WW2 Dental camps in the Torres Strait Islands

Supporting troops in the second most bombed Australian location

Cultural Sensitivity Warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that this page may contain images of deceased persons.

Dental camp, Torres Strait Islands. 1942-43. P. Martin Collection. ADAQ Museum of Dentistry

These photos on pocket Kodak prints show dental camps and personnel at Horn Island and Thursday Island in 1939-41. Enemy bombing in the area began in 1942.

Tiny Horn Island (Ngurapai), of the Torres Strait Islands, was the first and most frequently attacked target in Queensland during WW2. It was the second most bombed Australian location after Darwin. More than 150 service people lost their lives. Many others bravely defended the country in the harsh tropical heat conditions, amid water rationing and diseases.

Allied aircraft utilised the airbase on their way to New Guinea. Units stationed at Horn Island included: Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion, 34th Australian Heavy AA Battery, 1 Australian Camp Hospital, 74th Australian A/A Workshop Section, 5th Australian Machine Gun Battalion and 157th Australian Light Anti-Aircraft Battery.

The Camp Hospital included a Dental Unit, headed by Captain Dental Officer Stanley Martin, to whom the photos belonged. Martin was a renown NQ practitioner and active ADAQ member. In 1938, he had organised the first ever North Queensland dental convention in Townsville.

The history of Australia’s most-northerly military outpost remains somewhat overlooked, despite the vital role it played in the fight to repel enemy air raids.

Lest we forget.

Dental camp, Torres Strait Islands. 1942-43. P. Martin Collection. ADAQ Museum of Dentistry

Images: ADAQ Archives, kindly donated by the Martin Family.

Sources: 
Horn Island Airfield. Queensland WWII Historic Places website. Queensland Government (2014). 
Horn Island: in their steps 1939-45, by Vanessa Seeke (2002)