The Burnside War Memorial Hospital established as a living memorial to the men and women of the District who gave their lives in the two World Wars, and all others who served, made possible through the foresight of the City of Burnside. and the generous gift of ‘Attunga’ the former home of Otto Georg von Rieben.
Otto Georg Ludwig von Rieben was born in 1863 son of Herrmann and Louisa.
They came from a noble family in Mecklenburgh in Germany where the family castle stood. The von Riebens were well known as the owners and licencees of the Nor’West Bend Hotel located on the main road from Adelaide to Wentworth between Nor’West (now Morgan) and Murbko on the River Murray.
Otto was born and raised in this area. It seems likely that he boarded in Adelaide in order to attend Whinham Grammar School for boys.
After leaving school, Otto is said to have joined the Civil service in the clerical department of the South Australian Railways. By the late 1880s, Otto probably joined the shipping and customs business of William McCulloch and Company Limited. He was stationed close to his family at Morgan on the River Murray and eventually became the Manager of the company’s Morgan operations.
William McCulloch and Co Ltd was a well known and well respected carrying company established in Victoria and by the late 1870s, had a number of offices in country South Australia.
By 1890, the company had branches throughout South Australia. In 1887, Otto was transferred to Broken Hill, where he opened and managed a branch of the company until 1891. In 1891, he joined the Barrier Miner daily newspaper as a partner until 1919 when the paper was sold to Mr J E Davidson, who later founded the News in Adelaide and merged the two papers. Otto clearly made some wise financial decisions and built upon his wealth.
Otto von Rieben was a generous and upright man.
His wife, born Jane Carew, had died in 1920. They had no children.
For 41 years they lived at Attunga on Kensington Road. In 1920, the Rose Park Improvement Society was raising funds to erect a memorial to the soldiers of Burnside who had fallen in the Great War and the von Riebens had no hesitation in offering their home for fund raising functions. Otto contributed considerably to the incidental expenses as well as donating money towards the construction of the memorial. There is ample evidence that one of Otto’s passions in life was gardening.
Having decided to relinquish his home to be the future site of the Burnside War Memorial Hospital, Otto von Rieben moved to Pomona[Stirling]in October 1948. He died on the 8th of May 1949 at the age of 86.
Auxiliary Aids Hospital
When the new Burnside War Memorial Hospital was opened for public inspection after the official opening yesterday afternoon by His Excellency the Governor (Sir Willoughby Norrie), members of the women's auxiliary, which raised a substantial sum for the general funds, must have felt pleased with their share in the achievement.
They must have felt gratified, too, that then president (Mrs K C Wilson) and Miss Hanton (former matron of the Memorial Hospital, North Adelaide) are both members of the hospital board.
Formerly Attunga, the home of the late Mr Otto von Reiben, who gave the property to the Burnside Council, the present building is to be used as a convalescent hospital until it is possible to build a modern general hospital in the spacious grounds, when Attunga will be used as the nurses' quarters.
Convalescent patients who are admitted to Attunga will be fortunate. Every one of the bedrooms, single rooms, two bed and four-bed wards, looks out on some aspect of the lovely garden, as do the spacious common room and the dining room.
Mrs Wilson and Miss Hanton were largely responsible for the choice of furnishings and they have achieved a charmingly simple and attractive scheme of decoration throughout.
Each room is curtained with gay linens and chintzes, every bed has the same type of deep cream counterpane, bedside rugs tone with the general colour scheme and every patient is provided with a bedside cabinet, wardrobe and dressing table in dark stained oak.
A new wing has been added to provide excellent accommodation for the nursing staff which has its own private entrance, and on the other side of the building the rooms occupied by the domestic staff open on to a closed-in verandah. The kitchen and pantries have all been reconstructed and fitted with the most modern equipment, and the bathrooms for both patients and staff are "the last word”.
References: Burnside Memorial Hospital website.
Advertiser (Adelaide SA)Wednesday 8 March 1950.
