Gunfire in the streets of Townsville - 1919 2 Nathan Shopping Plaza Governor Bowens visit to North Queensland, 1865 The Kennedy Regiment 6 Bubonic Plague Standoff 2 Jezzine Barracks Official Opening, 1964 Sixtieth Anniversary of the Queens Visit The Peoples Palace Castle Hill Road - Hynes Highway Townsville South State School: 130 Years Old 1 Rooftops, Parapets and Facades - The Plaza Theatre CWA Shark-proof swimming enclosure 2 Three Iconic Townsville Buildings War Memorials in the Landscape - Part 2 War Memorials in the Landscape - Part 1 Pic of the week - Townsville high tide History Chat - Huberts Well The history in the headstones 1 Why so many Blue Bird Cafes? 5 The Road to Mount Spec Rat Plague in Western Queensland Townsvilles Chinatown: did it really exist? 2 Townsville during WWII Townsville Lying-in Hospitals 2 History Chat - Open-air theatres & Drive-Ins 3 Cholera ship - the SS Dorunda, 1885 Queens Hotel - silent film footage History Chat - Townsvilles Lost Treasures Townsvilles Early Settlement Days History Chat - Mob Rule in Townsville, 1919 Religious Trends - West End Cemetery - Part 2 West End Cemetery - Religious Trends in Townsville History Chat - The Last Lighthouse Keeper at Bay Rock The Yongala Tragedy Bubonic Plague Standoff In April 1900, the Adelaide Steamship Company’s ship Cintra arrived in Townsville carrying a sick steward. A local doctor by the name of Ernest Humphry diagnosed the steward with bubonic plague. The Adelaide Steamship Company wharf, Townsville, c.1900. Photo: CityLibraries Local History Collection. In the Middle Ages, bubonic plague wiped out between one-third and half the population of Europe. Fleas on plague-carrying rats spread the disease from port to port via the shipping trade, infecting coastal towns the world over. In Townsville, the Cintra’s passengers and crew were quarantined at West Point on Magnetic Island, but with a bustling port in the heart of the city, it wasn’t long before cases of plague were reported on the mainland. A temporary plague hospital was hastily built on the Town Common, to treat plague patients and to isolate their immediate contacts. Despite the obvious threat that plague posed to the community, strict government quarantine regulations which were designed to limit the spread of bubonic plague, were met with ridicule in Townsville. Many local residents were doubtful as to whether the illness really was bubonic plague. Some people felt justified in ignoring the quarantine regulations. In September, a furore erupted over the regulations when Henry Cockerill, the father of a 25-year-old blacksmith infected with bubonic plague, refused to allow his son to be taken away to the plague hospital. Two doctors attempted to forcibly remove the patient, but a crowd of 400 onlookers assembled at the Lamington Road residence, creating something akin to a siege in the West End street. The crowd shouted their support for Mr Cockerill as he stood steadfastly in the doorway of his home, and they jeered at the doctors who were trying to take his son away. Mr Cockerill sent for Dr Bacot, who had previously treated his son for a broken leg, but because of the quarantine regulations, police wouldn’t allow him to enter the house. Eventually, the doctors and ambulance cart went home with the standoff unresolved. Cockerill Jnr remained quarantined in his own home for ten days under the guard of four police constables. In the early hours of Wednesday September 26, the plague ambulance was again sent to Mr Cockerill’s house. Dr Linford Row and Dr Alfred Jefferis Turner were determined to uphold the quarantine regulations and transfer the patient to the plague hospital, so this time they arrived with eight policemen as backup. On this occasion Mr Cockerill offered no further opposition to the removal of his son. Mr Cockerill’s earlier, blatant defiance of the health regulations probably stemmed from a fear that if his son went to the plague hospital, he might never see him again. The families of plague victims were forbidden to visit their relative at the plague hospital and in the event of death, were denied the opportunity to attend their funeral and mourn at the graveside. Mr Cockerill’s son made a full recovery, but of the thirty-eight people that contracted plague in Townsville that year, nine died from the disease. Seven of them are buried in a now-lost cemetery, somewhere out on the Town Common.
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 07:32:29 +0000
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