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Description

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About Castlecrag Private Hospital
Castlecrag Private Hospital is situated on Sydneys Lower North Shore Established in 1928 the hospital services the North Shore community with a range of specialized medical and surgical services Being of small size means the hospital can offer optimal privacy comfortable accommodation highly skilled staff and personalized care

Castlecrag Private Hospital is owned by Ramsay Health Care Australias leading private hospital operator The hospitals specialties include orthopaedic surgery plastic and cosmetic surgery general surgery and palliative care

The Hospital is fully accredited by the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards ACHS a national accreditation body which ensures that hospitals provide the highest standards of service Patient health safety and comfort are the hospitals main concerns and Castlecrag Private Hospital continually monitors and evaluates its performance to achieve this outcome

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History

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Castlecrag Private Hospital a short history
Courtesy of The Crag No 161 October 2006
Castlecrag Private Hospital has a colourful history with the origins of the hospital going back to 1927 when Dr Edward William Rivett purchased the Walter Burley Griffindesigned King OMalley House on the corner of Edinburgh Road and Sortie Port This had been constructed on Lot 96 of the original Griffin subdivision of Castlecrag in 192223 and was financed by King OMalley the flamboyant Minister for Home Affairs in the Federal Government at the time the international design competition for the Australian Federal Capital was held It was OMalley who resolved the controversy over the design for Canberra by endorsing the majority view of the selection committee and approving the plan of fellowAmerican Walter Burley Griffin OMalley became a strong supporter of Griffin in the subsequent upheaval over the implementation of his plan and he continued this support to the Castlecrag project

The OMalley house was leased by Edgar Herbert a friend of the Griffins and a pioneer in physical education who came to Sydney from Melbourne to work with GZ Dupain at his Institute of Physical Education Herbert was the foundation President of the Castlecrag Progress Association and his family lived in the OMalley House until 1927 The house was a small stone cottage very similar to the Cheong House at 14 The Parapet Herberts daughter Erwin remembers that the picture window in the living room offered a commanding view of Middle Harbour and The Spit It was a typical Griffin house with polished floors and a blue and white Chinese rug in the living room

Dr Edward Rivett had graduated in medicine from Sydney University in 1920 and became Resident Medical Officer at Sydney Hospital and The Womens Hospital that year Rivett practised in general surgery and obstetrics Following his purchase of the OMalley House in 1927 it was converted into a small fivebed hospital Griffins office designed significant extensions to the house to provide a twostorey 20bed hospital which Rivett called Cabarisha after a legendary Indian healer Rivetts vision was to provide a hospital that was more a home than an institution in which people could be nursed back to health in an atmosphere of peace and tranquillity The grounds were laid out with lawns gardens ponds fountains and a tennis court which was used by staff and local residents

Further extensions to designs by Eric Nicolls were made to the hospital notably a wing along Sortie Port and a nurses home in The Battlement in the 1930s and an obstetrics wing along Edinburgh Road after the War It remained very much a family affair with Edwards sister Dr Amy Christine Rivett assisting at Cabarisha for some considerable time from her practice in Northbridge His sons Ronald and Howard also worked there as medical practitioners The topsylike growth of the facility resulted in a rambling geography however leading to a high stafftopatient ratio This together with the need for new equipment and techniques to keep abreast of medical developments resulted in financial losses by the 1960s

To the older residents of Castlecrag the hospital was and always will be Cabarisha Dr Rivett was a very popular doctor and the hospital was a thriving business with many of his patients coming from the local community The postwar baby boom made heavy demands on the hospitals obstetrics facilities so the wing along Edinburgh Road was added with Dr Rivett undertaking some of the construction himself

Many of Castlecrags postwar babies were born at Cabarisha with the twoweeks of postnatal care provided there enabling mothers to return home fully able to meets lifes demands Dr Rivett is remembered with affection for the professional standards of care he brought to his practice and for a hospital that was at one with the beauty of its natural setting

Following the death of Edward Rivett and Christine Rivett in 1962 Ronald and Howard continued the business changing the name to the Castlecrag Private Hospital In 1970 they reluctantly decided to sell to a company with adequate capital for further development of the facilities This did not eventuate and the hospital was onsold The present remodelled building was opened on 5 January 1986 The architect Michael Cavanagh endeavoured to preserve the character of the former hospital with the front faccedilade being retained and the buildings past character reflected in the new Griffinlike mouldings in the other facades