Yongala Lodge, Historic lodge listed on Queensland Heritage Register in North Ward, Townsville, Australia.
Yongala Lodge is a two-storeyed, L-shaped timber building at the base of Melton Hill, fronting Fryer Street to the northwest. Its original central section has single-skin exposed frame construction, cross-braced cast-iron balustrade and a remnant timber frieze on the lower verandah. Two-storeyed verandahs surround it, the southeast side enclosed, and a cantilevered timber porch with a concave corrugated iron awning shelters the panelled front door. The hipped roof is corrugated iron.
Built between 1883 and 1887 by the Rooney Brothers construction firm, the lodge served as Matthew Rooney's family residence before becoming Nestle Private Hospital in 1916.
The building represents one of the few surviving 19th-century two-storey timber residences in Townsville, showcasing late Victorian architectural craftsmanship and regional building techniques.
The building stands at the base of Melton Hill, fronting Fryer Street to the northwest, with a steep rocky slope at the southern end of the site. A lower two-storey brick motel wing is attached to the rear, and a split-level brick motel block sits on the rear slope. An inground concrete swimming pool lies south of the house, reached across a bitumen driveway and car park.
The name links the house to the SS Yongala, which sank south of Townsville on 23 March 1911; Matthew Rooney, his wife and their youngest daughter drowned. The wreck was not found until 1958. Rooney had been the first chairman of the Townsville Harbour Board, 1896–97.
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