Not-for-profit hospitals are built, not registered

Katharine Bassett, departing her role at Catholic Health Australia, noted that the foundations of Australia's not-for-profit hospitals were established through the direct actions of religious orders rather than through formal registration.

Bassett traced the origins of several major health providers to specific missionary efforts by sisters. In 1857, the Irish Sisters of Charity founded St Vincent’s in Sydney to serve the poor. Calvary Health Care grew from a soup kitchen established in Kings Cross by the Sisters of the Little Company of Mary in 1885. In Western Australia, the Sisters of St John of God began caring for typhoid patients in 1895, eventually managing the country's last leprosarium until 1986.

Other major institutions also began with small-scale service. The Sisters of Mercy opened a 20-bed private hospital in Brisbane in 1906, which served as the foundation for the Mater. Following the influenza pandemic, the Mercy Sisters opened a hospital in Malvern, Victoria, in 1920, leading to the creation of Mercy Health. In 1948, the Cabrini Sisters took over that hospital to care for post-war migrants, which later became Cabrini Health.