CONTINUING the series on the doctors and nurses who worked at the Old Bega Hospital with more on the story of Dr Evershed.
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THE district Dr Evershed serviced was from Tilba to the Victorian border and to Bombala and Brown Mountain – an area larger than the County of Auckland.
Rough and mountainous bush track provided the only communication in the district, and Dr Evershed made his journeys on horseback. The only bridge in the district was Russell's, at Jellat, and, by day and night, in rain, wind and frost, the doctor made his journeys to his patients' bedsides in the outlying shingle-roofed slab huts of the settlements.
In flood time rivers and creeks had to be swum. At the time of his arrival pleuro had decimated the cattle and rust the wheat. Adverse times confronted the settlers. Telephonic communication was non-existent, and the only way to secure the doctor's services was to ride into town with a message. J J Green, of Bemboka, related how he would ride to Bega for the doctor in two hours, but the doctor, not being an expert rider, would take four hours to reach Bemboka. The whole day would be done until the doctor reached Bega again; sometimes he had to remain all night, and although the customary fee for these visits was four pounds, the doctor never troubled if he did not receive it from poorer families.
It is recorded that on returning from a 50-mile ride to attend a sick family, he once said, “I can't charge these people; they seem poor”. To him no journey was too long to relieve suffering and pain. He would drive to Tantawangalo, including a change of horses at Kameruka, and collect nothing for it.
He was a a lover of cricket, and was patron of the Bega Club.
With the gradual improvement in road condition, Dr Evershed used a buggy for his journeys, and in 1914, again changed to a motor car, investing in a Ford. His love for his fellows was reflected in his faithful service as a trustee and churchwarden at St John's, where every Sunday morning found him a pew with his beloved wife, who was also a keen church worker and who for 43 years was leader and organiser of St John 's sewing bee.
Unlike many of the prominent figures who lived in the district, he did not accumulate a very valuable estate; in fact the desire to do so did not come into his mind.
