With seven bedrooms and two kitchens, this heritage-listed home has an unexpected history
With seven bedrooms and space for 14 cars, an upscale Townsville property has hit the market, but anyone moving will also call Australia’s first medical institution home. There are currently two modern kitchens and five bathrooms – one with a spa bath – but the property was originally built to study tropical diseases such as malaria and dengue fever in the early 1900s. The facility opened in 1913 before services were moved to Sydney in 1930. ( Provided: JCU ) James Cook University professor of public health and tropical medicine, Peter Leggat, spent 20 years working at the property known as the Australian Institute of Tropical Medicine. “It was the first medical institute in Australia, beating all the others in the whole of Australia … it was the first robbery … and it was amazing to set up in Townsville,” he said. This property has a kitchen on each level and two laundries. ( Provided: realestate.com.au ) Professor Leggat says the building’s constant need for improvement is far remo