(Material researched & presented by Barbara Armstrong)

Dr Rochlitz was born in Hungary in 1825. He studied medicine in Vienna where he received his MD, ChD in 1858-9. Because of a Hungarian revolution at that time he escaped to England and then on 17 October 1859 he boarded the ship Dawn of Hope at Liverpool, bound for Melbourne, arriving on 30 January 1860. (His brother, J.A. Rochlitz a photographer, had been in Australia for seven years.)

Dr Rochlitz initially set up practice in Geelong, advertising in the Geelong Advertiser as follows:

Homœopathy

Koloman von Rochlitz, MD

Doctor of Surgery, Accoucheur

(From the University of Vienna)

May be consulted daily at his residence

Plymhouse, Great Myers-street, Geelong

near the National Grammar School, between

the hours of 9 and 11 in the forenoon

and after 4 in the evening

He would have moved to Geelong because this was where his brother worked as a photographer.  However, he did not remain in Geelong for very long, as by August 1860 he had moved to 44 Russell Street in Melbourne.  In February 1861 he advertised that he had moved to 90 Collins Street East – the premises of the Kidner & Gould pharmacy. Later the same year, his address  changed to 160 Collins Street East.* On 26 July 1862 he was officially registered by the Victorian Medical Board as a medical practitioner.

In 1865 his name was mentioned as Chairman of the the Board of Directors of the Economic Gold Mining Company.

In 1866 he left Melbourne by the ship Hero, and on 18 June arrived in Sydney.  In Melbourne, Dr J.P. Teague advertised that he was the successor to Dr Rochlitz's practice.  

Initially Dr Rochlitz practised from 148 King Street East.  In December 1866 he moved to 8 Wynyard Square.  The 1867 Post Office Directory stated that his address was 47 Wynyard Square West, where he remained until early1869.

In April 1868 the Governor received a deputation of Hungarian residents, the secretary of which was Dr Coloman Rochlitz.  

In 1869 he travelled to Le Havre via San Francisco and New York. After some travel around the Mediterranean and Europe, he was in London where a pamphlet, written by him, was published in 1872. The topic of the pamphlet was sea-sickness, citing his personal sufferings on the voyage to Australia, Port Phillip trips, Manly ferry crossings, and journeys by Cobb and Co’s coach in NSW.

©   Barbara Armstrong

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