Rollo Nicholson was a young boy when he moved to Maryborough in 1945.
After arriving in the small town located on the banks of the Mary River, in 1946 he joined Sunday School at the local Presbyterian Church and so began Rollo’s life-long involvement with the church which would later become St Stephen’s Uniting Church.
In the same year, the congregation of the Maryborough Presbyterian Church guided by the leadership of Rev. James McPhail purchased what was then St Mary’s Hospital from the retiring Francis Sisters who had operated the hospital for almost 20 years.
But it was a house out the back of the hospital which would ultimately lead Rollo to join the Board of St Stephen’s Hospital.
“When I got married in 1963, my wife Ann and I bought a house that was at the back of St Stephen’s Hospital in Maryborough. We sold 30 metres of land to the hospital so they could extend to add a laundry and other amenities,” Rollo said.
“Eventually I became a member of the hospital Board and went through to be Chairman of the Board,” he said.
Rollo’s service to St Stephen’s coincided with years which would become pivotal as the hospital prepared to move to a new hospital in Hervey Bay.
“The move to Hervey Bay came about because both the previous Chairman and I could see that all the specialists were coming to Hervey Bay to the base hospital. We’d stayed the same size in Maryborough and could see that Hervey Bay was where the hospital should be.
“The Board was asked to make a recommendation about the location of the hospital and soon after an announcement was made that we would build a day hospital in Hervey Bay as a precursor to building a larger hospital. And that’s what happened," he said.
As part of the building committee at the time, Rollo was involved in purchasing the land where St Stephen’s Hospital stands today in Hervey Bay.
“The manager of the hospital at the time went to Canberra to help get funding for the new hospital. We received a substantial grant to bring computerisation into hospitals in Australia,” Rollo said.
“It involved 20 people coming over from America and setting up shop in Brisbane firstly and then later in Hervey Bay as we built the hospital, changing the USA systems to meet Australian conditions.”
It was this grant that would lead to St Stephen’s Hospital becoming the first fully-integrated digital hospital in Australia.
After UnitingCare Health was formed in 2000 to bring together all hospitals owned and operated by the Uniting Church in Australia Queensland Synod, the St Stephen’s Hospital Board was disbanded.
“I stayed involved till the day the hospital opened in Hervey Bay,” Rollo said.
Rollo has continued to visit St Stephen’s in the years since, participating in our consumer advisory groups and as a patient himself.
“I’ve had 43 doses of radium, and my wife has had 17. We can get that here. If we didn’t have this hospital here, we’d have to go to Brisbane for nearly two months just to do that half-hour treatment each day for that period of time. It makes a big difference," Rollo said.
“The community can get access to a huge range of specialists right here. Everyone benefits because of its proximity to Maryborough and the surrounding areas."
Reflecting on the history of St Stephen’s Hospital and the future ahead, Rollo said he’d love to see the hospital continue to expand.
“The hospital is designed to have another ward. If the hospital remains as busy as it is, they would probably need to be starting to think about putting up the next ward and doubling the size of the hospital.
“I believe that will happen,” he said.