The Australian Institute of Tropical Medicine was established by the Commonwealth and Queensland Governments in January 1910. Initially there was a joint committee of control, with representatives of both Governments, plus representatives of the Universities of Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide.

The staff at first consisted of a director and a laboratory assistant, an entomologist being appointed soon after the Institute opened. In 1913, after a resolution passed in 1911 at the Australasian Medical Congress in Sydney dealing with the establishment of an organised inquiry into aspects affecting a working white race in Australia, the scope of the Institute was widened. The Federal Government decided to fund the Institute exclusively, the Queensland Government relinquishing its responsibility, the University representatives still being involved as scientific advisors. By 1914, the Director of the Institute was 
Dr A. Breinl.

Prior to World War 1, research undertaken by the Institute included studies on the psychological changes of the white race living under climatic conditions of the coastal districts of Tropical Australia; the metabolism and the influence of exercise in order to gain an insight into the effects of manual labour upon the human organism under tropical conditions; the influence of climatic conditions on alterations to the social conditions in North Queensland; plus other studies dealing with European adaption to tropical conditions. The War interrupted the work of the Institute, its staff being used to relieve the scarcity of medical men throughout North Queensland and Australia in general.
 
After the War, the areas of study included specific diseases, for example, malaria, sprue, filariasis and keratosis, a study of hookworms, the incidence of animal and human parasites, and a study of diseases in the Northern Territory. The entomology division studied mosquitoes and biting flies in both Northern Australia and 
in British New Guinea, and also in the irrigation areas of New South Wales and Victoria.
 
After 1922, the Institute concentrated on the study of physiology of the white population in the tropics. It also ran courses in tropical medicine and hygiene.
 
On 4 March 1930, the Institute merged with the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine (CA 633) which was established in Sydney.  

Sources:
The Australian Institute of Tropical Medicine, Townsville, Queensland: Half-Yearly Report from 1 January to 30 June 1914;  Commonwealth Parliamentary Papers, Session 1914-1917, vol. 5, p. 1071;
Official Year Book of the Commonwealth of Australia, No. 12, 1919, pp. 1064-1067;  No. 21, 1928, p. 520;  No. 24, 1931, p. 356.
 

Historical agency address
Townsville, Queensland