Attunga was a mansion which now forms part of a hospital. The mansion was built by

Benjamin Burford W. H. Burford and Sons was a soap and candle-making business founded in Adelaide in 1840 by William Henville Burford (1807–1895), an English butcher who arrived in the new colony in 1838. It was one of the earliest soapmakers in Australia, and ...

in 1900 on 4.5 acres (1.8ha) at 120

Kensington Road Kensington Road is a section of road in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the City of Westminster, London, forming part of the A315 road. It runs along the south edge of Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. To the west it becomes ...

, in what was then Rose Park, (an inner eastern suburb of

Adelaide, South Australia Adelaide ( ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater A ...

). Containing 14 rooms, the two storey house is the largest and most extravagant mansion built in the area that became known as the suburb of

Toorak Gardens Toorak Gardens is a leafy, mainly residential inner eastern List of Adelaide suburbs, suburb of Adelaide, South Australia, located 2 km east of the Adelaide city centre. This is one of South Australia’s most expensive suburbs. It is chara ...

. With Burford's death in 1905, the property was bought by an investor from

Broken Hill Broken Hill is an inland mining city in the far west of outback New South Wales, Australia. It is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Highway (B79), in the Barrier Range. It is ...

, Otto Georg Ludwig von Rieben. While maintaining and paying particular attention to the property, von Rieben eventually settled at "Pomona" at Mt Lofty in the Adelaide Hills. In 1944, almost forty years after he purchased it, and having lived in it for 37 years, von Rieben (then aged 82) offered Attunga to the

Burnside Council The City of Burnside is a Local government in Australia, local government area in the South Australian city of Adelaide stretching from the Adelaide Parklands into the Adelaide Hills, Adelaide foothills with an area of . It was founded in August ...

free of charge, for use as a hospital, with the stipulation that the house and gardens be preserved. (In August 1943, a committee of the Council had suggested building a community hospital as part of the Council's Post-War Reconstruction and Development Plan. In November 1943, the Council adopted the committee's recommendation to spend up to £100,000 on the building of a hospital, and that the hospital was intended to be the district's principle memorial to honour Burnside's war dead. In February 1944, Mayor P.R. Claridge announced von Rieben's donation. The council subsequently unanimously accepted the donation.) By April 1949, the first stage of the conversion of the mansion had been completed, with Attunga having been converted into a convalescent hospital caring for 21 patients. When it closed in September 1956 it had cared for over 1,400 patients. In October 1956, the adjacent new 45-bed Burnside War Memorial Hospital, built at a cost of £145,000, was opened.History in Brief
, "Patient Information Directory 2009-2010", page 3. Burnside War Memorial Hospital, www.burnsidehospital.asn.au
Burnside War Memorial Hospital, www.burnsidehospital.asn.au The mansion has subsequently been used for a number of medical support purposes - for example, since March 1989 it has used as the "Attunga Medical Centre". In the 21st century, the mansion and its well-kept formal gardens continue to occupy nearly all of the western half of the original 4.5 acres, with multi-story hospital buildings covering most of the eastern half of the original area.

References

{{coord, 34, 55, 40, S, 138, 38, 17, E, type:landmark_region:AU, display=title Houses in Adelaide South Australian Heritage Register