Elizabeth Martin

Canberra resident with memories of Acton
Born: 1951 in Sydney
Interview: December 2013

"My name is Elizabeth Martin. I was born in April 1951 in Sydney. We moved to Canberra not long after that, and my father, who was a doctor, became the first GP in Yarralumla. He practiced in Yarralumla and used to come to the only hospital – then known as the Canberra Community Hospital – which was here on what is now known as the Acton Peninsula. He came to the hospital every day (across Lennox Crossing) to do his morning rounds, and to operate (back when GPs delivered babies, did tonsillectomies and appendicectomies, and other procedures).

My mother would be at home nursing babies and answering all the calls with the big black phone at her feet until he arrived to start seeing patients at the surgery, and the phone was switched through for the receptionist to take the calls. Very often my older sister and I would go to the hospital with my father to play outside in the cul-de-sac. He’d get out of the car and always head straight across to the entrance with ‘Obstetrics’ over the door – where the pregnant pine still stands – and we’d just play. It was our playground. I imagine during school holidays we would have been here most days.

Many of the other doctors knew us, and they would say good morning as they left their cars and went in to do their rounds. It was a lovely little community. We’d say hello to the ladies in the kiosk. We knew the awful smell of the toilets’ ‘deodoriser’, and we’d climb the big timber ladder there where the big oleanders were. And then there was the beautiful fountain outside the entrance to the hospital. It was my favourite thing of all."