Jericho is a tiny outback town, full of curiosities. Population 229 at last count. Curious town name, curious street names, curious attractions. As you enter from the east along Capricorn Highway you cross Jordan Creek, which is a clue as to how the town got its name. Harry Jordan was an early settler in the area along the creek, and years later when the railway line reached the town, a surveyor, in a moment of biblical inspiration, noted that the new railway station lay west of Jordan Creek – so he came up with the name Jericho for the station, and Jericho town followed. Think “West Bank” …. get it? Okay, it’s Jordan Creek not Jordan River but cute nevertheless. Surveyors had all the fun naming things back then.
But let’s get on to things medical.
Around town I was surprised to find that all the streets (just eight, in a grid of sorts) are named after scientists and inventors: Pasteur, Darwin, Huxley, Davy, Bessemer, Tyndall, Faraday, Edison. All the way out here in the Outback. And thinking about this blog, what’s the medical relevance? Pasteur Street naturally first caught my attention. Louis Pasteur was primarily a chemist but with an enormous contribution to medicine that needs no elaboration here. The interesting thing about some of the others is their fleeting associations with medical vocations before going on to much greater achievements, a phenomenon not uncommon among scientists of the time. Charles Darwin, naturalist and later the world’s most famous evolutionary biologist, started out apprenticed to his father, a family doctor to the well-to-do. Medical school followed but young Charles, bored to death with diseases and patients, soon dropped out and went on to greater pursuits, much of it self taught. Thomas Huxley was apprenticed as a teenager to several medical practitioners, eventually heading off to medical school where he aced the basic sciences (notably anatomy and physiology) but didn’t bother to sit the final examinations for graduation. He became the world’s most famous comparative anatomist. Humphry Davy was similarly apprenticed but only interested in his home chemistry experiments. He went on to establish the field of electrochemistry, along the way being the first to isolate no less than nine chemical elements. Bessemer (steel manufacturing), Tyndall (infrared radiation), Faraday (electromagnetic fields) and Edison (electric lighting) had no direct medical connections. But, Hey, medicine has benefitted much from all sorts of discovery and endeavour, just as human health has suffered from so much exploitation and indulgence.
Back to humble Jericho.
In Pasteur Street you might notice “Jericho Bush Nursing Centre”, established in 1932 and today known as Jericho Health Clinic. The original sign is still there above the front door. The transition in name reflects the changes over many years as the Bush Nursing service evolved from one supported and governed entirely by local communities, to a fully centrally run state government-funded system. A doctor may only visit from afar once a week but at other times you can still get good care for your various ailments.
And Jericho’s attractions? Well, in Darwin Street there is the Jericho Drive-in Theatre, smallest in the southern hemisphere – surely the whole world! And in Bessemer Street the local garage attendant will personally fill your tank. I can’t remember the last time I received this service. He even introduced himself. Thank you, Jericho.
Date visited: 21 September 2026
Images source: author – unless stated otherwise
Travel tip: Park your rig on the bank of Jordan Creek in Jericho’s Redbank Park. Enjoy the bird life. Be brave and take a dip!
Map coordinates: 23.6018°S, 146.1258°E
