Edgecliffe, Red Cross Convalescent Home

Edgecliffe, Red Cross Convalescent Home was located on Beach Road, Hampton. The Red Cross took over the property from the Australian Army in early 1944, to use it for the ‘recreation and well-being of convalescent girls’. (Previously, the building belonged to the Royal Children’s Hospital, and was used for convalescent children.) It could accommodate from 80 to 100 ‘walking convalescents’ from the women’s services. Initially, the residents were young women and teenage girls. From 1946, Edgecliffe was used by the Red Cross to house convalescent children. Edgecliffe would seem to have returned to the control of the Children’s Hospital by around 1951.

In January 1944, it was reported that the Red Cross had recently taken over the property in Beach Road, Hampton, from the Australian Army to establish a convalescent home for the women’s services, with accommodation for around 80 (The Herald, 14 January 1944). Disastrous bushfires that summer meant that some of the first occupants of Edgecliffe were bushfire casualties rather than sick servicewomen (Mount Barker and Denmark Record, 21 February 1944)

Edgecliffe opened officially in 1944. It was described as ‘a comfortable and charming home, with every provision made for the recreation and well-being of convalescent girls. It is just across the road from the beach, and a beautiful view of the sea is obtained’ (The Weekly Times 10 May 1944).

In 1946, with the opening of the new Lady Dugan Red Cross Home in Malvern, the Red Cross moved adult women patients there from Edgecliffe. From this time, the Red Cross used Edgecliffe to house convalescent children.

It is unclear when the Red Cross ceased housing convalescent children at Edgecliffe. Somewhere around 1951, it was back in the hands of the Children’s Hospital, and being used as a convalescent hospital for its patients.