A large timber truss igloo theatre was erected on the main Herberton-Evelyn Road (today the Longlands Gap Road) for the troops of the 6th Division. Like similar military camp theatres on the Tableland at Rocky Creek and Danbulla, the Wondecla theatre was about 42 metres in length and 22 metres wide and stood 7.5 metres in height. It was clad in corrugated iron and combined two structural elements-an igloo auditorium with an attached stage area. The igloo was built on a concrete floor slab with two external drains running each side of the building and concrete footings to support the trusses which span the interior space. Each truss is composed of two curved half-trusses which are pinned at the footings and at the apex where they meet. The trusses are made entirely of light pieces of hardwood nailed together and clad with corrugated iron. The stage area is a more conventional timber-frame weatherboard building with a gable roof about 9 metres in height.

From December 1942 the headquarters of the Australian Army in north Queensland was transferred from Townsville to the Atherton Tableland, with the main administrative centre around the town of Atherton. Units of the Australian 6th and 7th Divisions began arriving on the Tableland in early 1943 and started occupying encampments around the settlements of Wondecla and Ravenshoe. By February and March 1943 a huge schedule of construction work under the direction of the Allied Works Council was underway involving the building of tent encampments, hutments, stores, bakeries, mess kitchens and hospitals.

Apart from the camp theatre, the only other buildings at the camp were the officers’ messes, the store, a canteen, and corrugated iron sheds for the kitchens. The majority of the encampment was set out under canvas tents. The first picnic race meeting was held in April setting the pattern for many more to follow.