Cape Pallarenda Quarantine Station (former)

Cape Pallarenda’s former Quarantine Station and WWII fortifications site is now managed by Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service. This Quarantine Station was established between 1913 and 1916. A number of buildings were relocated here from an earlier quarantine station at West Point on Magnetic Island, which had been built there between 1884 and 1885. Townsville, the first or second port of call for shipping on the Asia/Pacific route, was identified as a place for the detainment of suspected cases of ship-borne diseases. A tented camp was established in 1875 on Magnetic Island, with more substantial buildings constructed in 1884. Cape Pallarenda’s establishment began with a 1913 jetty and stone retaining wall. The quarantine station’s construction was timely, given the flu epidemic of 1919. By 1942, Townsville had become the supply base for the South-West Pacific war, used by both the Australian and United States military. The facility at Cape Pallarenda was designed to protect the northern entrance to Townsville Harbour and the shipping passage between the mainland and Magnetic Island. Construction included two gun emplacements, two searchlight installations, a command post and a sizeable camp. The quarantine station became obsolete after construction of a new contagious diseases hospital in Melbourne in 1973.