Bonalbo

Bonalbo is situated seventy kilometres from Casino. In 1915, the original hospital building was described as a two-roomed weatherboard house in Sandilands Street. In 1926, a four-roomed cottage in Cope Street was used as the hospital until the new hospital was opened in September 1940.

Charles St L Willis

The first recorded resident doctor practising in Bonalbo was there in 1921—Charles St Leger Willis, MB (Sydney 1906), from a Sydney medical family. He was remembered by a long-time local as a friendly and efficient good man who was expert in handling maternity cases, childhood epidemics and the accidents involving farmers and timber men.

In August 1925, Dr Willis was reported in the national press when he was killed after being thrown from his horse well off the track, on his way home from a house call to a farmer living a couple of miles away. He was believed to have borrowed the horse for his return home and the reluctant animal did not want to leave his own home. Dr Willis was reported to be middle-aged and left a widow and five children, as well as a town with no doctor within forty-two miles. He had been a prominent cricketer in his day.

John W Ralston

John Windeyer Ralston, MB, ChM (Sydney 1924), was practising in the town in 1926. He was involved with the agricultural society and probably saw patients on occasions in Urbenville. By March 1929, he was in Kedron, Brisbane.

Frederick W Buddee Snr

In April 1927, Frederick William Buddee, MB, ChM (Sydney 1925) was in Bonalbo. He was president of the tennis club for three years, vice-president of the A&I Society and prominent in the P&C Association. He enjoyed playing golf and bridge. He was the town doctor when the CWA Hospital was opened in September 1930, but left the town in December, to be succeeded by Dr Gaffney. He was going to Toowoomba and for further experience to London in 1932, where he worked at Queen Charlotte’s Women’s Hospital, getting experience in obstetrics and gynaecology before he went to start practising in Glen Innes in NSW. (His son, Dr FW Buddee, was later to specialise in general surgery in Lismore from 1973).

Thomas J Gaffney

Thomas Joseph Gaffney, MB (Sydney 1930), took over from Dr FW Buddee in December 1930. Born in Brisbane, he went to Sydney University, then gravitated north again. He soon involved himself in his spare time in the A&I Society Committee and the dramatic society as secretary and talented performer. Dr Gaffney also grew prize-winning roses before he went to be a GP in Brisbane in February 1933.

Roy Perkins

In 1933, Roy Perkins, MB, ChM (Sydney 1926), replaced Dr Gaffney in Bonalbo. He had been a Resident at Auburn District Hospital in 1926 and had then been a GP in Quandialla in NSW. He left in 1935 to start practising in Brisbane.

Henry C Bonney

Henry Claude Bonney, MB, ChB (Aberdeen 1925), was practising in Sandilands Street in 1935 for a very short time before he went out west in country NSW.

Herbert LA Shorter

In 1935, Herbert Leopold Ashton Shorter, MB (Sydney 1899), ChM (Sydney 1906), took over from Dr Bonney. He had been working in Dayboro in Queensland. He practised there for eighteen months and when he left in August 1936, the town was initially, at least, visited every Wednesday by Drs Jabour, Waddell and Standish from Casino.

Arthur E Malaher

Arthur Ernest Malaher, LMSSA (Eng. 1901), FRIPH, established a practice in Bonalbo in March 1939. Born in 1873 in Shetnil, England, he worked in Queensland in 1904 and then in Nambour and Dayboro before going to Nimbin. He was keen on tennis, involved in the P&C and gave lectures in first aid. In March 1941, he went to North Queensland.

Charles C Corlis

In 1942, Charles Christopher Corlis, MD (Ohio Wesleyan Uni. 1898), was working in Bonalbo. He was born in Ontario, Canada into the remarkable Corlis medical family and had started practice in Ballina in 1899. He was decorated with the Military Cross in France in WWI when away from his Bangalow practice. He had come from Lismore at the end of a long and distinguished career in the Richmond Valley area. Although he was seventy-one and needed to slow down, he served the area for over seven years and was recorded as seeing a patient in Bonalbo one month before he died in October 1949, in Lismore.

Wolf Deligdisz

Wolf Deligdisz, MD (Vienna 1920), MD (Lvov 1922), started practice in Bonalbo in August 1950, having been registered in NSW the year before and in Australia for over three years. The townspeople were desperate for a resident doctor after Dr Corlis and advertised in the Sydney Herald. The local timber mill owner built a new nine-room house for the doctor, and the local garage man jumped a long waiting list for a new Holden car for the Polish Dr Deligdisz, who came with his wife and was a great acquisition, e.g, in the year 1952–1953 he performed twelve major operations in Bonalbo, only referring on very specialised cases or those requiring X-ray control. On one occasion he had a vacation and his sister-in-law, Dr Mannheim, was his locum.

He was in general practice there for over four years and in December 1954, he left to practise in Blakehurst, Sydney.

Edward G Dash

In 1957, Edward Geoffrey Dash, MB, BS (Sydney 1951), was in Bonalbo, having come from a short time in practice in Casino, where he had been a Resident Medical Officer at the hospital in 1952. He decided to return to Casino in 1960.

Official medical directories have no records of doctors in practice from 1960 until 1964.

William G Meehan

William Gerard Meehan, MB, BS (QLD 1956), was in practice in Johnston Street in 1964. He had been a Resident Medical Officer at Bundaberg Hospital (1956–1957), with the Royal Flying Doctor Service in Cloncurry (1957–1959), AMS Goondiwindi Hospital (1960), followed by two years at Wilcannia in NSW, and a year at RGH Greenslopes, Brisbane. He went to Bonalbo from Deloraine in Tasmania.

Although hampered by the loss of one leg, Dr Meehan was a great attender of educational meetings remote from Bonalbo but well within the range of his V12 Jaguar. He encouraged regular visits by Dr JG Opie, Consultant Physician from Lismore, for specialist care for the townspeople. Dr Meehan left to go to the Northern Territory in 1981. (He was honoured with the AM in 1988, for services to medicine and the community.)

Philip W Prescott

In 1979, Philip Walker Prescott, MB, BS (QLD, 1975), started in Bonalbo in Woodenbong Road while Dr Meehan was still in town. He was a Resident Medical Officer at Royal Brisbane Hospital (1975–1976) and Resident Medical Officer at Gladstone Hospital (1976–77) before his arrival in Bonalbo.

Trevor J Tierney

Trevor James Tierney, MB, BS (Sydney 1970), took over Dr Meehan’s practice in 1981, working from Sandilands Street. He was a Resident Medical Officer at Royal Newcastle Hospital, NSW (1970–1972), went to Antarctica with the ANARE in Davis (1973), Enderby Land (1974–75) and Macquarie Island (1977–78), worked in Melbourne (1978), in Toowoomba Hospital (1979) and Darwin Hospital (1980). Dr Tierney had a solo general practice in the town.

His recreations included his farm, serious photography and his membership of the Royal Geographic Society. He developed special interest in emergency medicine and surgical trauma, being one of the early diplomates and then a supervisor of the training programs. He was also a regular traveller to association and educational meetings in the Richmond Valley region. He held Sunday morning surgeries for the local people, typifying his dedication to the community, which did not go unnoticed by the government authorities.