Lytton Quarantine Station

The Lytton Quarantine Station was established in 1913-1914, to accommodate newly arrived immigrants and persons considered to be at risk of causing infection to the general population.

Situated in an isolated location at the mouth of the Brisbane River, Lytton Quarantine Station illustrates early 20th century attitudes to quarantine practices and the provision of quarantine facilities. It is important as part of a continuum of sites in and adjacent to Moreton Bay, used for quarantine purposes from 1844.

Construction of the Lytton Quarantine Station was undertaken by the Queensland Department of Works, financed by a Commonwealth loan, and approved by the Commonwealth Department of Home Affairs. It is possible that some of the buildings associated with the isolation hospital established at Colmslie in the early 1900s were relocated to the Lytton Quarantine Reserve.

The Lytton facility functioned as a human quarantine station until the early 1980s, by which time the decision had been made to phase out human quarantine services.

In 1919 the first death from the Spanish Flu, in Queensland, occurred at Lytton Quarantine Station.

This year marks the 36th anniversary of the site becoming a National Park in 1989.