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SOUVENIR-CHARTERS TOWERS, 1872 TO JULY, 1950

" EVENTIDE "

CHARTERS TOWERS
ON a gentle slope outside Charters
Towers stands Eventide, the aged people's home established in North Queensland by the Queensland Govern­ment.
Set amid green lawns and shady trees, Eventide recognises in a practical way the State's obligation to give of its best to its citizens whose working days are past, and who desire to spend their declining years in comfort and congenial surroundings.
It is a home in the true sense of the word.
Visitors come when they wish, and members of the little community who can fend for themselves call on nearby friends. Charters Towers is within easy walking distance. There is also a regu­lar bus service.
For the sick and infirm there are pro­perly staffed wards. Single and double cottages are provided for married
couples and individual inmates not in need of ward attention and medical anld nursing. service.
In these kindly surroundings, old age, free from the financial cares and respon­sibilities of the working world, lives in dignity and quiet contentment.
Planning Eventide Home
In 1903 four northern members of Parliament, Messrs. .La wson, Dunsford, Jackson and McDonald, conceived the idea of establishing a home for the aged in North Queensland. Howe.ver, it was not until 10th February. 1927, that the foundation stone of Eventide Home was placed in position, by the then Home Secretary, the late Mr. James Stopford; but the member for Charters Towers, the late Mr. W. J. Wellington, must be given credit for having the home established in Charters Towers. The home was opened in 1929.
The climate of Charters Towers is ideal. This is borne out by the freedom from sickness enjoyed by the majority of the inmates of the home.

The Site
Eventide is built on about half of the 35 acres resumed for the purpose on the snde of a gently sloping hill. It is laid out to a well-designed, harmonious plan 111 the form of an oval. Wards and ad­ministrative buildings are in the centre of the oval, cottages for females on one side, and for males on the other. All wards, offices, dining rooms, kitchen and laundry are connected by covered pas­sageways.
It comprises an area of thirty-five acres and, surrounded as it is by beau­tiful bougainvillea of many colounrs and with flowering shrubs and ornamental trees of all descriptions set out in park­like lands is considered one of the beauty spots of Charters Towers.
Because of the equable climate of Charters	Towers	it	was	decided	to
establish a Home here in which aged men and women could pass the twilight of their lives in happiness and content­ment.
The inscription of the foundation stone of the Home gives some indication of the ideals set out at its inception.

EVENTIDE This Stone was laid by THE HOME SECRETARY THE HON JAMES STOPFORD
10th February, 1927
IN RECOGNITION OF THE DESIRE OF AGED PEOPLE IN THE NORTH OF QUEENSLAND TO SPEND THE EVEN­TIDE OF LIFE IN FAMILIAR SURROUND­INGS NEAR TO THEIR FRIENDS AND COMPANIONS.

"O Bless'd retirement, friend to life's decline Retreat from cares, that never must be mine, How bless'd is he who crowns, in shades like
these
A youth of labour with an age of ease."
Since 1929, Eventide has grown con­siderably until now, two hundred and twenty men and fifty women are being cared for in five large dormitories and one hundred and fourteen single and double cottages.