The Old Bega Hospital Regional Community Cultural Centre

Paver Orders

As part of landscaping for restoration of the Main Building, we are making new paths (see photo). You can leave a mark in history by contributing an engraved paver to the paths. Plenty of options for single and multiple pavers. See the order form (pdf, 4MB) for details. Please share with your mates. Orders close 13 December 2024.

Bega Valley Realty OBH Summer/Autumn Raffle 2025

The Old Bega Hospital Bega Valley Realty Summer/Autumn Raffle 2025 is under way (even before 2025 gets here). You can buy tickets from the OBH street stall outside Sports Power in the main street of Bega, 10am to 1:30pm Tuesdays and Thursdays (you can help to staff the stall too - give our hardworking volunteers a break!). Four prizes of a $250 Bega Realty gift card, to be spent on a business of your choice (ours would be shopping in Bega). All funds raised go to fitting out the newly restored (but not yet furnished) Old Bega Hospital main building. Click on the image to see the poster (2MB jpg), which you can then print out and put up in your workplace. Tickets are $2 each, 3 for $5 and 8 for $10.

The Old Bega Hospital has no medical facilities.

For hospital services go to the South East Regional Hospital, phone 02 6491 9999. In an emergency, call 000.

Restoration

Restoration of the OBH main building from the fire of 2004 is almost complete. When we will be allowed in depends on grant of an occupation certificate, which in turn requires the last box to be ticked. Should be before the end of the year (2024!)

Until the work is complete, you are welcome to have a look in from the outside at any time.

Memories of the 2004 fire

Do you have memories of the 2004 fire? Were you there, were you using the building, were you affected? Gordon Beattie is collecting memories.

Rooms and spaces available for hire or lease

Short or long term, commercial or community, indoor and outdoor. Reasonable rates. Flexible spaces. Contact the Reserve Land Manager for more information and bookings.

This website is in three main parts:

  1. The Old Bega Hospital and its history
     
  2. The Old Bega Hospital (R.180050) Reserve Land Manager which has legal responsibility to manage the precinct, including hiring and leasing
     
  3. The Friends of the Old Bega Hospital, which is how you can get involved.

The Old Bega Hospital is a collection of historic heritage listed buildings on the outskirts of Bega, on the far south coast of New South Wales. It served the community of the Bega Valley as a hospital from 1889 until 1956.

Construction began in 1888. From 1957 to the mid 1980s the Old Hospital buildings and site served for a time as a hostel for school students and then as an experimental farm before gradually falling into disrepair.

The buildings were extensively restored for the Old Hospital's centenary in 1988 by a major community effort assisted by government funds. The Hospital and grounds were then used for a great range of community purposes, including art spaces, cafe, community markets and a radio station.

The main building was extensively damaged by a fire on the night of 2 May 2004 and lost most of its roof. The Hospital was not insured. The damage has been cleaned up and the building made more or less secure, but the roof is still missing and the interior is open to the weather. Several outbuildings were not damaged, are still used and are available for rent or hire.

The Old Bega Hospital has no medical facilities.

For hospital services go to the South East Regional Hospital, phone 02 6491 9999

The Old Bega Hospital is owned by Crown Lands, part of the NSW government, and since 1990 has been managed by a Reserve Land Manager (formerly a Reserve Trust) established under the Crown Lands Management Act. In September 2014 the then Reserve Trust adopted a strategic plan (2.5MB pdf file) which set out its vision for the future of the site and was the basis of an application for funding from the NSW government. In May 2015 the Trust adopted a draft management plan (800kB pdf), and a draft proposal for a regional community and cultural centre (700kB pdf) to be accommodated on the site once the main building was restored. In February 2015 the NSW government offered a grant of $500,000 towards replacing the roof of the main building, conditional on a further $1.74m being found to complete the restoration project. Following that offer, the Friends of the Old Bega Hospital and the Reserve Trust met with many parties to find the additional money to make restoration a reality. We never got that $500,000, but we did get $100,000 from the NSW Heritage Near Me program, which enabled us to engage Sibling Architecture to produce a concept plan and costing, which got us initial development approval. That led to a $3m grant from the NSW Regional Communities Development Fund (funded from 'poles and wires' money), then a $421,000 grant from the Crown Reserves Improvement Fund, a $1.5m Commonwealth Black Summer Bushfires Recovery grant, and a further $600,000 from the RCDF as prices rose through the COVID period to ensure we could at least complete the core of the restoration, if not fully complete it. Design5 Architects did detailed planning and costings. Following two rounds of tendering, Leser Build was appointed as builder and restoration work got under way in June 2023.

Friends of the Old Bega Hospital was incorporated in 2013 to assist the Reserve Land Manager to restore the Hospital's heritage and community values. Membership is open to all.

Proudly sponsored by:

                      

Also on facebook.

The Old Bega Hospital Reserve Land Manager acknowledges the Djiringanj people of the Yuin nation, the traditional Aboriginal custodians upon whose ancestral lands the Old Bega hospital stands. The Old Bega Hospital Reserve Land Manager recognises their continuing culture and connection to land, water and community and pays respect to Elders past, present and emerging.

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