17 July 2024

As a young truck driver, George Allitt delivered the very first load of timber to build the Dimboola Hospital.

It was the only time he visited the hospital site until now. His brief stay as an acute patient brought back many memories for George, particularly from that trip in the late 1950s.

Retired and living in Jeparit, George required medical treatment at Wimmera Base Hospital recently and as his health improved, Grampians Health’s medical team transferred him to the acute ward at the Dimboola campus.

His admission to Dimboola was a great opportunity for George to reflect on his days as a truck driver and transport business owner. George was raised on his parents’ farm near Lawloit and when the farm was sold, he started driving the family trucks to earn a living.

One of his earliest jobs was picking up a load of timber at the Port Adelaide docks on a Friday afternoon and delivering it the next morning to the site of the soon-to-be-built Dimboola Hospital.

George said after he dropped off the load at Dimboola, he and his mate, stopped off at the hotel in Pimpinio and stayed the night. The next day he was at the roadhouse in Dadswells Bridge when he heard that the Pimpinio Hotel had burned down.

After running his transport business from South-West Victoria and keeping tabs on his 28 trucks for most of his life, George retired to Jeparit.

Now at 90 years of age, George said he would often drive past the Dimboola hospital and recall his early trip there, but he’d never been inside until now.

“It’s a nice-looking hospital and they’ve looked after me well,” George said.

Nurse Mandy Withers checks on George during his stay
at the Dimboola campus acute ward.