Mill Doctor’s House Historic Site 1898

In 1898, Millars built a quaint cottage for the resident Mill Doctor in Barrington Knight Road, Yarloop.  Conveniently, the Yarloop Hospital was located next door.

The red weatherboard cottage had a brick chimney and a white picket fence.

Before there was a resident doctor, rostered doctors from Bunbury travelled to Yarloop by train to hold surgery.

Dr Arthur Rhodes, one of the rostered doctors, became Yarloop’s first Medical Officer (resident doctor) appointed in 1898.

As Millars paid the doctor’s salary, he could not practice privately and could only give emergency treatment to the families of employees. All other treatment had to be sought in Bunbury or Perth.

Mill doctors travelled weekly by train, and later by car, to the mills connected to Yarloop, thus providing a medical service to the outlying mill towns.

Dr Ronald Barrington Knight became the Medical Officer in 1936 and practised until his retirement in October 1980. He was an active member of the community and Hospital Road was renamed Barrington Knight Road in his honour.

The Doctor’s House, which was built in 1898, became dilapidated and was restored in 2007.

It was leased to the Yarloop Workshops Committee for use as a private residence until the 2016 Bushfires sadly destroyed it.