[1] In 1844 Ludwig Leichhardt traversed an area to the east of what is now Springsure, naming the Expedition Range, Albinia Downs and Comet Creek as he went.

[1] While the Leichhardt Pastoral District was officially opened up to settlement on 10 January 1854, William Landsborough subsequently in 1858 explored the Comet River through to the area that is now Springsure.

[1] The Springsure Hospital was erected c. 1868 as a response to needs of the local community who set up a committee of volunteers to manage the project.

On 7 October 1868, William Henry Hinton, Louis Meyer and George Pultney Malcolm Murray were appointed trustees.

[1] The principal design characteristics of the pavilion plan were to provide good ventilation and sanitation for the benefit and recovery of patients.

At its inception the hospital comprised a brick building with a shingle roof with its main section housing a ward that accommodated six beds.

[1] Initially a husband and wife team, Thomas and Ellen Cahill were appointed as wardsman and matron and continued in these positions until the mid 1870s.

Accordingly in the 1870s the hospital was expanded to meet the growing needs of the community with an extra ward added in 1879 to bring the number of beds to seventeen.

Improvements to the district's health services continued throughout the 1920s with establishment of an ambulance brigade and with Miss Hammond opening Westray as maternity home in 1921.

[1] When the Depression affected the financial status of the hospital to the point where it was likely to close a public meeting was called to make arrangements for a further input of voluntary contributions.

During the 1970s new staff quarters were erected and in the 1980s, when the original brick building was identified as being surplus to the needs of the Hospital Board, the site was subdivided.

Restoration work was undertaken in 1988 and on 19 August 1989, the Honourable Mike Ahern MLA, Premier and Treasurer of Queensland opened the Springsure Hospital Museum.

The Museum is furnished to resemble an early rural hospital; it has a collection of medical equipment, photographs and other records.

One of the brothers who returned from the war, John (Jack) Fryer, resumed his studies at the University of Queensland but died of tuberculous in 1922.

In 1927, this collection grew into the Fryer Memorial Library, now an extensive archive of published and unpublished material relating to Australian literature, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander studies, and the history, art and architecture of Queensland.

However, people wishing to visit outside these hours may obtain a key from the Central Highlands Regional Council office in Eclipse Street.

The building is constructed of locally manufactured bricks in English Bond style with stonework forming the foundations beneath floor level.

[1] The annex is situated immediately to the west of the main building and is of two rooms with a verandah along the eastern elevation with a decorative spandrel along its western edge.

The timber-framed building weatherboard clad and roofed with corrugated iron features external framing on the southern and eastern elevation.

With its verandah encircling three sides of the main ward and with French doors to the northern and southern sides of the building, creating cross ventilation, the former Springsure Hospital is significant as a good example of the pavilion plan design which aimed to promote cross ventilation and sanitation for the benefit and recovery of patients.

Such facilities were valued not only for their functional role in caring for the sick, but also as symbols of progress and as evidence of civilising forces at work.