Aboriginal Medical Service

Location: 36 Turner Street, Redfern

Clients at the Aboriginal Medical Service in 1974 (photograph courtesy National Archives of Australia – Series A8739, Item A2/8/74/23)

Author: Lily Thomas-McKnight

The Aboriginal Medical Service Cooperative Ltd (AMS) was opened on 20 July 1971 at 171 Regent Street, Redfern to provide free medical support to Aboriginal people in Sydney. The organisation began at the initiative of Gordon Briscoe and Shirley Smith (Mum Shirl) after visiting a very ill client of the Aboriginal Legal Service (ALS) in Chippendale in 1971 (Perheentupa, 2020, p. 74). The client was unable to afford treatment and was turned away from a Sydney hospital (Perheetupa, 2020, p. 74). This was a common experience among Sydney’s Aboriginal communities, with many unable to access medical services as GPs and hospitals insisted on cash in advance and the racism within hospitals discouraged people from going. The ALS workers were finding that some Aboriginal people would rather die than experience degrading and humiliating treatment in hospitals (Our History & Future, 2022).

Health problems within the Redfern community could not solely be isolated to medical issues. Johanna Perheentupa in Redfern Aboriginal activism in the 1970s accounts that health problems were linked to poverty, poor housing and social and personal problems, all of which were connected to colonisation. The houses in Redfern were overcrowded with distant landlords. Some of these health problems included “inadequate nutrition, slow growth, chronic ear and chest infections, gastrointestinal infections, chronic dental decay and high incidences of diabetes” (Perheentupa, 2020).

In June 1971 Briscoe and Smith organised a meeting with several community members to discuss the formation of a free health service for Aboriginal people know as the AMS. Prioritising self-determination, the AMS appointed Aboriginal people in leadership positions as well as clerical roles, including receptionists, to ensure the AMS was culturally safe and welcoming (File – Donations, Aboriginal Medical Service, 1971, p. 8). The AMS was opened soon after this initial meeting in a shopfront made available by South Sydney Community Aid and was the first free community run medical service in Australia. It would also “deal with any health problem” (File – Donations, Aboriginal Medical Service, 1971, p. 9).

The service was initially staffed with volunteer doctors, nurses, nuns, medical students/practitioners and local Aboriginal people. The fully qualified doctors followed a roster ensuring at least one of them were present at the clinic during opening hours. These hours consisted of:

7pm – 10:30pm from Tuesday to Friday
10am – 12pm on Saturday
10am – 12pm and 7pm – 10:30pm on Sunday

If a patient had difficulty getting to the clinic a car would be sent to pick them up or a doctor would visit them in their home (File – Donations, Aboriginal Medical Service, 1971, p. 9).

The AMS not only provided consultation with doctors it also supported the local community through numerous programs including a nutrition program. Nutrition Coordinator in 1975, Marcia Langton states that at the time the AMS was getting special funding from Freedom from Hunger Campaign to provide food supplements to the poorer Aboriginal people in Sydney (Marcia Langton, 1983). Each Thursday morning, Langton and other AMS workers would go to the market and buy $100 worth of fruit and vegetables and bring it back to the AMS providing fresh fruit and vegetables for the local community (Langton, 1983). This expanded beyond nutrition problems, the nuns at the clinic began a nutritional supplement program to alcoholics in Redfern (Langton, 1983). The AMS also provided emergency medical services to rural and remote areas of NSW (Langton, 1983). Other specialist services include Ear Nose and Throat, Cardiology, Mental Health, Drug and Alcohol, Dietitian, Women’s Therapist and much more (Practice Information, n.d., p. 13). Prominent individuals at the AMS included Mum Shirl, Gordon Briscoe, Naomi Mayers, Gary Foley, Kaye Bellear, Paul Coe, Marcia Langton and Fred Hollows.

Within the first year of opening, the AMS assisted around 7,000 patients and struggled to meet the demand for services (Langton, 1983). The AMS discovered that the health problems within Redfern were far graver than originally thought. This led to greater demands for the Federal Government to accept responsibility and provide financial assistance so that the AMS could expand its operations (Gary Foley, 1991, p. 6). This included asking for funding to employ a fully trained Aboriginal sister to be at the clinic during the day outside of opening hours (File – Donations, Aboriginal Medical Service, 1971, p. 8). The role involved taking messages, making appointments, arranging for patients to be picked up, supervising rosters and providing continuity between volunteer doctors.

Today the AMS continues to be a leader in holistic Aboriginal Health across Australia. AMS Redfern is currently located at 36 Turner St, Redfern and continues to provide medial, dental and out-reach services. AMS Redfern is the voice for health and wellbeing through patient advocacy and self-determination for now and into the future.

Contact the Aboriginal Medical Service Cooperative Ltd Redfern here.

About the author

Lily Thomas-McKnight is a proud Wiradjuri and Gomeroi woman with ties to Yuin Country.

Aboriginal Medical Service

Author: Lily Thomas-McKnight

About the author

Further reading