The area was originally known as Herne Bay and comprised small land grants between 30 and . When the East Hills railway line came through the area in 1931, the station was called Herne Bay. The area was subdivided in 1919 and redeveloped in 1942 during World War 2, when the Government of Australia and the Allied Works Council establish an army base hospital barracks for the United States Army, the 118 General Hospital. The hospital was built at a cost of one-million pounds and consisted of 490 barrack type buildings containing approximately four-thousand-two-hundred and fifty beds. The hospital was staffed by doctors and nurses from The Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.