The one it had no longer reflected the services provided at the building, the board of management thought.

It sought to pay homage to the history of the complex, which started life as the Bendigo Benevolent Asylum.

In doing so, author Betty Jackman said the board considered it fitting to name the centre after Anne Caudle.

The Heritage Council of Victoria stated Mrs Caudle’s link to the Bendigo Benevolent Asylum as such: “A local doctor’s wife, who launched a public subscription fund to establish the original asylum.”

But Mrs Jackman said it was more than that.

“When [Anne] came here her husband, as the doctor, found a lot of people suffered through the gold mining,” she said.

“A lot made money, but many more didn’t.

“Anne decided to help those who were in poor circumstances and started a ladies committee with some other doctor’s wives.”

They saw a need for help and, as Mrs Jackman put it, “tried to prick the local conscience into benevolence”.

The author said the ladies committee, which formed in May 1857, raised a substantial amount of money towards the establishment of the asylum.

An account of the inaugural meeting of the Bendigo Benevolent Asylum committee –  published in the Bendigo Advertiser on October 20, 1857 – stated the institution had been “fairly launched into existence”.

A few more years would pass before the asylum moved to its permanent home, at the site we associate with Mrs Caudle today.

Mrs Jackman believed Mrs Caudle would have been thrilled to learn the building she helped to create was eventually named in her honour.

On Thursday, Bendigo Health will celebrate 160 years of history relating to the Anne Caudle Centre with an afternoon tea.

The day will also be cause for celebration for Mrs Jackman, whose book ‘Anne Caudle – the lady’ provides insights into the life and times of Mrs Caudle.

TUCKED behind the memorial stone of the building we now know as the Anne Caudle Centre should be a time capsule.

That is, if nothing has changed since the Bendigo Advertiser wrote of its existence 145 years ago.

Placed into a cavity in the stone was a detailed document relating the history of the Bendigo Benevolent Asylum, as it was then known, and information about the institution’s use at the time.

“This Institution, the Bendigo Benevolent Asylum, was founded on the 19^th day of October, A.D. 1857, by the election of the following gentlemen as office-bearers,” the document reportedly stated.

The article proceeded to list the trustees – William Harris, Angus Mackay and Lewis Macpherson – president J.F. Sullivan, vice-presidents J.J.Casey and F.C. Standish, and every committee member.

It credited the “indefatigable” Mrs Caudle and her fellow ladies with their fundraising efforts and with inducing the committee to apply to the government for “a piece of ground for a site” and a grant “to erect a suitable building for the reception of the destitute.” 

The document then stated the purpose of the asylum.

“At first, the institution was intended as a home for the aged, infirm and destitute,” the Bendigo Advertiser reported.

“Afterwards, it as found that many deserving persons, such as widows with families, and married people, and others, required aid, although not entire support.

“The committee then commenced to distribute outdoor relief, which being given in kind (not moneys) has to a very great extent prevented imposture, while it has ameliorated the condition of the genuine necessitous.”

Included in the document was a list of those in positions of power at the time, including the Queen, and the Governor of the colony, and the local members of parliament.

Accompanying the document in the time capsule were copies of the Melbourne-based Argus, Age, Herald, and Daily Telegraph newspapers, in addition to the Sandhurst-based Bendigo Advertiser, Independent, Evening News and Evening Star newspapers.

The memorial stone cavity also ought to contain an array of coins.

“Namely, one sovereign, one half sovereign (gold), one crown, one half-crown, one florin, one shilling, one sixpence, one fourpence, one threepence, one twopence (silver), one penny, one halfpenny (bronze),” according to the Bendigo Advertiser.

The Bendigo Benevolent Asylum was home to 57 men, six women and 150 children when the memorial stone as laid on December 19, 1872.

Bendigo Health is unsure whether or not the reported contents of the time capsule remain intact, a spokeswoman said. 

The memorial stone has not been moved.