QUEENS HOTEL ON THE STRAND, TOWNSVILLE
USED AS AN AMERICAN OFFICER'S CLUB DURING WWII

Queens Hotel on The Strand, Townsville in October 2001

An earlier photograph of Queens Hotel

There are stories that there may have been an emergency escape tunnel built from under the Queens Hotel to "The Dungeon" area underneath the nearby Customs House on The Strand in Townsville.

Lyndon Johnson revisited the Townsville area on 23 October 1966 during his term as President of the United States and revisited Buchanan's Hotel in Sturt Street, where he visited some American officers in June 1942. LBJ was staying at the American Officer's Club at the Queens Hotel at the time of this visit. Ray Holyoak visited the LBJ Presidential Library in November 2016 and found hotel receipts, writing paper, photos and home movie footage which all indicated that LBJ had stayed at the Queens Hotel. There had previously been an incorrect belief in Townsville that he had stayed at Buchanan's Hotel in Sturt Street.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I'd like to thank Ray Holyoak and Graham Aspinall for their assistance with this web page.

Can anyone help me with more information?

"Australia @ War" WWII Research Products

This page first produced 3 December 2001

This page last updated 25 January 2020