Wardell

Just south of Ballina, Wardell started in the mid-1850s as a port for the cedar cutters and remained a small town.

Francis G Hankey

The first recorded person treating people for illnesses in the area commenced in May 1883. Francis George Hankey, was from the UK and arrived in Grafton and moved to the Richmond River area, basing himself as ‘a medical man’ in Wardell, but going to and fro from 1883 until 1890. He gave no medical qualifications but had a string of aliases, one of which, ‘Guerin’, he used around the Far North Coast. He faced court in Wardell, Casino, Lismore and Grafton and in reality he was an ex–inmate of Darlinghurst, Maitland and Port Macquarie gaols on counts of fraud, uttering and forgery, so it is likely that a good deal of the seven years in the area was actually taken up by a five-year sentence in gaol.

His medical modus operandi was to get advertisements in local newspapers, purportedly written by local citizens, extolling the wonderful healing properties of ‘Dr’ Hankey’s treatment for painful conditions. He gave the local authorities a break with his return in 1891 to Sydney, where he continued his career.

James Chilcott

In March 1884, James Chilcott, LSA (Eng. 1871), MRCS (Edin. 1872), who had been in practice in the Mere District of England and then being a ‘travelling’ doctor around NSW, had started in practice at Wardell and was available for consultation daily. He died in Wardell in September 1884.

William B Violette

William Bradbury Violette, MB, ChM (Glasgow 1881), arrived in February 1885 in the port of Lismore, on the steamer, Lismore, and went to Wardell. He had been a Resident Medical Officer at Sydney Hospital (1883) and Resident Medical Superintendent at Little Bay Sanatorium (later Prince Henry) in 1884. He was soon swapping his management of fevers and smallpox for snake bites and violent injuries. His nearest colleague was Dr Tennant in Ballina. He ran a general practice and also acted as the Coroner, which in those days was a busy job—at least a paying position. He consulted also at Woodburn on Monday and Thursday at noon, presumably giving him time for the trip from his home on the northern side of the river.

Despite his wife and daughter coming to be with him the next year, the popular Dr Violette left in December 1886 to work with the Board of Health in Sydney, where he was Medical Officer at Parramatta Gaol and other institutions. He died in Parramatta in October 1912.

William H Tomlins

At the beginning of 1887, William Henry Tomlins, MRCS, LRCP (Eng. 1884), LSA, took over the practice of Dr Violette. Born in London in 1858, he trained at University College Hospital, London, He had arrived in Australia in December 1884 and tried Kempsey first. He was recorded as having very high ideals, an endearing personality and a proverbial devotion to duty, but it seems that he was physically rather delicate and found the primitive conditions and rough travelling required to be wearing and dangerous.

Dr Tomlins sold his practice and tried a return to England in 1891, but the climate forced him to return to Australia, so he resumed in 1895 in Wardell where he was busy with his general practice, was a lay preacher in the Anglican Church and participated in the lodge. He was the lecturer in first aid for St John Ambulance Society, Dr Connor being the examiner. In 1901, he went to Ballina until 1903 and then to Alstonville by 1904.

Armitage Forbes

Armitage Forbes, LRCP (Edin. 1879), LRCS (Ireland), LMid, formerly House Surgeon at the National Orthopaedic Hospital of Ireland, took over the practice of Dr Tomlins in Wardell at the end of 1891. He was born in England in 1845 and started in Campbelltown (NSW) in 1879 before going to Walgett, then the Tweed region in 1887 and on to Grafton and then Dorrigo. He was officially registered in NSW in 1885.

He advertised patent medicines, belonged to the local school council and was the Government Medical Officer for the area. He developed a sugar cane farm called ‘Coolgardie’, suggesting an association with Dr Josiah Corlis of Maclean who had been in the WA goldfields, and also had a cattle herd.

Dr Forbes left for Carcoar in NSW in March 1896, Dr Tomlins having returned from England because of the inclement climate there. Dr Forbes continued to move around while continuing his efforts at mail-order consultations and medical supplies.

Edwyn M Lilley

In October 1928, after a gap of twenty-seven years, Edwyn Mitford Lilley, MB (Sydney 1914), started up the next practice in Wardell, having been in Boonah in Queensland. He was available for consultation in Casino at the end of 1929 but after about two years in Wardell, he was showing signs of being unable to cope with his circumstances and required urgent attention from the Coraki doctor. He survived the acute crisis but moved back to Queensland, leaving a sad end to the history of practice in Wardell, whose residents thereafter had to rely on visits to or from neighbouring doctors.