It wasn’t until 1906 that an opportunity emerged that would enable the Sisters of Mercy to open their first hospital—in a private house named Aubigny at North Quay in Brisbane.
The small private hospital opened its doors on 4 January 1906 with 20 patient beds.
By the end of its first year, the hospital had treated 141 patients.
Overlooking the Brisbane River, Aubigny was designed by distinguished Queensland architect, Benjamin Backhouse for merchant and founder of Brisbane’s Jewish congregation, Samuel Davis.
Built in 1865, the house, with a small synagogue in its grounds, was a handsome three-storey building surrounded on all sides by verandahs.
For the Sisters of Mercy, Aubigny was a temporary facility, to be used until the Sisters of Mercy could raise sufficient funds to build a public hospital at their site in South Brisbane site.
Through a combination of small fees paid by private patients who received care at Aubigny and an intensive fundraising effort by the Sisters of Mercy, sufficient funds were secured to build the first Mater Misericordiae Private Hospital at South Brisbane.