118th General Hospital US Army

The 118th General Hospital was a U.S. Army military hospital built in 1942 at Herne Bay, New South Wales. This was the largest military hospital in Australia, during World War II.

Known as the 118 General Hospital it was planned as a hospital centre of five hospitals consisting of 490 timber barracks-type buildings, which could house a total of 4,250 beds and accommodate up to 1,250 patients and 3,500 staff.

The hospital was formed by doctors and nurses from the Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. The hospital staff arrived in Sydney during June 1942 and ran a 400 bed hospital from August 1942, with a section at the Hydro Majestic Hotel at Medlow Bath.

Mrs Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of the US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, visited the 118 General Hospital on 8 September 1943.

The US Army vacated the hospital in 1945 and the Royal Navy occupied many of the buildings in January 1945 and the Australian Army used the remainder of the other buildings.

After World War II the site passed to the New South Wales Housing Commission and the huts were used to ease the post-war housing shortage.

References

* [http://www.canterbury.nsw.gov.au/www/html/871-history-of-riverwood-.asp History of Riverwood]