Repatriation General Hospital, Concord, by Ann Tündern-Smith

Hospital history

The site on which this hospital was built has housed a hospital since the 1890s.  The family which owned the site bequeathed it to the government in 1937 so that a public hospital could be built on it.  The first government-owned and run hospital was opened as a general hospital for the Australian Army in 1941.  It was known as the Yaralla Military Hospital after the name of the property on which it was built.

After World War II, it became a hospital which specialised in the needs of returned service personnel.  The name was changed to Repatriation General Hospital, Concord.

First Transport refugees sent there to work, 1948

Voldemars Briedis, a Latvian who had been a medical student, was sent there on 7 April 1948, specifically to work as a medical orderly.  He had been working at the Bonegilla camp already from 8 December, so the day of arrival the previous year.  His English was good enough for him to have been nominated by cable from Berlin as one of 15 suitable for work as teachers or interpreters.

Voldemars was accompanied to his new workplace by another Latvian, Ojars Springis, and 4 Lithuanians:  Bronius Šaparas, whose story we have just looked at, plus Jurgis Arlionis, Ceslovas Sviderskas and Vladas Navickas.  All except Voldemars had been sent off the the fruit-picking exercise in the Goulburn Valley first.

This is what the entrance to the Repatriation Hospital looked like
when the First Transporters were sent there

Source:  Photograph by Frank Hurley, National Library of Australia

At this stage, I understand that Ojars and Vladas moved later to Tasmania, so Ramunas Tarvydas should have something to say about them.  They are on the list in From Amber Coast to Apple Isle, but he has nothing more to add.

The Hospital today

The Hospital is now a district general hospital, on Hospital Road in the Sydney suburb of Concord.  It is a teaching hospital of the Sydney Medical School of the University of Sydney.

Location of Concord Hospital

Source:  Wikipedia Maps

CITE THIS AS:  Tündern-Smith, Ann (2025) 'Repatriation General Hospital, Concord', https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2025/10/repatriation-general-hospital-concord.html.

SOURCES

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office;  A445, Correspondence files, multiple number series (policy matters), 1922-1968; 174/4/8, Bonegilla Centre - Education of New Australians, 1947-1945  https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=75444, accessed 3 October 2025.

National Archives of Australia:  Migration Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956.

Tarvydas, Ramunas (1997) From Amber Coast to Apple Isle, Fifty years of Baltic Immigrants in Tasmania, Hobart, Baltic Semicentennial Commemoration Activities Organising Committee, pp 158-187.

Wikipedia, 'Concord Repatriation General Hospital'   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concord_Repatriation_General_Hospital, accessed 3 October 2025.