Sydney Town Hall; just imagine all the protests, political rallies, meetings and celebrations associated with this historic building. One thing I wasn’t aware of was its role during the 1913 smallpox epidemic, especially as the main vaccination centre. The disease had been introduced to the city by
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When the Launceston epidemic of 1903 began, so too did rumours of who had introduced the dread disease of smallpox to the city. Human nature being what it is, an ‘ outsider’ was suspected. Just as with the conspiracy theories we are familiar with today (including
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In late May 1903, two cases of smallpox were confirmed after the steamer Gracchus had arrived in Melbourne from India on May 2. The first victim was Mr William Walker, a horse dealer who embarked at Singapore. The other was a Mrs Dwan from Ballarat. Mrs Dwan
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THE FEAR OF FORGETTING As a Baby Boomer I can only hope that a vaccine against Alzheimer’s will be developed before my alarming short-term memory loss blossoms into full blown dementia 😨. Meanwhile, I practice spelling ‘world’ backwards, and counting back from one hundred in sevens. I
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