US Army 12th Station Hospital in Chapman Street.

Photo: "Chuck" Hathorn, Photographer for 4th Air Depot Group

Walkway connecting the houses in Chapman Street. Looks like a tent
in the back yard of the house in the far right hand side of the photo

The houses on the right hand side of the street were used as wards and those on the left hand side were used as laundries, laboratories, kitchens and storage areas for medical supplies. Some of the American doctors and the nurses lived in a second block of commandeered houses. The rest of the doctors lived in some private houses. The male support staff lived in tents.

No. 14 Chapman St. was used as an Asylum for shell-shocked soldiers. Bars were fitted on all the windows in the house. It was owned by a young optometrist and his wife.

No. 16 Chapman St. was used as the morgue. A cold room was installed to hold the bodies. 

No. 20 Chapman St. was used as the X-Ray Theatre. The interior of that house was painted black. 

No. 33 Chapman St. had a communal shower and a toilet block built at the rear of the house. The owner Mr. Reuben Redhead found the foundations for these out buildings were still there when he reoccupied his property.

In about March 1942 some families in Townsville voluntarily evacuated after the Japs started occupying Lae and Salamaua. One lady who had moved inland to Charters Towers returned to her house to collect some more of her belongings to find that it had been requisitioned by the 12th Station Hospital. As she finished packing her belongings, patients on stretchers were waiting to be moved in. Others who had not evacuated from Townsville were forced to leave their houses to allow the military to take them over to set up the hospital.

Residents were apparently not able to return to their homes until 1946.

Some of the original residents who had to move out of Chapman Street were Mr. Reuben Redhead (No. 33) and Mrs Marjorie Wright (No. 5). In June 1991, Mr & Mrs Ron Keiry, were the only original residents of Chapman Street still living in the street.

In June 1942, some nurses from the 17th Station Hospital were sent immediately to the 12th Station Hospital in Townsville after they had arrived in Melbourne on 4 June 1942 minus their supplies.

On 28 July 1942 Captain James H. Park, MC the Commanding Officer of the 3rd Medical Laboratory left Brisbane for Townsville to make arrangements for camp and laboratory buildings for an Advance Section to open a Laboratory for Base Section 2 in Townsville. 2 Officers and 20 Enlisted Men left Brisbane with laboratory equipment and supplies moved to Townsville by train. They were joined by the Commanding Officer and another officer upon their arrival in Townsville. From 13 August through to the 31 August 1942, they uncrated the equipment and supplies and set up their Laboratory in the vicinity of the 12th Station Hospital in Chapman Street, Mysterton Estate, which provided their quarters and rations.

The 12th Station Hospital provided hospital facilities in 1943 for the Medical Department of the 20th Naval Construction Battalion (20th Seabees) who were quartered at Armstrongs Paddock.

One of the nurses that worked at the 12th Station Hospital was Ernestine Koranda. On 19 December 1943, she boarded a C-47 Dakota, VH-CHR, #43-30742 to travel to Sydney to marry her fiancee Bob Middleton. Unfortunately the C-47 crashed near Canal Creek in central Queensland killing all 31 people on board.

Scrap meats from Armstrongs Paddock and the 12th Station Hospital at Aitkenvale were saved to feed the dogs at the Ross River Dog Kennels.

In May 1992, the year of the 50th anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea major ceremonies were held in Townsville to commemorate those times. A street party was held in Chapman Street on Sunday 3 May 1992.

REFERENCE BOOKS