north east regional extra | January 22 - 28, 2020
nemedia.com.au
1.
January 22 - 28, 2020
Hometown help
By STRUAN JONES
◆ BIG PICTURE: Barbara Talbot in front of the iconic Mount Beauty wall piece in the Hospital entrance the Hospital Op Shop helped to fund. PHOTO: Struan Jones
BARBARA Talbot is someone who knows her community. She knows it because she and her hometown, Mount Beauty, have a shared history, along a similar timeline in fact, having been born in Myrtleford in 1947. The town, nestled in the highest corner of the Kiewa Valley, was originally constructed in 1949 by the State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SEC) to house workers from the Kiewa Hydroelectric Scheme. It grew as she did, and she has a pretty good memory of almost everything that has gone on since. Today locals know Barbara as one of the ladies behind the Mount Beauty Hospital Op Shop, a modest yet productive affair on Tawonga Crescent that has raised more than $190,000 since its opening in May 2014 - something she initiated. The Mount Beauty hospital itself has an interesting history. In the early stages of the Kiewa Hydro-Electric Scheme, the SEC financed the construction of the Tawonga District General Hospital, nine kilometres down the Kiewa Valley Highway from Mount Beauty, with a view to provide medical support for its workers and their families. The hospital was located away from the majority of the patients as the Hospital and Charities Board was not prepared to have it within the SEC-controlled area of Mount Beauty. Construction included the removal and re-erection of the ex-military Bonegilla ward from Wodonga while the necessary works were completed that allowed the hospital to operate as a functional unit. Work was completed and the hospital opened in September 1949.
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