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The Bubonic Plague - Wash and Pray! April 1900

The Bubonic Plague - Wash and Pray! April 1900

By

Livingston Hopkins

Contributed By

National Library of Australia

[The Bulletin, 14 April 1900, p17 via Trove]

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Bubonic plague epidemic 1900

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Hopkins, Livingston (Hop)

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Hopkins, Livingston

National Library of Australia

Epidemics

From the new European diseases that devastated Sydney's Aboriginal people in the eighteenth century, through subsequent epidemics of measles, scarlet fever, smallpox, influenza and HIV, Sydney has faced major threats from epidemic disease. Religion, media, and public health responses influenced the degree of panic and scapegoating that took place, though effective treatments were not in place until well into the twentieth century.

Disease

Epidemics

Sanitation

Animals

Religions and Beliefs

Health and Welfare

Medicine

Bubonic plague epidemic 1900

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Outbreak of bubonic plague that spread from the waterfront as rats carried the disease throughout the city. Over eight months in 1900, 303 cases were reported and 103 people died. Millers Point resident Arthur H Payne (Paine) was diagnosed on Saturday, January 19 with the first reported case of plague in Sydney. He and his family were sent to the Quarantine Station on January 24, and their house in Ferry Lane was fumigated. He recovered and was released on Sunday, February 18. The first recorded death from plague in Sydney was that of Captain Thomas Dudley who died on February 22 at his home in Birchgrove and was buried at the Quarantine Station on February 24. In September the city was declared free of plague and the yellow flag that had been flown at the Quarantine Station was taken down. Numerous other outbreaks took place in subsequent years.

Hopkins, Livingston (Hop)

American-born artist and cartoonist who became an illustrator for The Bulletin magazine, and produced over 19,000 drawings.

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The Bulletin

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Weekly magazine influential in Australian literature and culture, particularly before World War I.