In Shadow of the Plague Inside History

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In the shadow of the
PLAGUE
went off to work at the nearby goods
shed. William was a railway shunter,
unloading cargo that was brought into
Fremantle on ships and placing it on
trains for onward journey inland.
In the week prior to falling ill, he
had been handling the loads from the
steamers Pilbara and Marloo. Both
ships hailed from Sydney, and among
the standard consignment of goods was
at least one flea-ridden rat, infected with
the dreaded Yersinia pestis bacterium. In
all likelihood, William never even noticed
the fatal flea bite.
By Saturday evening, he felt ill enough
to make his way to Fremantle Hospital in
search of medicine for his fever, vomiting
and diarrhoea. He expressed some
disinclination to stay at the hospital,
however, and left — only to return an
hour or so later, upon which time he
was admitted. Luckily so, as very soon
afterwards he slipped into a coma.
The resident Medical Officer,
Dr O’Meara, kept a close eye on the
patient. What his initial diagnosis was,
we can’t be sure, but he was an educated
man, and no doubt well read. He would
have heard of the epidemic taking hold
in Sydney, and his brows must have
gathered in a deep frown when he noticed
swollen glands on William’s right groin
the following afternoon. Alas, there was
nothing to be done, and by 9 o’clock that
evening, William Campbell died.
Dr O’Meara shared his suspicions
about cause of death with an excolleague,
Dr Anderson, who had
recently been promoted to the position of
Special Medical Officer of Perth’s Central
Board of Health. The latter received the
news with a great deal of alarm. He made
his way to the hospital morgue and, at
1 o’clock in the morning, performed an
autopsy which confirmed the worst:
William had died of bubonic plague.
At the turn of the 20th
century, a seemingly
unlikely disease appeared
in several Australian cities.
Alex Kopp investigates
the first case of the plague
in early 1900s Fremantle.
BUBONIC PLAGUE is something we normally associate with medieval Europe,
not sunny Western Australia. And yet, at the turn of last century, the Black
Death sailed onto the shores of the Swan River, and sent the port city of
Fremantle into a panicked, lime- and carbolic-fuelled spin.
When young William Campbell sat down for breakfast at his Bay Street boarding
house on Saturday morning of 7 April 1900, he wouldn’t have known that it would be for
the last time. He had been feeling increasingly ill since Thursday, with chills, aches and
swollen glands. Quite likely though, his landlord and fellow boarders would have passed
off the symptoms as a bad case of flu, and offered only a modicum of sympathy as he
Above from top
Woodman Point
Isolation Hospital,
1905, and now.
Opposite The
hospital’s main
building. Courtesy
Earle Seubert, Friends
of Woodman Point
Recreation Camp.
30 | www.insidehistory.com.au Inside History | Mar-Apr 2016 | 31

Bubonic plague
in Australia
The first quarter of the 20th
century saw 12 major plague
outbreaks across Australia.
The disease, which resulted
in 1,371 reported cases and
535 deaths nationwide,
was introduced into the
country by infected rats from
overseas ship arrivals. Sydney
was most affected, but
the disease also spread to
Queensland with occasional
cases found in Melbourne,
Adelaide, Perth, Kalgoorlie
and Fremantle.
take the cadaver 20 miles out to sea.
And so, the body was wrapped in three
layers of heavy blankets, each soaked in
a strong disinfecting solution of carbolic
acid, then placed in a heavily weighted
and perforated coffin and lowered into
the ocean.
One would have hoped that was the
end of the matter. Alas, panic, once
in motion, takes a while to slow down
and subside. Fear spread about fish
and crustaceans feeding on the body
and seafood all but vanished from
local menus. This was observed with
a great deal of angst and bitterness by
local fishermen, the lifeblood of the
community, who noted that the chosen
method of William’s burial practically
extinguished their trade. Many boats
stayed in port, as it was neigh impossible
for fishermen to sell their catch.
Fremantle was on tenterhooks, waiting.
And then, on 12 April, a shadow spread
over the city as the second victim fell.
The shadow remained for the next
six years. It hung, heavy and gloating,
as more cases appeared: four, five, six...
It watched over frantic efforts to clean
the streets and docks, and over macabre
Indian pyres upon which bodies burned
Useful resources
• Learn about the fascinating history of the Woodman
Point Quarantine Station in Western Australia;
woodmanpointquarantinestation.com
• State Records NSW has some chilling photographs
of Sydney in the grips of the plague; gallery.
records.nsw.gov.au/index.php/galleries/purgingpestilence-plague
• Read a quick overview of the plague today and
in the past; science.nationalgeographic.com/
science/health-and-human-body/humandiseases/plague-article
— for William’s burial at sea was not
repeated. It watched, as the quarantine
station was built at Woodman Point,
replete with a hospital to treat those cases
that could be saved, and a crematorium,
for those who could not. Eventually, in
1906, as the ashes of the 29th victim
slowly cooled, the shadow finally lifted.
*
Alex Kopp is a writer and
educator. Visit her blog,
writilin.com.au
Below Professional
ratcatchers in
Sydney, 1900.
Courtesy State
Library NSW.
Degotardi_a147264
Top and above Woodman Point Quarantine
Station Crematorium, completed in 1901.
Courtesy Earle Seubert, Friends of Woodman
Point Recreation Camp Inc.
A report bearing the news was quickly sent up the line, to
the Principal Medical Officer, Dr Harvey. Upon learning of the
situation, he, in turn, put the entire city on full alert. All manner
of crisis control measures were immediately put into effect.
Wharfs were scrubbed, access to the inter-colonial shipping
docks was limited, incoming steamers were subjected to strict
fumigation, and mass efforts were coordinated to trap rats which
roamed the city. A few days after William’s death, the West
Australian reported that government officials had
‘a tolerably free hand in the expenditure of public funds’ when
it came to carrying out prevention and control measures. Some
of these funds were directed towards urgent and immediate
construction of a quarantine station and cremation facilities
at Woodman Point, south of Fremantle.
Immediate orders were issued to isolate William’s lodgings,
hospital room and the morgue. The morgue would later be
burned, as would all of the victim’s bedding and belongings. The
walls in William’s room were stripped of paper and scrubbed, and
similar treatment was applied to the ceiling, floors and woodwork.
The whole house was fumigated with sulphur for 12 hours.
A decision needed to be made as to the best way to dispose of
poor William. Burial was out of the question, for fear of bacterial
contamination of the soil and ground water. With no existing
crematorium in Fremantle, officials approved a suggestion to
32 | www.insidehistory.com.au Inside History | Mar-Apr 2016 | 33