Australians build hospital for Vietnamese islanders DPR/TV/1242

In South Vietnam this week Australian Army engineers put the finishing touches to and handed over a maternity hospital for the 5,000 Vietnamese on Long Son Island in the river delta of Phuoc Tuy Province. The province is the Australian Task Force's area of responsibility. Work began on the project in September. The most difficult part was getting the materials required out to the site. One hundred and eighty tons of project stores, including sand and aggregate, were moved to the island at high tide by Army landing craft from Vung Tau. At the point of the island, the closest in the landing craft could get, the stores, in this case aggregate, were unloaded. There are no roads on the island so from here the materials were loaded onto assault boats and Vietnamese sampans for the haul to the hospital site, a reclaimed rice paddy-field. Over the next 18 weeks engineers from the 17th Construction Squadron built the hospital to a Vietnamese design mainly using Vietnamese materials. Conferences were held frequently with the village council members to solve small problems as they cropped up. Vietnamese labourers were used on the job and their tasks were allocated through these conferences. About 12 Australians from the Squadron's 10 Troop were engaged on the project, under the direction of Staff Sergeant Herb Taylor of Lyneham, ACT. They finished the job in a flurry this week in time for the official opening. For a week they worked night and day putting the finishing touches - filling and raking the surrounds, completing the plumbing and electrical work, painting... The 60 feet by 30 feet clay brick building has a ward, operating theatre, dispensary, store and nurses quarters. It will be staffed by Vietnamese nurses and replaces a midwife system on the island. The grateful villagers carefully arranged an elaborate ceremony for the opening this week. Australian and Vietnamese officials arrived on the island by helicopter and were met by the Vietnamese elders. The senior Australian was the Deputy Commander of the Task Force, Colonel Peter Falkland of Canberra, ACT. As the party arrived at the hospital site, the honour guard presented arms. A flag raising ceremony followed and then the speeches. The Australian and Vietnamese guests were seated under an open-sided building adjacent to the hospital to protect them from the hot winter sun. The highlight of the opening was the cutting of the ribbon across the entrance to the hospital. Each of the officials snipped part way through the turquoise silk ribbon, but the honour of parting it went to the officer commanding the construction squadron, Major (Maj) John Wertheimer of Townsville, Qld. An inspection of the building, now beautifully painted with everything in order and the furniture installed, followed. Vietnamese nurses were already in occupation and while friendly with the visitors, were shy of the camera and stopped and stared at it. In the dispensary the villagers were already lining up for treatment, in no way awed by the shiny new facilities. The village council, to express their thanks to the Australians, invited them to a feast in the council house after the inspection. The food looked strange, but the beer cans were familiar. The squadron flew the beer over as a gesture to the Vietnamese, who had acquired a taste for it - with ice. Australian Army engineers build a maternity hospital to make modern medical facilities available to the 5000 people of Long Son Island off the coast of South Vietnam. Also identified: Captain Gordon Graham of Hurstville, NSW; Sergeant (Sgt) Herb Taylor of Lyneham, ACT; Sgt John Prendergast of Canley Vale, NSW; Lieutenant Barry Smith, 24, of Albury, NSW; Sapper (Spr) Haydn Wilde, 22, of Preston, Vic; Corporal Norman McDermott of Enoggera, Qld; Spr Richard Eime, 23, of Grange, SA; Spr Mal Overend, 23, of Oakey, Qld; Spr John Kelly, 21, of Fairfield, NSW; Spr Dennis Newton, 21, of Arncliffe, NSW; Major (Maj) Robin Harvey of Hamilton, Qld; Lieutenant Colonel Peter Gration of Torrens, ACT; Colonel Falkland of Canberra, ACT.