Austin Hospital, Melbourne

The Austin Hospital is a major teaching public hospital located in Melbourne's north eastern suburb of Heidelberg, and is administrated by Austin Health, along with the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital and the Royal Talbot Rehabilitation Centre.HistoryThe Austin hospital was founded in 1882 as a charitable mental institution by Elizabeth Austin, the widow of Thomas Austin, who is credited with introducing rabbits into Australia. It had five name changes (including "Austin Hospital for Incurables") before becoming the Austin Hospital.War and post-warDuring World War II, two military hospitals were located at the site - the 115th Australian General Hospital, operated by the Australian Army, between 13 March 1941 and 19 May 1947, and the 6th RAAF Hospital, operated by the Royal Australian Air Force, between 1942 and 1947.After the military hospital was handed over by the Australian Army to the Repatriation Commission on 19 May 1947, it became known as the Repatriation General Hospital Heidelberg. The Repatriation Commission (Department of Veterans' Affairs) operated the hospital until 31 December 1994. In the decade leading up to transfer of the hospital to the state hospital system the name was modified to its current name - Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital.State Government operationThe Austin Hospital was transferred into the Victorian health system on 1 January 1995, with Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital and Austin Hospital amalgamating on 1 April 1995 to become the Austin & Repatriation Medical Centre - "Victoria’s largest tertiary referral centre providing a broad range of patient services whilst enhancing established teaching and research profiles".