Military Hospital 1915-1919

During World War I, the Island served as a military hospital primarily used to isolate and treat soldiers returning with sexually transmitted infections, as well as managing cases during the 1918 influenza epidemic. The quarantine station was converted into a specialised military hospital.  Hundreds of servicemen were treated on the island out of public view to manage contagious illnesses away from civilian populations. The military took over the Island completely for a short time 1918-1919 at the end of WW1.

Only one ship was quarantined during this period (1916), the Willochra which was returning from Egypt, when three soldiers were diagnosed with smallpox.

The site operated as a civilian quarantine station from 1863 before transitioning during wartime needs, finally closing down its medical facilities in 1924. The remains of some of the new buildings built for the hospital  can still be seen now converted into other uses, Cottage and Woolshed.