Prior to the
Second World War, the
Yaralla Estate on which the hospital is built belonged to philanthropist
Thomas Walker and subsequently his daughter Dame
Eadith Walker. A small hospital had already been established on the site, known as the
Thomas Walker Convalescent Hospital. Following the death of Dame Eadith in 1937, the property was bequeathed to the Crown for development as a public hospital. The current hospital was commissioned in 1939 as a general hospital for the
Australian Army and opened on 11 March 1941. When completed in 1942, the 2,000-bed Yaralla Military Hospital (113th Australian General Hospital [A.G.H.]) was the largest hospital in the Southern Hemisphere. The main hospital building (currently known as the Multi Building) was one of the tallest buildings in Sydney when completed and its design won architects
Stephenson & Turner the
Sulman Award in 1946. Following the war, the hospital became a
repatriation hospital for returned servicemen under the jurisdiction of the
Commonwealth government, with a change in name to
Repatriation General Hospital, Concord (RGHC). In 1963, RGHC became a teaching hospital of the
University of Sydney. Recognising the growing community need, the hospital began providing care for general community patients in 1974, including the opening of an emergency department in 1977. In 1993, the hospital was transferred to the Central Sydney Area Health Service of the
New South Wales Department of Health as a public hospital and renamed to the current
Concord Repatriation General Hospital. ==Memorials==