The portion of George street where we are now standing is noteworthy as being the site of the first hospital in Australia. A few weeks after the first landing Phillip set about erecting a hospital for the sick. This building stood just a little north of the present Globe street. It was soon filled, the overflow of patients being accommodated in tents; and if we wished to paint a picture of misery we could do no better than describe the interior of one of these tents. Blankets and sheets for the hospital had been forgotten in the equipment of the First Fleet. The beds were of grass, and the drugs were of inferior quality.
When a man died the unfortunates near him stripped his body, before it was cold, of its clothing. Gradually the hospital quarters and surgeons’ residences extended along George street until they reached from Globe street to a little north of Argyle Street. In the illustration, “Sydney in 1803,” those buildings are to be seen. As a natural concomitant to the hospital, a cemetery was established near Globe street, and the tombstone referred to in “Bethel Street” probably came from this site.