Cape Pallarenda Conservation Park is 10km north-east of Townsville.
Named in 1864 by Lieutenant, Pallarenda Park was transformed during world war II into a military hospital. The 500 bed, 2/14 Army General Hospital scattered along the sandy foreshore at Pallarenda received many casualties, most from New Guinea.
There are several walking tracks on the Cape. One of them passes World War II searchlight and gun emplacements and leads to the isolated and scenic Shelley Beach.
In 1875 the first quarantine station for the port of Townsville was established on Magnetic Island and transferred to Cape Pallarenda in 1915. People with diseases were quarantined at Pallarenda until 1973.
Living facilities at the quarantine station were divided by the same class system that existed in ships. There were separate dinning and living facilities for first and second class passengers and a segregated area near the fumigation shed for Asiatic seamen and passengers. The Asiatic area was a covered concrete slab where hammocks were suspended under a canopy. (http://www.heritage.gov.au/ahpi/search.html)
A small museum is set up in the old Army hospital grounds and worth visiting. Entry is free. The site demonstrates government and community attempts to eradicate and treat tropical disease and effect racial segregation at the turn of the century.
