United States 7th Fleet Radio Unit Station

James Cook Historical Museum (former St Mary’s Convent)

For many years Cooktown’s largest and most substantial building wasSt Mary’s Convent School, which was completed in 1889 to a design by the government architect, FDG Stanley. This two-storey brick building with a large attic area in the roof, housed a boarding school for girls conducted by the Sisters of Mercy. It was the first girl’s high school in far north Queensland and became noted for its music curriculum.

Wartime musical comedy star Gladys Moncrieff was a former student.

The boarding section closed in 1930, and in 1943 during the Pacific war the building was occupied by a radio unit detachment of the United States Navy.

The Sisters of Mercy did not return after the war and successive cyclones reduced the building to a partial ruin. Public protest prevented its demolition in the 1960s and after a restoration program, Queen Elizabeth II reopened the former school in 1970, as the James Cook Historical Museum.

Place information

Location

cnr Helen Street and Furneaux Street

Cooktown, QLD 4895

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Place type

Radar/signal station

History

By early 1942, after the Americans had broken the Japanese military code, they began establishing units specifically to listen to Japanese radio transmissions. One such unit was the Fleet Radio Unit detachment of the 7th Fleet (FRUDET).

By July 1943 a 7th Fleet Radio Unit detachment stationed at Adelaide River near Darwin, had proven so valuable it was decided to establish a similar station in the North Eastern Area to cover the Solomon and Gilbert Islands intermediate frequency traffic. The Australian Naval Board had established a station at Townsville, but it was decided a small United States Navy intercept station, located...

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