Quarantine, vaccine, contact tracing, isolation, lockdown ... we've been there before

 

Guard, Isolation Camp, Ascot Vale, 29 September 1916.  Well-armed against any meningitis outbreak. Courtesy of drakegoodman on Flickr.

Lest you think contact tracing is something new ....... nope.  The men confined to the Isolation Camp in Ascot Vale were contacts of men in the Broadmeadows Army Camp diagnosed with diseases like cerebro-spinal meningitis, measles, whooping cough, and so on.

The race to find a vaccine for a life threatening virus?  All done before.

Compulsory quarantine for travellers?  Yup. 

Special hospital wards for diseased patients?  Again, yup.

The only thing we don't seem to have is the Cheerup Brigade delivering cakes for those in Isolation. 

"For the hospital wards - jelly, 2 slices cream sandwich, 1 rainbow, 1 Swiss roll, 1 diamond sponge (special diet). 

This is clearly something which requires re-visiting.

In the meantime, gathered in one place for your reading pleasure, links to articles about all of those things by Marilyn Kenny and Lenore Frost on two local history websites, Time Travellers in Essendon and Flemington and The Empire Called and I Answered: the Volunteers of Essendon and Flemington.

Isolation Camp, Ascot Vale  

Cheerup Brigade, Ascot Vale  

Troopship Boonah and the 1919 Influenza Epidemic 

HMT Boonah Quarantined at Torrens Island  

Race for a Vaccine

Death or Disfigurement 

Poverty, Plague and Pestilence

Patrick James Flanagan, Medical Health Officer

Essendon Emergency Hospital  

Death or Disfigurement

The Ruby Princess was not the first vessel to arrive in Sydney and allow infectious passengers to 'walk the city'.  In 1913 a steam ship arrived with smallpox on board, and a failure in the quarantine system in Sydney caused citizens of Melbourne to become anxious about outbreaks in their city - and the available lymph for vaccination was being soaked up by New South Wales. A sudden panic caused Melbourne doctors' surgeries to be overrun by people anxious to be vaccinated. The mortality rate for smallpox was at least 70%, and it was rightly feared.

Marilyn Kenny continues the story of vaccination in Melbourne and Essendon in Death or Disfigurement.

The Race for a Vaccine

Ardconnell, the scene of a riot in 1913 involving crowds seeking a small-pox vaccine.

With her usual eye for a good story, Marilyn Kenny begins her account of the various doctors who lived and practised medicine at Ardconnell in Mt Alexander Rd, Moonee Ponds with  riot among crowds outside the house seeking a vaccine.  

The pracise of medicine, and the implementation of public health measures over a period of decades, from this house, is a surprisingly rivetting story, and you can read the first part of this epic at the Time Travellers website, with more to follow.  The details of the riot itself will appear in Part 2 of the story, yet to be posted.  If you want to be sure you see the second part, subscribe to this Blog.