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citystopover After their luggage was cleaned, passengers were processed through the quarantine station's disinfecting sector, which included an examination by a doctor, and disinfecting showers. All people were made to strip off their clothing in a warehouse-like shed and were subjected to acid showers (water mixed with phenol to create a carbolic acid solution). Guests on the spine-tingling ghost tours of the station that operate today are guided through the aisles of cubicles where the stench of the acid, decades after its use, is still nauseating. End of an era Fast Fact Visitors to the Q Station can choose from several ghost tours, including an adult and a family-friendly version, a spirit investigator tour and a ghostly sleepover. By the late 1970s, major killers such as smallpox had been eradicated and huge advances had been made in the treatment and control of disease. In the years that followed, Australia's quarantine stations were progressively closed. The huge facility at North Head, which sprawled over 36 hectares, was the last of the nation's quarantine stations to be closed. It wasn't until 1984 that the land was finally handed over to the state and became a national park. At least 580 vessels and more than 13,000 people were quarantined at North Head between 1837 and 1984. An estimated 572 people never left and are still buried there, despite the removal of gravestones and markers. The number of deaths that occurred here is thought to be much greater, however, as the deaths of third-class passengers and those below them were less thoroughly recorded than those of their well-to-do fellow immigrants. Top, above, and next page: Flagstaff Point on the Q Station grounds; the old quarantine station has been transformed into Q Station; there's accommodation and yoga on the new grounds. XXVII