Landing in Melbourne of passengers from Quarantine
Maker
Australasian Sketcher
(1873 - 1889)
Date1882
Object number00017799
NameEngraving
MediumSteel engraving on paper
DimensionsImage: 176 x 225 mm
Overall: 206 x 294 mm, 0.004 kg
Overall: 206 x 294 mm, 0.004 kg
ClassificationsArt
Credit LineANMM Collection
DescriptionEngraving from the 'Australasian Sketcher' 11 February 1882 titled 'Landing in Melbourne of passengers from Quarantine'. The illustration refers to an accompanying article relating to the outbreak of small pox on the arriving vessels GARONNE and MIRZAPORE in Melbourne.HistorySMALL-POX IN AUSTRALIA.
[Australasian Sketcher, 11 February 1882. Page 46]
'For the first time for years small-pox has not only established itself in Sydney, but owing to the contagion breaking out on board the Orient steamer GARONNE, and the P. and O. Company's mail steamer MIRZAPORE, has obtained, on sufferance, a footing in Victoria and South Australia, although as yet it is confined within the limits of the sanitary stations of each colony, the one being situated on Point Nepean, a headland forming the eastern side of the entrance to Port Phillip Bay, and the other on Torrens Island. Several fresh cases of small pox broke out among the third-class passengers after their isolation at the quarantine-station, and some of the Sydney and Adelaide passengers of the GARONNE were also reported as having been seized with the disease.
On the 17th of January John Morgan, a steerage passenger by the GARONNE, who was attacked by the disease a few days after tho arrival of the vessel at the Quarantine station, died, and was buried in the cemetery of the sanitary station, this being the second death that had occurred among the passengers, and the first and up to the present the only one that had occurred at the station. This death caused a feeling of general depression among the inmates of the station, and as no case of small-pox had occurred among the saloon passengers of the vessel, thev began about this time to petition the Government for their release from quarantine, and tho Government decided to grant their request, and allow pratique to this section of the passengers in the event of no new outbreak being reported up to the 23rd of January. On that day Messrs. Gibbs, Bright, and Co., the Melbourne ugents for the Orient Company, chartered the steamtug RESCUE to bring the passengers to Melbourne, and the passengers, after their period of monotonous detention at the quarantine station, were landed at the Queen's Wharf, Melbourne, about midnight on the 23rd of January.
In the meantime intelligence had been received from Albany that the mail steamer MIRZAPORE had two very bad cases of smallpox on board, the patients being Eurasians, an adult and child named Withers, passengers from Bombay. By the time the steamer reached Adelaide no new cases had occurred, and the patients, who had been seized with the disease several days before Albany was reached, were nearly convalescent. The MIRZAPORE during her stay in harbour at Adelaide was guarded by a steam cutter, and the passengers for that colony, consisting of 11 Europeans and 30 Afghans, taken on board at Bombay, were conveyd to Torrens Island. The Afghans were completed isolated from the other passengers, being placed in tents a mile distant from the station where provision was also made to recognise their religious observances. All the passengers landed were in good health and no fresh cases, or symptoms of such, have, up to the Present time, been reported. The MIRZAPORE left Adelaide on Monday evening, and entered Port Phillip Heads on January 25, being immediately anchored off the quarantine grounds, after which the mails, having been fumigated, were transferred to another steamer and taken to Melbourne. The cargo, after the usual
sanitary precautions had been observed, was also transferred' to lighters and taken up the bay. The Government decided that MIRZAPORE passengers should remain on the vessel in quarantine waters until the last of the GARONNE passengers, had been released, when- they would be transferred to the shore until the usual regulations had been fulfilled. In order to facilitate this arrangement the authorities agreed - to grant partique to the third-class and steerage passengers of the GARONNE at an earlier period than was at first intended, and they were accordingly released at sunrise on January 28, and conveyed to Melbourne during the day in a Bteamer provided by the agents of the vessel. Later in the evening the MIRZAPORE passengers were all transferred to the sanitary station, the company having decided not to send the steamer on to Sydney, as is usually the case. The patients had been taken on shore immediately after the arrival of the vessel, and placed with those of the GARONNE in the isolated cottage hospitals at the rear of the station. At latest reports they were all progressing favourably.
Mary Cleary who was at one time in a critical state, and one of the worst of the GARONNE cases, being out of danger. In the event of no new case occurring the passengers by the MIRZAPORE will be released after the expiration of the usual 14 days. In Sydney the disease still maintains a footing, several fresh cases having occurred among the GARONNE passengers at the quarantine station during the last fortnight, although in Sydney and the suburbs no case is now known to exist. The precautions taken by the authorities to cope with the epidemic have proved successful, and it is being gradually stamped out. The ZEALANDIA passengers received pratique on the 1st of February.'SignificanceThe arrival of ship board disease was an ongoing concern for cities in Australia and the early establishment of quarantine stations at port entrances such as Point Nepean and North Head was a significant factor in the management of the spread of illnesses such as small pox.
