Before the arrival of Europeans in Moreton Bay, Peel Island was known to
the aborigines as Tukrooar or Chercuba. Its 400 ha were insufficient to support a
permanent tribe, but its abundance of marine life was a source of much feasting by
visiting tribes from surrounding islands. Evidence of such occupation remains today in the
form of extensive middens. The remnants of a bora ring indicates that the island was also
used for ceremonial purposes.
European migration in the mid 19th century brought contagious diseases such as cholera,
typhoid, whooping cough, smallpox, measles, and consumption - outbreaks of which could
decimate whole communities. Quarantine facilities were first established at Dunwich on
Stradbroke Island in 1850, but the buildings were found to be more suitable as a
Benevolent Asylum for aged and infirm members of the Moreton Bay settlement. In 1865 an
alternative quarantine station was built at St Helena Island using local prison labour,
but after only a matter of months, the Queensland Government decided to convert the island
to a prison. This left the Quarantine Station to be returned to Dunwich to compete with
the Benevolent Asylum for accommodation.
Finally the Government solved the problem by transferring the Quarantine Station to nearby
Peel Island, where in May 1874, the island was proclaimed as such in lieu of Dunwich.
Peel's qualities were well suited to segregation: it had its own supply of fresh water;
timber for fuel; it was small enough to maintain control of its inmates and was surrounded
by shark infested water to prevent escapes; it was close to Dunwich for supplies and for
medical supervision from the Superintendent of the Benevolent Asylum; it was close to the
main shipping channel into Brisbane; and possessed a deep water anchorage for the
quarantined vessels.
"Dorunda" in quarantine at Peel Is 1885
The quarantine buildings stretched in a line along The Bluff on the
island's south-eastern corner, and commanded a magnificent view to the east across the
short expanse of water towards Dunwich. As on board ship accommodation for passengers and
crew was strictly segregated according to class. Saloon passengers occupied the largest
building to the south. Next came the officers' quarters, doctor's quarters, and female
steerage passengers. Crew and male steerage passengers slept in tents.
"Dorunda" passengers' accommodation at Peel Is
On Peel as on the voyage, the ship's Surgeon Superintendent was in charge
of discipline as well as the health of the ship's passengers and crew. The following
extract from a report made by Surgeon Superintendent J.I.Paddle of the barque
"Southesk" quarantined at Peel Island in 1882 indicates his considerable
workload... and his considerable powers:
"I beg further to report the following with reference to the general health and
behaviour of the immigrants per ship "South Esk" while in Quarantine on Peel
Island:-
"They were landed on the island on May 13th and their chests on May 15th.
"I regret to report that 11 fresh cases of whooping cough occurred among the children
since the ship anchored in Moreton Bay on May 10th including 3 cases since the passengers
were landed... The total number of cases of whooping cough on board and on the Island,
reached the number of 20.
"There were no fresh cases of measles or typhoid fever among the passengers while on
the Island...
"4 deaths occurred on the Island among the patients suffering from whooping cough....
"All the cases of Whooping Cough, when located, were placed in the special hospital
for females, but as there was no room for all the cases in that house, the 3 or 4
remaining cases were placed with their parents in small tents.
"Besides the cases of Whooping Cough, several cases of Bronchitis occurred while on
the Island. These I attributed to the very draughty state of the houses in which the
immigrants were lodged. In fact I am of the opinion that the last 3 deaths were hastened,
if not caused, by the very draughty and leaky state of the hospital. In wet and windy
weather, the rain would enter through every chink, and it was really difficult to keep the
houses dry....
"There were also a few slight cases of diarrhoea which I could refer to the same
cause as those of Bronchitis. Several other cases were produced by change of diet from
salt to fresh provisions. I received many complaints from the immigrants with reference to
the quarantine rations, which consist of 1 lb of fresh meat, 1 lb of bread, and a few
small extras. The majority informed me that they had never been accustomed to fresh meat
(living mainly on porridge and farinceous food) and that it disagreed with them. The 1 lb
of meat they thought was more than they could manage, while they had not enough bread. I
would accordingly beg to suggest that 1½ lb of bread and 3/4 lb of fresh meat would be
considered, at any rate by Scotch Immigrants, as a more suitable allowance while in
quarantine.
"The provisions were supplied from Dunage (Dunwich) by the Superintendent of
Quarantine and on one or two occasions they were forwarded from Town.
"Some stores and medical comforts as well as medicines were landed from the Southesk;
while a few additional drugs required were supplied by the Superintendent of Quarantine.
"The Immigrants, on the whole, behaved very well on the Island and gave little
trouble. The single women had to be closely watched all the time, as they had a great
tendency to wander beyond their limits. At dusk they were ordered in and mustered to make
sure that none were absent. I would further beg to suggest that it would greatly lighten
the work of the Matron and the Constables in watching the single women, if a fence could
be erected around their precincts.
"One of the single women, Elizabeth Morris, gave much trouble one night, and I
reported her to the Immigration Officer. On Monday evening May 22nd she gave a good deal
of abuse to the Matron and kept swearing and cursing among the single women and inciting
them to riot. She has been all along a very coarse and vulgar woman and very little
amenable to authority throughout the voyage.
"The Constables I appointed on the island were the same as those who had held these
posts on board ship. I found it necessary to appoint 3 cooks on shore, for the single
women, married men, and single men respectively. As the duties of the water closet
constable were very heavy with the dry earth system used on the Island, I appointed a
second man to help him. Most of the Immigrants did not understand the workings of the
earth closets, in spite of notices posted up in each, and in consequence they were not
kept as clean as they might have been. Daily inspections were, however, made and the boxes
removed as frequently as possible.
"As soon as the chests were landed they were all opened on the beach and their
contents well exposed to the air. The single women's boxes were taken to their quarters to
prevent any communication with the others and they aired their clothes on the grass in
front of their houses.
"The clothes and blankets of the Immigrants were also thoroughly washed with marine
and carbolic soap.
"On board the "Southesk", all the fittings were taken down and burnt and
the ship thoroughly cleaned, limewashed, and fumigated. I inspected her with the
Superintendent of Quarantine on May 18th and gave a certificate to that effect. She was
released from quarantine on May 22nd and towed up to the bar. The Immigrants were released
from Quarantine on May 27th and taken to Brisbane in the "Kate" on the same
day."
In all, 78 ships were quarantined in Queensland last century. During the 1860s there were
20; in the 70s there were 24; in the 80s there were 31; but in the 1890s there were only
3. Thus by the turn of the century, Peel's quarantine buildings were largely disused.
Across the water at Dunwich, however, the Benevolent Asylum was very much overcrowded. A
certain amount of relief was obtained in 1904 by transferring 40 of the strongest male
patients across to the quarantine buildings at Peel Island. In addition about 80 acres of
timber in the vicinity of the station were cleared for grazing purposes, and a further 24
acres for the cultivation of crops for the use of the Benevolent Asylum inmates. However,
after several years of essaying such crops as sweet potatoes, pumpkins, oats, barley,
lucerne, Kaffir corn, and cow peas, the results proved most discouraging, owing to the
extremely poor quality of the soil on that part of the island. Even the Sisal Hemp,
previously imported from the Bahamas and propagated by the prisoners at St Helena, proved
to be very slow growing, although Dr Row did concede that there probably would ultimately
be some slight return from it.
By 1910, the number of ships requiring isolation at Peel had diminished, and the wooden
buildings were left unoccupied. It was then, following trouble with the inebriate inmates
at the Benevolent Asylum in Dunwich, that the Government approved their use as an
Inebriate Asylum.
George Jackson was appointed as Chief Attendant and looked after the male inebriates. His
wife, Agnes, as Matron, attended to the females. All the patients were white.
Dr Linford Row, Medical Superintendent of the Dunwich Benevolent Asylum, was also
responsible for the well being of the Inebriates on Peel.
When the Inebriate Asylum took over in 1910, the male inebriates occupied the former
female steerage passengers quarters to the north, and the female inebriates the officers
quarters to the south.
A high corrugated iron fence around the men's quarters was a remnant from the quarantine
days, built to prevent contact between the single girls and the more eligible male
passengers.
People were sent to the Inebriate Asylum to dry out. There were two types of patients:
public and private. Private patients, or their relatives, had to pay one Guinea ($2.10) a
week for board and lodgings. Public patients had to earn their keep by working.
As well as performing basic chores, patients were encouraged to make furniture or work in
the mattress factory. This latter was situated at the back of the stone jetty below the
Asylum. It consisted of a large wooden shed through which could be driven a horse and
cart. Grass collected from the island was unloaded onto a platform on one side of the shed
ready to be stuffed into mattresses. When completed, these were stored on a platform on
the other side. Later they would be sent to Dunwich for the use of the Benevolent Asylum.
Once, a stray spark ignited the grass in the shed and the whole building went up. The
building was totally destroyed, leaving only a few charred stumps for posterity, some of
which still remain to this day.
George Jackson was of the belief that work kept people out of trouble. A master with a
scythe, he trained many patients in the use of this cumbersome instrument. By their
labours, the many hectares of grass surrounding the Asylum were always kept well cut.
There were 16 toilets at the Asylum, each with its own W.C. pan. The regular emptying and
burying of their contents was not the most favoured job. Indeed, for the unsteady patient,
it could be decidedly risky!
Eventually, in 1912, the inmates revolted and refused to perform this most necessary
chore. They demanded that outside labour be brought in to perform this unpleasant task.
The Chief Attendant responded by withdrawing the patients' rations of tobacco, butter, and
breakfast meat, and by locking the offending inmates in the corrugated iron enclosure of
the men's compound.
One private patient who at the time was having trouble meeting his weekly payments was
also locked in with the 20 offending inmates. Their foul language caused him to write to
his relatives for the necessary money to release him from "this most awful degraded
Hell I can imagine darkening God's earth."
Fortunately his relatives supplied the necessary cash.
The quarantine station had had its own telegraph office from which daily medical reports
could be sent to Dunwich. Later, when the Inebriate Asylum took over the buildings, the
telegraph was dismantled. This left the Asylum out of contact with Dunwich.
For possible emergencies, a rifle was always left loaded and ready for use just outside
the door of the Jackson's house. A couple of quick shots would attract the attention of
the authorities at Dunwich just across the water, and help would be sent.
Fortunately, the rifle was never fired.
The Inebriate Asylum operated for seven years from 1910 until 1916. At that point, the
inmates were returned to the Benevolent Asylum at Dunwich, and the wooden buildings
demolished.
The stone jetty and Bluff at Peel Island 1995
But of all its exiles, Peel Island will be mostly associated with its
leprosy patients. For them, their internment was not just for weeks or for months, but was
for years or quite often for a lifetime. A visit to Peel was a journey into oblivion and
forgotten-ness. A place of the leper where identity changed to protect the family name; a
place of stigma and dread.
Leprosy, or Hansen's Disease as it is more kindly known today, came into Queensland with
the Chinese influx to the goldfields in the mid-nineteenth century. Spreading quickly
through the native aborigines and the South Sea Islanders ('kanakas') imported to work the
sugar cane fields, the disease had become a sufficient threat to the white population by
1893 for the Government to introduce the Leprosy Act of that year. This made Leprosy a
notifiable disease where the unfortunate patient was obliged by law to be segregated for
treatment in designated lazarets. These became centralised at Friday Island for the
coloured patients and at Dunwich for the whites.
The Dunwich lazaret was attached to the Benevolent Asylum and the patients shared the same
facilities. However, when it was discovered that the postmaster's son had contracted
Leprosy after participating in concerts to entertain the combined inmates, it was quickly
decided to move the Lazaret over to Peel where it opened in 1907 on the north-western
corner of the island. The Peel Lazaret was perhaps Queensland's first truly multi cultural
community. For within its small confines were chinese, aborigines, south sea islanders,
and whites of both european and australian origin. They were housed in four compounds:
white males, white females, coloured males, and coloured females. The whites had
individual wooden huts, as did the coloured women, but the coloured men were housed, four
to a hut, in constructions of corrugated iron on a cement slab.
Patient numbers were to peak at 86 with the majority being coloured, however Peel Island
lazaret was unique in Australia in that so many whites were infected as well. To care for
the patients, about thirty staff were employed. These included attendants, cooks,
housekeepers and a superintendant. Medical visits were on a weekly basis from the
Superintendant of the Benevolent Asylum at Dunwich, and later by visiting Government
Medical Officers on a monthly basis - weather permitting.
Although not prisoners in the accepted sense, never-the-less, Peel's leprosy patients were
not permitted to return to the mainland or their homes. Two visitor's passes per month
were issued to family members. This permitted an hour's exchange between the patient and
his family at Peel's stone jetty while the supply boat swapped cargo at Dunwich. No
contact was allowed and children under the age of 14 were not permitted ashore.
Because they could not be dealt with as prisoners and confined or flogged for their
misdemeaners, unruly patient behaviour was controlled by either refusing to issue visitor
passes, or by threatening to send the police around to the offender's relatives and thus
"get the neighbours tongues' wagging."
Once segregated on Peel Island, the patients were confronted with the problem of how to
amuse themselves. In 1911, the Government had provided a boat for the patients to fish the
surrounding reefs. Unfortunately this also provided the more restless patients with a
means of escape. After several such attempts, an officer from the Health Department
visited the settlement one night in September 1913 and burnt all the boats. Two police
officers accompanied him just in case there were reprisals from the patients. This
incident would never be forgotten and memory of it would pass down over the decades.
Although the rules were gradually relaxed in time and patients were again allowed to have
their own boats, the threatened repetition of the burning would be used against
prospective escapees even into the 1940s.
New treatment were always being developed in various parts of the world in the hope of
curing Leprosy. Many were of little benefit and some smacked of out-and-out quackery.
However all were taken seriously by the patients who were desperate to find a cure for
their debilitating and disfiguring ailment. When news arrived at Peel that a new form of
treatment had been developed by a certain Deycha Pacha called the Nastin Treatment, they
were very keen to act as guinea pigs. The Government concurred and ordered all the
required medical supplies. In due course they arrived and the Nastin treatment was
commenced on Peel Island on May 18th, 1909.
One of the requirements for patients undertaking the Nastin Treatment was that they take
no alcohol, so their daily ration of half a bottle of beer or 2 oz of spirits was
withheld. To the average drinker such abstention presented no problem, but one of the
patients, Rose Harris (her pseudonym) was an agitator determined to make the Government
regret ever placing her in detention on Peel. In addition, she had been an alcoholic for a
long time prior to her admission to the lazaret. Until the commencement of the Nastin
treatment, she had managed to maintain her supplies of alcohol by trading her favours for
a man's daily beer ration.
Although the women patients were padlocked in their compound each night behind a four
metre high wire fence, religious services for the mixed sexes were held nightly between
7.30 and 8.30. It was here that Rose had been able to solicit her menfolk.
But trouble began when the men on the Nastin Treatment were no longer given their beer
ration and therefore could not supply Rose with her alcoholic requirements. Being a
scheming and manipulative person, she realised that the only way to regain her liquid
requirements was to have the Nastin treatment stopped. This she did by convincing some of
the men patients that Dr Row was not handling the treatment properly. Consequently, when
faced with a deputation that he supply the patients with the written instructions on the
Nastin treatment, the doctor refused.
This resulted in the deputation of patients refusing any further Nastin Treatment from Dr
Row and demanding that he allow another doctor to give it instead. This request he also
refused.
Three of the patients, however, still wished to receive the treatment - until they were
threatened with bodily harm if they didn't join Rose Harris and her followers. They had
little choice.
So, faced with open rebellion by his patients, prostitution, alcoholism, and threats of
bodily harm, Dr Row sought help from the Government. The official inquiry called for the
patients to come forward and give evidence. Once again the patients were divided - some
made an official statement and some didn't. From those who did, however, the whole story
emerged and pointed to Rose Harris as the trouble-maker. To avoid any further problems, it
was recommended that all women patients be transferred to a separate lazaret to be built
at Dunwich. This recommendation was condemned by the Government and the women remained at
the lazaret on Peel, but no doubt under much closer supervision. The root of the problem,
Rose Harris, was to die in 1912, and her grave is still to be seen in the lazaret's little
cemetery amongst the gum trees.
And the Nastin Treatment? Suffice to relate that the Health Department's Annual Report of
1910 simply states that it was a failure at Peel Island.
More trouble was to emerge in 1921 when the Health Officer was called to investigate
reports of unrest in the coloured compound. He concluded that it had all been due to three
ringleaders, half castes who, in his opinion, thought that being Leprosy patients put them
outside the law. Alcohol was the main problem, which although officially denied to the
coloureds, was being brought in and buried either by staff members returning from leave,
or by friends. White patients wrote to the Government expressing fears of murder,
especially for the white women, and demanded police protection. A magistrate and two
police officers visited the island and two revolvers were confiscated.
On the more positive side, there were many areas in which the Government and others were
endeavouring to provide for the well being and amusement of their wards at Peel. With so
many people confined to such a small island for so long, it was no easy task to overcome
the inherent monotony of daily life there. For this reason, the Government encouraged all
able bodied patients to engage in manual labour, for which they were paid a reasonable
wage. Such duties involved the maintenance of the 5 km of roadway on the island as well as
cementing, carpentry repairs, and erection of new cottages. The spread of prickly pear had
also been a problem at Peel as it had in the rest of Queensland. After being cleared by
outside labour in 1923, it was kept under surveillance by the patients.
Those not willing or able to work could indulge in gardening, fishing, bathing, and
playing sports, or if these amusements were too "physical", listening to
gramophone records or reading from the generous selection of magazines and literature
donated by members of the general public.
Visiting Salvation Army band
outside Superintendent's Quarters 1930s
Visits from patients' relatives were encouraged by the issue of free rail
passes to those living in remote areas, while for those relatives left in poor
circumstances by the segregation of their breadwinner, suitable employment was found.
The spiritual needs of the patients were catered for by the frequent visits from Ministers
of Religion of all denominations, while their stomachs received a morale boost with the
construction of a new and better appointed kitchen in 1927. In addition, a resident nurse
was appointed in 1925 to handle day to day emergencies.
Anglican Church,
Peel Island 1950s
But the greatest innovation must surely have been the installation of a
loudspeaker wireless in 1925. Then, for the first time, patients had direct contact with
the outside world, if only from the receiving end. Its popularity with the patients can be
gauged by the many thousands of carbon cell batteries which powered their radios over the
years, and which now litter the embankment to the north of the men's compound.
So, by the time the lazaret entered its third decade, life there had progressed a long way
from the lawlessness of its first years. Although still primitive by modern standards,
life there did have its compensations. Indeed, all concerned with the island could begin
to feel some consolation in knowing that the "bad old days" of the lazaret were
finally over.
Superintendent Goldsworthy (centre)
with four Lazaret Inmates, Peel Is 1920s
With the steady increase in patient numbers during the 1930s, it was
finally decided to shift the coloured patients, who were all aborigines by this time, to
Fantome Island off Townsville. This occurred in 1940 and left only white patients at Peel
Island.
With the advent of World War II, Government material and staff resources were stretched to
the limit. Perhaps rightly, the patients felt that their needs had been forgotten. In the
early 1940s a "new breed" of patients began to be admitted to Peel. These were
young active men without family ties who were not prepared to accept the conditions they
found there. Bolstered by a donation of £200 from an anglican newspaper a Patients'
Committee fighting fund was set up.
With the Lazaret's only telephone restricted to staff use, the committee was restricted to
letter writing which it did with a vengeance to the newspapers, State Health Department
and Minister for Health. A representation of eight patients tried to sail to the mainland
to present their grievances to the newspapers and the Health Department in person but bad
weather forced them back. However they were more successful in sending a patient to
Canberra to see the Commonwealth Health Minister. Although they did not receive the Royal
Commission they sought, they received much valuable publicity.
The patients' resentment to the staff freedom, was further fuelled at this time with the
purchase of a truck for transport to the jetty at the other end of the island. Staff could
use the truck while patients still had to use the horse and dray. One day, the dray broke
down enroute and mysteriously caught fire. The Patients' Committee had struck again!
In 1947 conditions were greatly improved by the introduction of two diesel powered
electricity generators. Now each cabin could be lit at the flick of a switch, there were
street lights, and even movies twice a week in the recreation hall.
But 1947 was more memorable for the introduction of Promin, the first of the sulphone
drugs which were to provide a cure for leprosy. During the 1950s the patient numbers
gradually fell until in 1959 the place was closed down and the remaining nine patients
transferred to the South Brisbabne Hospital.
Panoramic view of Peel Island Lazaret 1950s
However, although leprosy had been cured on Peel, its stigma still
remained and the Government's efforts to sell off the empty buildings as a fitness camp or
resort were unsuccessful. Thirty years were to pass before the public's curiosity overcame
its fear. Tours visited the island in increasing numbers over the next few years, until in
1993 the Queensland Government decided to gazette the Lazaret a Heritage area and the rest
of the island a future National Park. The aborigines too seek a claim under Native Title,
and Peel's future status now awaits a court decision.
(partially restored hut in women's compound)
