102nd Australian Casualty Clearing Station

Skull Creek Hospital

Skull Creek Hospital was built in rainforest alongside the Cape York telegraph track, just east of the junction of Skull and Burster Creeks. Several concrete floor surfaces are still evident. They include the main ward and the patients’ kitchen. The kitchen slab contains a cast-iron combustion stove while a corrugated iron water tank is located nearby. A row of 44-gallon drums marks the nurses’ latrine.

Place information

Location

Junction of Skull Creek and Burster Creek

Bamaga, QLD 4876

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Place type

Medical facility

History

By May 1942 Horn Island airfield had received four of a total of eight Japanese air raids causing damage to a number of RAAF aircraft that were caught on the ground. As it was not possible to provide an emergency dispersal strip in the Torres Strait, attention turned to the area around Red Island Point near the tip of Cape York. A suitable airfield site was located and units of the US Army 46th Engineers General Service Regiment were sent to Cape York to start work on clearing and construction of the runway and dispersal areas. The strip was known...

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