Willows Hospital-W. S. Scholtz, Surgeon.

Colonial lithograph of the Willows Hospital operated by Wilhelm Heinrich Scholz and now the Willows Vineyard on the Light Pass Rd, Light Pass, Barossa Valley.

Wilhelm Heinrich Scholz had arrived in South Australia in 1845 at the age of 39. Scholz settled on farming land at Light Pass, near Nuriootpa in the Barossa Valley. In the Prussian army, Scholz had learned bone setting and massage. Scholz soon became famous when he reset the deformed limb of the German settlers’ benefactor George Fife Angas (or his son John). Previous treatment by a doctor in Adelaide has failed. After Scholz’s treatment, the fracture healed perfectly. Angas gratefully gave Scholz money that was used to extend his home to allow him to treat more patients. From 1856, patients were admitted to Scholz’s Willows Hospital that was extended as a stone and brick building in 1883. It specialised in fractures and rheumatic diseases. Scholz also commissioned a special apothecary cabinet for storing his homeopathic medicines, poultices and ointments. Several family generations continued the hospital until 1915. Several generations continued the work of the Willows Hospital until it closed in the 1950s. (The Willows vineyard on the site began in 1989.)