Tomaree Lodge, Military heritage site at Tomaree Headland, Shoal Bay, Australia.
Tomaree Lodge is a military site at Tomaree Headland in Shoal Bay with ten single-story timber buildings set across terraced grounds. The property features administrative structures, staff residences, a recreation hall, a swimming pool, and work sheds spread over approximately 8.8 hectares on the western foreshore.
Plans for two camps on Tomaree Head were drawn up in 1941 by the NSW Government Architect's Office, and the buildings were erected in 1942 by the Department of Public Works for the Commonwealth Government. The site served as the Tomaree Head Army/RAAF Camp, with C Company of the 20 Australian Garrison based there from 1942. In 1947 the Commonwealth Defence Department transferred the camp to the Department of Public Health as a convalescent hospital; the first six patients arrived in June that year.
The site lies within the country of the Worimi Aboriginal language group, and Captain Cook noted Tomaree Head in 1770. From 1942 the garrison camp housed C Company of the 20 Australian Garrison, and the first six patients arrived at the convalescent home in June 1947.
The ten former camp buildings stand on terraced land on the western side of Tomaree Head, with the Recreation Hall and staff cottages among them; the rest of the headland is Tomaree National Park. The site is a heritage-listed former hospital and disability accommodation, not an open public park, so the grounds should not be treated as freely walkable. The surf battery and torpedo-tube footings of Fort Tomaree lie nearby on the headland.
Within the DADHC land stand at least two relics of Fort Tomaree: the surf battery, with two Quick Firing 3-pounder Hotchkiss Mark 1 guns meant for close defence of the Port Stephens entrance, and the footings of a torpedo tube. A launching platform for the tubes was built on the shoreline about 50 m west of No. 2 Gun.
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