Pacific Islander Hospital and Cemetery site, Heritage medical site in Tinana, Queensland, Australia
Pacific Islander Hospital and Cemetery site is a heritage-listed archaeological site at the corner of Bluebell Road East and Gernich Road in Tinana, about 5.5 km southwest of Maryborough. It covers the site of a hospital that opened on 19 December 1883 and closed on 31 December 1888, together with a former "Polynesian Cemetery". The site is one of only four central hospitals built for South Sea Islander workers.
The medical facility was established in 1883 as one of four central hospitals built specifically to serve South Sea Islander workers in Queensland's sugar industry. It operated until 1888 and functioned as a care center for a growing working population.
The site is associated with the roughly 50,000 South Sea Islanders brought to Queensland as indentured labourers between 1863 and 1904, most from Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands. The first 84 arrived in the Maryborough district in November 1867 aboard the schooner Mary Smith and mostly worked for the Maryborough Sugar Company. Descendants maintain a connection to the former hospital and Polynesian Cemetery.
The site lies about 5.5 kilometres (3.4 mi) southwest of Maryborough, between Iindah, Genrich and Bluebell Roads at Tinana. It is an open archaeological site with no facilities, so expect uneven ground and possibly overgrown terrain.
The facility was specifically designed for South Sea Islander populations rather than European workers or other groups. This makes it a rare example of dedicated infrastructure built around the needs of a particular community during Australia's early industrial period.
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