Broadwater

On both a geographical and economical basis, Broadwater would seem to be a strange place for a doctor to launch a new practice but history indicates that medical attention from a registered medical practitioner was available from around 1890 in Broadwater.

John M Sanderson

John Murray Sanderson, BA (Cambridge 1892), LS (Eng. 1898), had been a Resident Medical Officer at Cambridge and London Hospitals, then at London Temperance Hospital and Clinical Assistant at the Evelina Hospital for Children. He was the son of an English clergyman and came by steamer in 1900, and soon after arrival started to practise his profession in Broadwater.

Reports indicate that he was a very capable all-round GP and extremely personable character. He served as president of the Broadwater Jockey Club. He related well to his local colleagues and visited adjoining areas when requested. At one stage, he handled with very good outcome a serious outbreak of cholera. Not surprisingly, he was available for consultations in Woodburn and Coraki (Dr McDonogh was resident GP in Coraki). In February 1903, Dr Sanderson made it known that he was leaving to start anew in Ballina at an early date, consulting at Webster’s Hotel.

Silvio Monti

The Broadwater practice was taken over by Silvio Monti, MD, ChD (Modena Uni.), in 1902. He was born in Turin in Italy in 1863, a fourth-generation doctor. After starting his career in old Italy, il dottore also covered nearby South Woodburn and New Italy, so the usual migration culture shock would not have occurred. He did not smoke or drink and was very religious.

He read widely, loved music and stayed fit with his skills in gymnastics and fencing. In April 1903, he was fortunate to be alive after his horse threw him when he was on the way home on the Swan Bay–New Italy road, causing him to strike his head and become entangled in the roadside barbed-wire fence late in the afternoon. Two young men drove past and did not stop, thinking he was mad or drunk, but when they stopped to eat in Woodburn, told a local who recognised the description of the man as probably Dr Monti and called the resourceful town constable, Scroope. He took off on his horse and rode ten miles and at 10 pm, with help, located the unconscious doctor and got a vehicle to drive him home, where Dr McDonogh from Coraki attended him until he became conscious some hours later.

Two months later Dr Monti was appointed Medical Officer to the Broadwater mill. He continued to treat patients from Broadwater, South Woodburn and Wardell. He became vice-president of the Broadwater Regatta Club and also the Broadwater Sports Club, also acting as patron of the Diggers’ Club.

In 1913, he was seriously ill with pneumonia but recovered. From then on he seemed to be below par and started to use locum cover for breaks from his practice, and in September 1918 he attended a presentation and farewell. However, he continued to see patients in Broadwater, even one month before his death there in November 1937, at the age of seventy-five, having lived in the area for more than forty years.

Samuel J Alexander

At the beginning of 1926, Samuel James Alexander, LMSSA (Eng. 1925), was sent by the lodges to Broadwater, presumably to keep up the medical service there when Dr Monti was ailing. After about eighteen months, he left for Parramatta and advertised that he had sold his practice in July 1927 to Dr Thomas Acton, who soon moved to Woodburn, thus leaving Dr Monti as the last recorded resident doctor in Broadwater.