From pop-up op shops to crowdfunding: how generosity fuels St Vincent’s Hospital

"I have to say, there’s been a long and fabulous history of fundraising at the hospital to expand facilities and beds and get new equipment and that sort of thing right throughout the years," says St Vincent’s archives and heritage lead, Barbara Cytowicz, adding that the community’s commitment was evident even before the hospital’s founders, the Sisters of Charity, arrived from Sydney.

"The Catholic community were very strong supporters, understandably," Ms Cytowicz says. "Before the sisters arrived, … the dioceses’ very zealous ladies’ committee had raised funds for their work."

This initial collection reached £1,400, a substantial sum for the time, and the pattern was set. The hospital’s early annual reports list donations in kind as diverse as ‘a Singer sewing machine, one dozen sheets, half a dozen tins, preserved apricots, one dozen lino for the hall and surgery instruments for the operating theatre’. Support came from all quarters, from school pupils to the workmen engaged in building the hospital.

The Sisters of Charity themselves were formidable fundraisers, engaging in what Ms Cytowicz says were ‘amazingly interesting and imaginative’ campaigns. The hospital started out as a cottage hospital—converted facilities in an old terrace house on Victoria Parade, with around 30 beds and open to the poor of all denominations.

"But the Mother Rectoress, the sister in charge of the hospital, Mother Berchmans Daly, had a lot of ambitions for the hospital’s growth," she says. "Very visionary. She saw the need to expand beyond this small terrace house, and so she set about a very big campaign to build a purpose-built, new state-of-the art, top-class hospital."

An intricate artwork of thanks to a donor made by the Sisters of Charity

The key fundraising event for the new hospital was a month-long bazaar at the Royal Exhibition Building in April 1899. The event was a spectacle, Ms Cytowicz says. "They had these fabulous entertainments, including doctors and nurses dressed as a pack of cards for a living whist game. There was a relayed performance from the Princess Theatre via “theatrephone”. And one of the very popular entertainments was a police exhibit, which reportedly had the still-bloodstained Ned Kelly armour."

The crowd at the opening ceremony of the fundraising bazaar apparently rivalled the attendance at the opening of the first federal parliament.

The opening ceremony of the St Vincent's bazaar in 1899 attracted unprecedented crowds

There was even an early sign of Melbourne’s future cultural diversity, with records in St Vincent’s archives mentioning a soccer match between ‘Hindoos and Chinese’. That game is referred to in an archive of Chinese-Australian history as one of several ‘St Vincent’s hospital Easter fair football matches’.

The bazaar was a phenomenal success. "The actual crowd at the opening ceremony apparently rivalled the attendance at the opening of the first federal parliament," Ms Cytowicz says. It cleared £10,000—the buying power of more than $1 million today—funding the hospital’s first purpose-built wing.

This culture of creative, community-driven fundraising set the stage for a landmark moment exactly 100 years ago, when philanthropist Lady Millie Tallis pioneered what would become the first ‘opportunity shop’ in Australia.

"It appears to have been the idea of Lady Millie Tallis, who came from an Anglican background, which illustrates the hospital had support from different denominations and people in different strata of society," Ms Cytowicz says. "Her husband was very wealthy, so after her marriage, she could devote her time to philanthropic interests. And she certainly gave a lot of support to St Vincent’s."

"She coined the actual term ‘op shop’ … She made it a sort of a trendy thing, a place to go, popularised it."

Lady Tallis organised what today we would call a ‘pop-up store’ in the old Cyclorama building on Victoria Parade, which the Sisters of Charity owned. For nine weeks from 19 November 1925, this opportunity shop sold a vast array of donated goods, from artwork and motorcycles to jams and preserves.

"It was to provide items to people who would have need of them," Ms Cytowicz says, "but having all these society ladies … made it popular, fashionable, very desirable." The event raised crucial funds for beds and X-ray equipment, and its model was swiftly adopted by other charities, seeding a national institution.

The Cyclorama building, which housed Australia's first op shop

A century later, that founding spirit of community connection remains the driving force behind the hospital’s evolution. The work once led by the Sisters of Charity is now carried forward by St Vincent’s Foundation Victoria. Supporters can donate through annual fundraisers, or even directly fund the equipment requested by St Vincent’s doctors and nurses.

Our community’s generosity has been the fuel for the hospital’s services from day one.

"Fundraising at St Vincent’s is truly about connection," says the Foundation’s Executive Director, Melina Talanis. "Our community’s generosity has been the fuel for the hospital’s services from day one, funding equipment, research, scholarships and infrastructure across St Vincent’s hospitals and health services in Victoria."

The Foundation says the story of generosity to St Vincent’s that began in the 19th-century depression continues in the hearts of donors, patients and clinicians, who it says are all working as one community to deliver its mission: Better and fairer care. Always.

If you would like to show your support for St Vincent's by making a donation, you can call on (03) 9231 3365 or by use the online form.