It started with photographs spread across a table and showing on the screen. Then came the stories. Twenty-five years’ worth of them.
A group of UCRH’s longest-serving staff members gathered over lunch recently to reminisce and fill in the gaps of the organisation’s collective memory. What followed was less a history lesson and more a reminder that UCRH has always been shaped by the personalities, friendships and stories.
The photos sparked memories almost immediately.
There was the old blood bank building, where staff squeezed desks between former treatment spaces and made the most of a workplace that was, by all accounts, showing its age. Senior Lecturer Frances Barraclough remembered the building fondly despite its quirks, describing how staff turned a rundown space into something homely. Program Manager Kate Van Dommele recalled ovens tucked into a makeshift kitchen, where sausage rolls might emerge in the middle of the workday and be shared by whoever happened to be nearby.
Not every memory was quite so appetising.
Frances also recalled the notorious dead possum in the roof that left staff dealing with an unforgettable smell wafting through meeting rooms and corridors. Through it all, work continued. No one batted an eye, lessons and meetings went on.
The stories revealed a centre that often ran on creativity, generosity and good humour. When students needed help, staff answered after-hours calls, handed over spare keys, solved accommodation dramas and, occasionally, dealt with unexpected chickens roaming through student houses.
There were also a few a-ha moments in the reflections. Professor Megan Passey shared the story behind UCRH’s original logo, created through a design competition and intended to represent the rivers, a flame tree and a brain all at once. Once explained, everyone agreed it suddenly made perfect sense.
Then there was Princess Gloria, the guinea pig belonging to a former staff member. Dressed in a tiny crown and cape, Gloria occasionally visited the office and became something of a UCRH celebrity. The lunch guests laughed as they remembered her royal appearances, proof that even a guinea pig could become part of institutional folklore.
As photo after photo was passed around or appeared on the screen, old buildings, long-gone offices and familiar faces prompted fresh recollections. Some stories were funny. Some were ridiculous. Some were surprisingly moving.
Together they painted a picture of an organisation built not just through teaching, research and partnerships, but through thousands of ordinary moments shared by extraordinary people.
The buildings have changed. The programs have grown. The faces in the photos have come and gone. But the spirit that built UCRH was sitting around that table all along.
Lismore Base Hospital (2018)
