Unbeknowns to a lot of people, Cairns played a vital role during World War II. There are many sites around the Cairns region, which if not aware of the history of, just look like really old buildings. This series of caches will bring you to just a few of these, and not only reward you with a find, but also enrich your mind with a little bit of history. We hope you enjoy them and please be thankful to the service men and women of the past, present and the future.
Located at Redlynch near Cairns, Jungara was designed by US engineers for 750-bed capacity and built by the Allied Works Council (AWC). The hospital contained over 140 prefabricated buildings including wards, operating theatres and staff accommodation, with the prefabricated components made in Sydney. Jungara hospital was later transferred to the Australian Army.
The Jungara US Army Station Hospital was established at Redlynch in September 1943, and construction work was completed by 15 February 1944. In support of the vast numbers of US and Australian troops training in the vicinity of Cairns and the Atherton Tablelands, additional bed space was required. To stretch the infrastructure of the region further, the Cairns area containing a number of large staging camps, for use by troops en-route to the war in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.
On the 25 March 1944, the Australian Army took over US hospital at Jungara and by mid-May the 116 Australian General Hospital (AGH) had transferred from Charters Towers to occupy the wards and offer complete medical services, including psychiatric and disease services. To assist with the prevalence of malarial cases returning from the jungles of the south-west pacific, the Malaria Research Unit moved from North Cairns State School to the Jungara site at a similar time.
A housing estate now exists on the current site of the former Jungara Hospital, servicing the rapid population growth of the region in recent years.
Source: http://www.ww2places.qld.gov.au