A place apart BY LLOYD GORMAN Woodman Point in Coogee, about five miles south of Fremantle, has a long history of dealing with pandemics and contagions. It was built as a quarantine station at the waterside Munster location in 1886 to isolate people with or at risk of diseases such as leprosy, bubonic plaque smallpox. It was used to help contain the spread of the Spanish Flu towards the end of World War I, and for some time afterwards. From about mid 1918, returning servicemen and women from the war were held at the centre for a full seven days before they were able to go back into the wider community.
An isolated incident? Western Australia’s only Irish-born holder of a Victoria Cross medal, Martin O’Meara [who single-handedly and at great personal risk brought some twenty five wounded Australian soldiers and officers from no-man’s land on the Western Front to the safety of their own trenches] was one of the many diggers quarantined at Woodman Point. As it happens, O’Meara’s time there coincided with an historic moment in world history and one that also proved to be a tragic turning point in his life. Thanks to the book about O’Meara “The Most Fearless And Gallant Soldier I Have Ever Seen”, by Perth man Ian Loftus, we know that O’Meara left for Australia from Liverpool onboard the troopship Arawa in September 1918. It also shows that while on board the Irishman filled out a registration form with the Australian Government’s Repatriation Department, in which he indicated he wanted to return to his job as a railway cutter, or as a farmer, after his discharge from the Australian Imperial Force. “Importantly, the form did not indicate that O’Meara had any health problem,” Loftus writes. On its journey to Australia, the Aruwa sailed off the coast of Africa and reached Cape Town in October. While fresh
supplies were taken Top: Woodman Point in Coogee. Above: Martin O’Meara onboard, the ship’s passengers were not allowed to disembark because of a ‘pneumonic influenza’ outbreak in the city. Their next port of call was Fremantle, where they arrived on the morning of November 6, 1918 - which just happened to be O’Meara’s birthday, he had just turned 33. There had been cases of flu on the voyage but these were quickly stamped. “The men were quarantined despite the AIF medical officers onboard the Aruwa advising that there were no longer any cases of influenza aboard,” Loftus writes. “Five men were admitted to the quarantine station’s hospital - one suspect case of influenza and four ‘other complaints’ - on November 7, but two days later at least some of them had been discharged.” On November 8, the West Australian published an article based on an interview with O’Meara, probably conducted the previous day by telephone. As a Victoria Cross recipient - and certainly the only one who was on the Aruwa - O’Meara would have a certain
THE IRISH SCENE | 14
