Dunwich housed the Dunwich Benevolent Asylum operated by the Perth government and Dunwich Cemetery where the Queensland Surgeon-General, Dr. David Kaith Ballow, and Dr. George Mitchess were buried.
The Dunwich Benevolent Asylum was established under the Benevolent Asylum Wards Act of 1861 to provide accommodation and care to poor people unable to care for themselves due to illness or infirmity. The Dunwich Benevolent Asylum was a Benevolent Asylum for the aged, infirm and destitute operated by the Queensland Government in Australia. It was located at Dunwich on North Stradbroke Island in Moreton Bay and operated from 1865 to 1946. Those who died in the asylum were generally buried in the Dunwich Cemetery unless families made other arrangements. Archival material on Dunwich Benevolent Asylum is held by the Queensland State Archives and by the North Stradbroke Island Historical Museum. In the 80 years spanning 1867-1947, 8,426 former inmates of the Dunwich Benevolent Asylum were buried in the Dunwich Cemetery. David Keith Ballow (18041850) was the Government Medical Officer in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia and the first doctor to establish a private practice in Brisbane. In December 1837, Dr Ballow was appointed Assistant Colonial Surgeon in Sydney. Dr Ballow was buried in the Dunwich Cemetery; the cemetery has a memorial stone for Dr Ballow and the other victims of typhus. On 8 August 1850 the immigrant ship Emigrant arrived in Moreton Bay with typhus on board. The ship was quarantined at Dunwich on Stradbroke Island away from Brisbane. Forty people on the ship died, including the ship's surgeon Dr George Mitchell. Dr Ballow took his place and also contracted the disease. 
