Curative training at Mont Park, Victoria
(“Repatriation”, December, 1919 – (A Monthly Bulletin Published by the Department of Repatriation for Information of its Local Committees and all interested in the Return to Civil Life of the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Forces)
“In the past, there was much debate as to when patients in military hospitals should begin to receive curative training. Some opinion was in favour of it commencing as soon as the patient was able to do anything at all, while other opinion was for a delay until the patient was on the road to convalescence.
“From the results obtained at No. 16 A.G.H., Mont Park, Victoria, it would appear that the former opinion has proved to be the correct one, and at present the system evolved from that belief is working wonderfully well. There, in conjunction with the Defence and Repatriation departments, the Red Cross Society is now running curative training classes which are auxiliary to both; to the first, inasmuch as the work done in the society’s workshops is not only a valuable aid to, but part of the medical practice known as physio-therapeutics; and, in regard to the second, because it prepares the way for at least a third of the men who take the courses for the vocational training which, on their discharge, the Department will give them.
“At present 349 men at Mont Park are attending the classes, and they are divided among the various classes as follow: Carpentry, 79; metalwork, 25; boot-making, 58; sea-grass, 39; shorthand, 9; bookkeeping, 29; general gardening, 17; propagating, 13; poultry raising, 41; typewriting, 39. Total. 349.
“The men taking the courses may be derived from four sources. They may be cases sent from No. 11 A.G.H., Caulfield, or from No. 5 A.G.H., the Base Hospital; they may be men who have been operated on overseas and sent to Mont Park direct by Defence; or they may be discharged men whom the D.M.O. at Repatriation State Office has sent out for treatment of disabilities caused by war service.
“The last named, no matter what their disabilities, are, during their stay in hospital, eligible for full pension at the rate of 30s. per week. Though the instruction given paves the way for vocational training, it is primarily as a curative agent that it is employed, for experience has proved that it is always preferable that men return to whatever may have been their pre-war work.
“This instruction is given under a scheme, the present plan of which was devised by Mr. W. Moffat, late A.1.F., the Red Cross Society’s director of curative workshops, who has under his direction three such groups. The Mont Park group is guided by Captain Chaplain T. C. Robinson, late 21st Battalion, A.1.F., and under him again are twelve instructors, three of whom are voluntary.
“As soon as possible after a man’s arrival at Mont Park, the M.O. who has his case in hand sends the man to Chaplain Robinson with a form, in which the man’s particulars are set out in such a way that the chaplain can fairly well estimate what type of curative training will best suit his case. The form shows, among other things, the man’s disability, his pre-war occupation, the estimated period before his discharge, the M.O.’s opinion as to the man’s ability to follow his pre-war occupation, and the medical treatment he is receiving. This information, and an interview with the man himself, enables Chaplain Robinson to decide on the class of work to be given, and the form, with the recommendation filled in, then goes to Lieut-Colonel K. C. Cross, the M.O. in charge of the Physio-Therapeutic Department, who “O.K.’s” the form, and the man goes into the workshop chosen.
“His record is carefully kept, and when he is finally dis charged, it goes with him to the Repatriation Department, to whom it is a valuable guide, especially if the man should be due for vocational training. In every case, it is emphasized that the training is curative, and the desirability of the man getting back, when discharged, to his pre-war occupation is always stressed.
“Half a day is given to medical treatment, so curative work is followed during the other half, and, therefore, it may be that a man’s forenoon is occupied in the hospital with massage and his afternoon with carpentry or poultry or vice versa. The main thing is that he is occupied; and in this connexion, it may be said that his attendance at the curative workshop is a strictly military concern.
“At the shops, the necessity is continually impressed on the trainee of not forgetting that his future welfare is at stake and to give it a good “leg-up” or not, is according to how he himself decides. And here it should be said that with the very rarest exceptions, the men have taken this sound advice to heart, and any sudden descent on the workshops will find at work as busy a lot of men as any prosperous factory can show. The classes are filled in the morning by about half of their full strength, the other half then being medically treated; and in the afternoon a change-over takes place.
“This means that the carpentry class has continuously at work about forty men. These men are under the instruction of Mr. Yates and his assistant, Mr. Lalor, both returned disabled soldiers. Under these gentlemen, the trainees are producing practically all varieties of woodwork, including wardrobes, rocking chairs, chests, tables, night-stands, cutlery boxes, trays, frames for discharge certificates, glove boxes, hospital fly-catchers, general turning, and any woodwork required by the hospital or the curative training shops. Attached to the woodwork shop is a french-polishing shop, but this at present is on a small scale. Soon a special instructor is to be provided for a separate class, as there are a fair number of men desirous of taking up this necessary adjunct to furniture-making.
“Metalwork and plumbing are under Mr. Franklin, who, morning and afternoon, has about sixteen men under him. The men in this class have a wide range of products, and supply the hospital with articles which otherwise they would have to go to the city for, such as watering-cans, egg-slicers, pannikins, ventilators, drinking vessels for the poultry farm, dippers, ash cans, and colanders. They also learn how to repair bicycles and “dixies” and find a demand from outside for cockatoo stands, water pipes, spouting, and other tinsmiths’ work. Their furnace was built by themselves, and they are making Canadian down-draught stoves. At one end of the shop is a blackboard for theory, and with this, the training they get is complete enough to fit them to go out as fully equipped metalworkers.
“Under Mr. Thompson, who lost a leg at Pozieres, thirty-nine men are learning to work in sea-grass, which is imported from China in lengths, like coarse string. These men work like practised hands, any of their work being worthy of a place in the show-windows of high-class furniture firms. His Excellency the Governor-General lately ordered from this class six arm-chairs; and it also makes excellent stands, screens, baskets, ornamental tubs, and many other useful and pretty things.
“The boot-making and harness class has close on thirty men working all day long. Mr. Bold and his assistant, Mr. Hill, have charge, and most of the work their pupils turn out is work that has been ordered. The Department of Defence has pronounced their repair work as being up to the military standard, so in this connexion they have their hands full; so much so that a boot polishing machine has been put in to meet the demands. The benches in this shop were made by the trainees.
“There is a small wood-carving class, where lids for chests and glove boxes, panels for sideboard and wardrobe doors, chair seats, and backs are designed and cut. The enthusiasts in this class have all their work disposed of before it is completed.
“Miss Wilson, a volunteer, gives instruction in bookkeeping, and has under her twenty-nine keen and industrious men, who evidently appreciate and are fired by her enthusiasm. Mrs. Matthews, voluntarily assisted by Mr. Kirsland, give instruction to nine shorthand pupils and thirty-nine in type- writing. The typewriting is worked in three shifts of thirteen men at a time.
“Poultry and squab raising attracts forty-one trainees. The instructor, Mr. McDonald, is a notable expert, and a tour of his fowl-yards makes one realize that poultry farming is a science. Some of the stock are pedigree birds of champion strain, but all are of good stock. The latest type of incubators are used, and the most up-to-date methods employed in keeping track of the egg-laying and table qualities of the birds. Everything is scientific and sanitary, and the work is eminently absorbing and of high curative value.
“Then there are general utility classes, which were established mainly to give those men going on the land a good all- round knowledge of those trades which would best serve them as farmers. They attend several classes, not with the idea of perfecting themselves in any one, but to become handy in all. General gardening accounts for seventeen men under Mr. James, but for propagating, thirteen men go to Mr. Linaker, chief of this section of the mental asylums of the State of Victoria. Mr. Linaker gives his instructional services free, and, with the usual ardour of irreclaimable gardeners, takes an intense interest in the progress of the men, not only from his own professional point of view, but from the point of view of the curative enthusiast. In this he is in line with all those at Mont Park who are associated in this far-reaching work.
“The Curative Training Section of the Red Cross work is directed by a committee comprised of the following : Colonel W. E. Jones (chairman), Lady Creswell, Mrs. Linaker, Mrs. Wright, Mrs. C. Courtney, and Messrs. Donald Clark (Inspector of Technical Education, State Education Department), Speeding, McLeod, Payne, and Stirling.
“1919 – Curative Training at Mont Park Rest Home” – Compiled by Brian Membrey 15 March, 2017
