Underground hospital

Its amazing what can be discovered by talking to people. When we were in the pool in Darwin, chatting to another couple, who had come up through Mt Isa and they mentioned the underground hospital. It sounded interesting so we wanted to check it out.

When Darwin was being bombed in WW11, it was decided that there was a need to have a hospital that was safe for the possible causalities. Thankfully it was never needed and also never used at all although they did run regular drills once or twice a week to go from the usual hospital to the underground one.It wasnt very far and now there is a good concrete path but trying to move patients quickly over rough ground would have been a nightmare.

This was a car and caravan in the car park and the hospital is in the hill behind it.

The miners worked for fifteen weeks in their spare time to cut with pick and ax to make the tunnels and shore it up so that it could be used. There was three tunnels and after the war it was closed up and left until the 1990s when it was decided to restore it. Now there is one tunnel left to show how bad it was when they started.