Mount Isa Undergound Hospital, Mount Isa, Queensland during WW2

MOUNT ISA UNDERGROUND HOSPITAL
MT. ISA, QLD DURING WW2

In 1942, the Medical Superintendent of the Mount Isa Hospital, Edward Ryan, asked Mount Isa Mines to help build an underground hospital to protect patients in the event of any Japanese bombing raids. By this time the Japanese had carried out their first bombing raid in Darwin on 19 February 1942.

Wally Orton was the foreman in charge of the project to build the underground hospital. Local Miners volunteered to work in their spare time and on weekends. A H-shaped underground "bunker" was dug out of the solid rock in the hill beside Mount Isa's Base Hospital.

A General Ward, Children's Ward and Operating Theatre were set up in the underground hospital. A ladder went up to one of the ventilation shafts to act as an emergency exit for the underground hospital. Timber was used to reinforce the rough rock tunnel walls.

One of the wards in the Mt. Isa underground hospital

The Operating Theatre

In 1999 a committee of ten was established under the leaderships of Margaret Medley to restore the then vandalised underground hospital as a local tourist attraction. The project was overseen by the National Trust. The original timbers in the "Bunker" were to be replaced with Oregon Pine under the supervision of a mining engineer. You can visit the Underground Museum at Joan Street in Mount Isa.

Photo:- Michael Musumeci