From 1951 to 1965 in a QIMR field station at the Innisfail Hospital in north Queensland, researchers investigated leptospirosis, scrub typhus, dengue and other tropical fevers.
In 1954, an outbreak of dengue fever in north Queensland heightened the need for research into arboviral diseases.
Researchers searched extensively among native animals for rickettsia and other viruses, finding Toxoplasma gondii and strains of brucellosis in Queensland rodents.
Dr John Pope discovered the murine leukaemia virus, found in a common house mouse for which he was rewarded with a Rockefeller Fellowship to the United States.
