Redlynch in WW2
Jungara United States Army Station Hospital
116 Australian General Hospital/Malaria Research Unit
Cairns, Qld. 1943-09-20. Exterior view of the wards and administrative buildings of the 5th Australian Camp Hospital, Shaw’s Road, Redlynch.
In support of the vast numbers of US and Australian troops raining in the vicinity of Cairns and the Atherton Tablelands during World War 2, additional hospital bed space was required.
Located at Redlynch near Cairns, Jungara US Army Station Hospital (some sources list ‘Gungarra’) was designed by US engineers for 750 bed capacity and built by the Allied Works Council (AWC). The Hospital was established at Redlynch in September 1943, and construction work was completed by 15 February 1944. It contained over 140 prefabricated buildings including wards, operating theatres and staff accommodation, with the prefabricated components made in Sydney.
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.
Known as Jungara Hospital, the facility was famous for scientific treatment and prevention of malaria.
Malaria was a mammoth health problem for the soldiers who were fighting in the jungles of the islands in the South-west Pacific region including the Cairns area. The quinine-based treatment developed by Dr. Edward Koch of Cairns, in the 1880’s was inadequate to meet the demand of malaria casualties. At the 5th Australian Camp Hospital (ACH) in Cairns and later at the 116th Australian General Hospital (AGH) at Redlynch, a special unit was established to research the mosquito larvae and create new drugs to combat the disease. With the successful research results, the death and illness rate dropped dramatically.
Reported in newspapers ‘The results achieved by the Cairns research station since it began this work in 1943 have played no small part in winning the Pacific war, which was, in many ways, as much a fight against malaria as against the Japanese’.
Members of the malarial experimental group, 5th Australian Camp Hospital, collecting mosquito larvae in a creek near the hospital.
JUNGARA, QLD. 1945-10. OFFICIAL WAR ARTIST NORA HEYSEN DRAWING ASSISTANT PATHOLOGIST LIEUTENANT MAX SWAN, MALARIA RESEARCH UNIT ATTACHED TO 116 AUSTRALIAN GENERAL HOSPITAL, IN HIS LABORATORY.
Among the Australian Army Medical Women’s Service (AAMWS) of 116 Australia General Hospital were L. to R. Dorothy Fredericks, Meryl McGinn, Mavis Fadden, Lyon Bishop, and Patty Walker.
Redlynch Staging Camp
The Cairns area contained a number of large staging camps, for use by troops en-route to the war in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.
The Redlynch Staging Camp, or 16 Australian Personnel Staging Camp was located in the vicinity of Harley Street, Redlynch, South of the Barron River. Also known as a Leave and Transit Depot, the Redlynch site saw thousands of troops pass through its gates, en-route to New Guinea and later Borneo and the South-West Pacific.
The camp was utilised as a final organisational depot prior to overseas departure. Most often troops would undertake a spell in the area en-route to the Atherton Tablelands, which housed the 6th, 7th and 9th Division camps and training areas. It was also used for those troops travelling down from the range by truck to link up with the railways at Redlynch Station. From Redlynch the troops would travel to Cairns for embarkation on a troopship.
The camp consisted of vast tented lines, simply designed to accommodate the troops. Whilst they were at the depot, they would be resupplied in preparation for departure. Should personnel become sick en-route, the 116 AGH and US Station Hospital was just south of the area.
The camp was lucky to have a cinema, which entertained thousands of troops during the war to prevent stagnation, boredom, thus reducing the opportunity for less honourable pursuits.
Sources:
Australian War Memorial
https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C247951
Ozatwar
https://www.ozatwar.com/116agh.htm
https://cdfhs.org/cairns-war-cemetery/
https://www.artsandculturemap.com.au/16th-australian-army-personnel-staging-camp-site
