Greenslopes Red Cross Hall and Hostel

Australian Red Cross Centre

These two timber buildings were built in early1945 as a wartime Red Cross recreation hall and an accommodation hostel. Used to provide entertainment for recuperating service personnel from the adjacent Greenslopes Military Hospital, the hall was a venue for films, dances, concerts and billiards and library services. Unpaid volunteers staffed them. After the war, the Red Cross continued to operate the hall and hostel for the benefit of ex-military patients who were the responsibility of the Commonwealth’s Department of Veteran Affairs.

Place information

Location

Newdegate and Headfort Streets

Greenslopes, QLD 4120

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Place type

Recreation/community

History

The 1864 Geneva Convention led to the formation of the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1875. After the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the Australian Branch of the British Red Cross Society was formed in Melbourne. The Queensland Division was created in 1914. The aims of the Australian Red Cross were to provide comforts for sick or wounded Australian military personnel, to fundraise and to serve in military hospitals through its Voluntary Aid Detachments (VADs).

During World War II, services conducted by the Red Cross included hospital visiting, welfare work, vocational training and home help. The valuable...

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