Wooden medical case with supplies

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Type: Medical cases
Place: Bungendore, New South Wales, Australia
Materials: Chemicals - non specific, Glass, Ink, Leather, Metal - non specific, Paint - non specific, Paper, Rubber, Unidentified material, Wood
Collection: Gidleigh collection
Accession number: 2005.0105.0033

Description

A wooden medical case, in the form of a rectangular light coloured wooden box and contents. The box and trays have finger joints at the corners, there are black enamelled hinges at the back and matching handles at the sides. The box locks with swing hook fasteners either side of a staple. The lid hasp for the staple is missing. The boards that form the lid are split at the joints and are slightly warped. Inside there are four wooden cantilever trays over a central section. In the lid, a manufacturer's mark has been stamped in three places across lid. Inside an oval outline the text reads 'GRATRIX PROP'Y / SYDNEY'. At the back there is a section of the box there is an area for bottles in a frame with six circular holes. A white bottle with a brown lid and embossed text 'MENTHOLATUM' remains in the frame. The other items inside include a white enamelled kidney bowl, three chemical thermometers inside a metal case, a box of decongestant eye drops, a box of Tri-test Oxalic acid, two leather sheaths, three scalpels, several wooden splints, a tin of castor oil capsules, an Elliots brand first aid kit tin, and a bottle each of carbolic acid, Spt, Ammon. Aromat.

This medical case was used at Gidleigh station, near Bungendore in New South Wales. Isolated pastoral properties like Gidleigh station had to be self-sufficient and this extended to administering basic first aid and medical treatment. During an era when the nearest doctor would have been located some distance away, in this case Queanbeyan, property owners kept a stocked medicine chest and supplies on-site to manage 'everyday' health issues, from broken bones to respiratory ailments and other common maladies.

About the collection

This collection comprises over two hundred objects belonging to the Rutledge family of 'Gidleigh', a pastoralist property first established near Bungendore, NSW, in 1855. The collection includes tools used for agricultural practices, animal and household management, and equipment used for fly-fishing and horse-riding. Collectively, these objects illustrate aspects of rural life and domestic activities undertaken most notably by Jane (Jean) Ruth Morphy Forster Rutledge (1853-1932) and her son Thomas Lloyd Forster Rutledge (1889-1958) during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This collection is illustrative of broad areas of Australian social history including pastoralism, medicine and veterinary science, and domestic and recreational lives. The land at 'Gidleigh' was first granted to Admiral Philip Parker King (1791-1856) in 1834, and was subsequently purchased in 1855 by Irish settler Thomas Rutledge (1817-1904) to run sheep and cattle. The family owned and managed the property for 150 years until 2005. This collection offers significant research potential into both rural self-sufficiency, and agricultural and veterinary technologies.

Read live from the Museum's Collection API (12/11/2026, 6:20:33 am). Record last updated by the Museum 2025-02-23. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.