Local interests won out and a hospital building of reinforced concrete was begun.1 A new public ward block was commenced by Clements Langford P/L in 1962 to the design of local architects, Chancellor and Patrick.2

Frankston has also become the site for a range of health centres and homes. No doubt the supposed benefits of sea air have played a part in this choice. The Children's Hospital in Carlton found difficulty in housing children suffering from poliomyelitis in the 1920s. In searching for a new site, the hospital managers chose a Frankston property, Beachleigh for the Orthopaedic Section of the Royal Children's Hospital. A new building was completed in 1929 off Jacksons Road. In 1971, when the children were transferred back to a new centre at Carlton, the hospital became the Mt. Eliza geriatric centre.3

The Frankston State School occupies a prominent site in Davey St. In 1874 the first school here was a wooden building and could hold sixty pupils.4 Brick classrooms and a teacher's residence were added to the site during the 1880s. The school was added to with a new building in the 1930s and in 1941 and new wings in 1945. Frankston was also at the centre of a long-running dispute about provision of secondary education. Residents worked hard for a local high school, sometimes facing opposition from local councillors and those who thought a secondary school could wait until after the shire acquired facilities like a hospital and better roads.

Eventually a building was constructed in Frankston and became a significant focal point for community life. The school and the work of its students were a major source of news for the local press and provided a good avenue for local children to move on from the limited work opportunities provided within Frankston itself.