Dr Wendell Rosevear to sell Stonewall Medical Centre

Dr Wendell Rosevear, owner of Brisbane’s long-running Stonewall Medical Centre, is selling the LGBTQIA+ health clinic after 25 years.

Stonewall Medical Centre opened on Newmarket Road in 1995. Dr Rosevear has owned the clinic since 2000.

Dr Rosevear (pictured above) told us discussions with buyers are underway for both the medical centre and its home in Windsor.

After the sale, Wendell plans to work for the buyer. The longtime Queensland community advocate says Stonewall will continue, and don’t even mention the “r” word to him!

“People have been getting that mixed up. No, I’m not retiring and I don’t want to,” he said.

“But this year I will turn 70, and I need to make a plan. Stonewall needs someone to run the clinic after me. Ensuring its viability and accessibility is so important to me.”

lgbti domestic violence awareness day stonewall medical centre — Photo: Stonewall Medical Centre

Where it all began

Back in 1989, Dr Wendell Rosevear and fellow GP Dr David Orth set up the Gay and Lesbian Health Service. At the time, the HIV/AIDS crisis was raging. Homosexuality was illegal in Queensland.

“There were no services set up for people with HIV in Queensland,” he said.

“We ran a palliative care service. But we also needed an HIV testing service. It was illegal to be gay. We had to invent coded, anonymous testing.”

Queensland decriminalised homosexuality in 1991. HIV treatments also gradually improved.

Dr Rosevear and Dr Orth founded Gladstone Road Medical Centre in Highgate Hill. That practice still operates today.

But as demand for care grew, Dr Rosevear set up a second practice, Stonewall Medical Centre, in Windsor in 1995.

“In 1995, we tried to set up inside Lutwyche shopping centre,” he recalled.

“But they didn’t want us to be there. They were afraid of an HIV clinic and a gay clinic.”

stonewall medical centre fast sti testing brisbane steven miles — Photo: Jordan Hirst

Stonewall Medical Centre would open in a house in Windsor. Inside, the clinic’s walls are adorned with art. Stained glass windows fill the hallways with rainbow light.

“This house is much more accessible and much more friendly. When people walk in the door, they can just be themselves,” he said.

Today, Stonewall has six doctors and the clinic has provided vital holistic healthcare to locals ever since.

Dr Wendell Rosevear took over Stonewall in 2000

Wendell Rosevear later took over Stonewall Medical Centre full-time in 2000, steering the clinic through a national doctor shortage.

Since then, Stonewall has expanded a few times, moving into neighbouring buildings in 2016 and 2021.

Stonewall hosts both the Gay and Lesbian Alcohol and Drug Support Group (GLADS, established in 1991) and Men Affected by Rape and Sexual Abuse (MARS, established in 1993).

Wendell has also spent decades lobbying for social and legal reform, including decriminalisation, equalised age of consent, addiction, domestic violence and sexual abuse. He received an Order of Australia medal in 1998.

“Some people may not even know what Stonewall means. The centre is built and named in honour of Stonewall Inn in New York, where the gay world revolution began,” he said.

“I built Stonewall because I wanted Brisbane to always have its own Stonewall.”