Issue link: http://viewer.e-digitaleditions.com/i/131994
citystopover Journey disrupted Before the miracles of modern medicine, infectious diseases could wipe out entire colonies, so quarantining the sick as they arrived by ship was a way to stop fatal diseases such as typhus fever, cholera and smallpox spreading like wildfire. There was little understanding of these diseases in the 19th and early 20th centuries, so immigrants and crew who were sick had to endure the trauma of being separated from their loved ones. Anyone without white skin was cordoned off in an 'Asiatic' sector. While first-class passengers enjoyed the kind of luxuries that money and status can buy, many were not so lucky, and it must have been a horrific experience for thousands of lost souls. If they didn't recover they died alone, often slowly, in places such as the quarantine station at North Head. Those who died were, for the most part, travel-weary immigrants who had made the long, treacherous journey to Sydney by boat in the hope of establishing new lives. Some children were thrust into a harsh new land as poor orphans, having lost both parents to disease en route to the new colony. A permanent quarantine station Before 1837, passengers on any vessel entering Sydney were checked for diseases by medical officers upon arrival, but many cases of illness were hidden from the authorities, so a permanent quarantine station was established at the entrance to Sydney Harbour in 1837. Gradually, the station at North Head developed into a town, as houses, hospitals, dining halls, surgeries, morgues and cemeteries were built to accommodate the sick and the healthy during periods of quarantine. First-class passengers enjoyed nice homes, dining halls equipped with fine Wedgwood china and service by the ships' crews, while the poor were given only basic accommodation and food. Class was irrelevant, however, when it came to methods for keeping disease at bay. For instance, when passengers disembarked, their luggage was placed on conveyor belts and moved to sealed rooms known as autoclaves, to be disinfected with pressurised steam generated by the boilerhouse as well as formaldehyde and hydrocyanic acid. About 600 blankets could be 'steamed' at a time in these huge vaults. In those days, most luggage, especially the cheaper variety, was made of hard cardboard, so many people lost their luggage and their clothes, which disintegrated in the vaults on arrival. Top to bottom: Historic photographs from North Head's past. XXV