Water Famine, Pestilence & Service to the Sick

Water Famine, pestilence and service to the sick BY LLOYD GORMAN

Main: Sisters of St John of God at their first residence at Adelaide Terrace 1896. Above: Hospital Staff Coolgardie. Photo: Battye Library

Gold fever was not the thing that ran rampant through Western Australia during the gold rush era. Infectious disease was a major problem for the Swan Colony as it became a federated state of the Australian Commonwealth at the turn of the last century. The response by authorities to the problem included some significant input and even sacrifice from Irish people. Gold finds such as that at Coolgardie in 1892 and the discovery by Paddy Hannon in 1893 attracted large numbers of prospectors from around Australia and across the world here in search of fortune. It is estimated that in the ten years between 1890 and 1900 the population of the west quadrupled. Numbers on goldfield spots swelled out of all proportion overnight as prospectors poured into the area, many taken advantage of the new train lines that had recently been completed. Conditions were terrible. Thousands of people were forced to live in overcrowded squalid camps with no running water and very little in the way of water or sanitation. Days were hot, dry and dusty. Diseases such as typhoid spread quickly through contaminated food and water supplies. The situation was little better in Perth where tent cities - effectively shanty towns - sprung up in places like Fremantle and Subiaco. At that time typhoid had a mortality rate of about 20% and could easily claim people who were fit, healthy and strong. Those who caught it experienced rashes, stomach pains, headaches, high fevers and it could lead to internal bleeding and death. An estimated 18,000 people in WA contracted it in the 1890’s, the worst outbreak in Australian history. At least two thousand deaths were attributed to it, but the real number is widely thought to be much higher. Sufferers also required full time medical attention. Nurses and doctors were in short supply at that time. Bishop of Perth Matthew Gibney - who was born in Killeshandra, Cavan in 1853 - looked to his native country for help. Early in 1895 Bishop Gibney wrote to the Sisters of St John of God and invited them to come to Perth. The order had been founded in Wexford in 1871 and were inspired to nurse those in poverty in the example set by their patron saint, St John of God. On 23 November 1895 the first eight sisters arrived on the RMS Orizaba from Ireland. The youngest was just 21 years old. The eight sisters were: Ellen Dunne - Sr M Cecilia; Bridget O’Brien - Sr M Antonio; Helena Brennan - Sr M Angela; Margaret Kenny - Sr M Magdalene; Veronica Hanlon - Sr M Bridget; Bridget Gleeson - Sr M Ita; Julia Gleeson - Sr M John and Mary Hanley - Sr M Assumpta. “The initial plan was that the Sisters would base themselves in Perth,” a history on the St John of God Health Care website tells us. “When they arrived they set about nursing the sick in their homes, as well as establishing the Adelaide Terrace Convent Hospital. By early 1896 it became clear that the Sisters were needed in the Goldfields. Several sisters went on ‘sick visits’ to tend to particular patients. In late April, Sister Angela and Sister Magdalene travelled to Kalgoorlie to nurse a Mr Vine. They were instructed to leave as soon as he was well again, however they stayed until September, nursing from a tent loaned to them by a miner.

The first official St John of God Hospital was opened by Bishop Gibney in Coolgardie on 25 November 1896. It was funded and owned by a local committee. It cost 500 pounds and was made up of three timber framed canvas buildings. By 1897 the gold rush population had begun to migrate to Kalgoorlie. So in March 1897 Bishop Gibney blessed and opened St John of God Hospital, Kalgoorlie. Dr Mattei was the resident medical officer and the staff comprised of six St John of God Sisters. Their numbers had been recently bolstered by the recent arrival of a further six Sisters from Ireland in December 1896. This hospital was timber-framed with weatherboard and a corrugated iron roof. Around this time the Sisters also established a number of schools. The sisters knew the risks of being in close contact with patients suffering infectious diseases. Those who went to the Goldfields knew they were to live in hot, dry, overcrowded conditions. Water was scarce, and at times, cost more than gold. Until 1910 they toiled in heavy habits, dresses and capes.” Several of these brave pioneers sacrificed their lives in service of the sick. These included Sister Mary Bridget who never had the chance to work at St John of God Hospital, Kalgoorlie. She died from typhoid just days before the hospital opened and was buried in the Kalgoorlie Cemetery. “Sister Mary Joseph was placed in charge of St Mary’s High School in Kalgoorlie,” the SJOG website adds. “She became ill in September 1904 and died from peritonitis (infection) a short time later. The local newspaper reported that ‘her loss will be keenly felt’. Sister Mary Kevin initially nursed in St John of God Hospital, Kalgoorlie but after contracting a fever she returned to Subiaco. Five years later she returned to Kalgoorlie. Unfortunately she was soon ill again and died on 15 April 1902. The Kalgoorlie Miner reported “she bore her sufferings with patience and resignation, at times rallying and giving her friends hopes of seeing her again to continue the works of charity to which she sacrificed her life.” Sister Mary John survived the worst of many typhoid epidemics in Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie, only to sucuumb to exhaustion and tuberculosis at St John of God Hospital, Subiaco in 1916.” SJOG said the Sisters of St John of God left the green shores of Ireland and devoted their lives to helping the sick and needy in harsh circumstances. The small Irish congregation expanded into Australia and has grown into a major healthcare provider, with some 16 St John of God Hospitals and other health care facilities across Australia and New Zealand. While the Sisters are no longer the working face of the organisation St John of God Healthcare said it: “strives to embody their values of hospitality, compassion, respect, justice and excellence.”

A famine of water It wasn’t only people and scores of working animals including horses and camels as well as livestock who craved water on the Goldfields. The steam powered locomotives that opened up these remote parts of WA were thirsty beasts that could not operate without it. The state’s rail network had been on the point of collapse when Irish born engineer CY O’Connor was made engineer in chief by Sir John Forrest the premier of the day who told him his job would cover ‘Railways, harbours, everything’. Under O’Connors instruction and direction however WA’s train system was stabilised and even expanded into new areas making it easier for people to get there, to rush there in large numbers. The eastern goldfields area did not have a natural water supply of its own and very little rainfall, a major issue for a place that was becoming increasingly built up and important as a source of wealth for the state. The lack of water led to water famines on the goldfields during those long, hot and scorched summer months of the 1890s. The situation got to the unsustainable point where water - which was originally necessary for panning gold - became more expensive to buy than gold. Goldfield residents would take every chance that came their way to drink free water, including rainwater that would fall into any kind of vessel or hole capable of holding water. All these factors made for a breeding ground for typhoid and other diseases such as dysentery. Without a regular, secure and large scale supply of fresh water more people would die of thirst and disease and the potential of this gold rich area could not be tapped. As we saw in an extensive set of articles in the March/April issue of Irish Scene the gargantuan job of making that happen fell to the same man who had brought the railways across WA. Indeed when the longest fresh water pipeline in the world opened it would shadow the route already determined by the railways, for plenty of good reasons. Incredibly the 566km long pipeline - and eight pump stations - was built within just five years (1896-1903). At special ceremony on January 24 1903 Sir John Forrest opened a valve which sent water gushing into the Mount Charlotte Reservoir at Kalgoorlie. Running water was also affordable. The ambitious water scheme transformed the fortunes of the goldfield town and its residents forever. Sadly, CY O’Connor did not live to see the project finished but we still have his legacy today.