WEST KIMBERLEY PLACE REPORT - Department of Sustainability ...

Bungarun
Bungarun (the Derby Leprosarium) functioned for fifty years as a place where
Aboriginal people suspected of having or carrying leprosy were isolated, segregated
and treated. Between 1936 and 1986, 1,400 people from across the Kimberley were
sent to this institution, where they were incarcerated for compulsory treatment. More
than 300 people are buried in the Bungarun cemetery. Bungarun was the last
operational leprosarium in Australia (Jebb and Allbrook 2009).
The first cases of leprosy in the Kimberley were diagnosed in 1908. Between 1908
and 1914 leprosy carriers were sent to Bezout Island in the Pilbara region and, within
a few years, to fenced compounds at Beagle Bay Mission and the old Derby
Residency, which became a native hospital in the 1920s (Jebb and Alcott 2009).
In 1934 an increase in the incidence of leprosy, and the work of leprosy patrols,
brought Aboriginal malnutrition and mistreatment to government and public attention.
The Moseley Royal Commission, which was held in response, found that a local
leprosarium was necessary to protect public health. The report stated that because '…
the natives are deeply prejudiced against removal from their own country the
government has come to the conclusion that a leprosarium must be erected at Derby'
(NAA A461/1347/1/10). On this basis Bungarun was established in 1936, around 20
kilometres from Derby. Further surveys of the extent of leprosy amongst Aboriginal
people in the Kimberley were undertaken by Dr Musso, between 1938 and 1940,
under financial grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NAA
A659/1/1945/1/2887). Musso was accompanied on some of his trips by Reverend
Love from Kunmunya mission (Briscoe 1996).
The Sisters of St John of God cared for the inmates of Bungarun, a closed community,
under the supervision of a government superintendent. Operational policies included
not allowing mothers to touch their babies, who were removed at birth and sent to the
Native Hospital to be fostered out (Derby Extra 13/03/2003). Despite the nuns'
opposition, harsh punishments were meted out to anyone who attempted to escape, or
who was considered to be involved in other misdemeanours (Jebb and Allbrook
2009). Aboriginal leprosy sufferers worked in the gardens at Bungarun, tended the
livestock, cooked, cleaned and made traditional crafts for sale. Nuns taught them
music, creative arts and held sporting competitions. An orchestra practiced at night to
lift inmates' spirits, and people were encouraged to produce artefacts to keep their
hands agile (St John of God Relationships exhibition 2009). Like many of the
Kimberley missions, Bungarun was a self-contained community supplying most of its
own needs.
Following the bombing of Darwin in the Second World War, Bungarun was extended
at Commonwealth expense to house 50 leprosy sufferers evacuated from the Channel
Island Leprosarium (NAA A659/1/1945/1/2887). After Broome too was bombed,
Bungarun was evacuated several times, and makeshift camps were set up in the bush.
While many non-Aboriginal people were evacuated from the region, Aboriginal
people stayed in the Kimberley, and lepers in particular were unable to go south of the
Leper Line, which had been established by the 1905 Aborigines Act, and amended in
1936. The Leper Line was a geographical boundary which had originally restricted
full blood Aboriginal people from moving south, and convicted labour from moving
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