New Zealand Walks: Somes Island - The MIQ ex

Somes Island - The MIQ

experience 149 years ago

By Department of Conservation

Quarantine may be a hot topic right now, but it is nothing new. The heritage on Matiu/ Somes Island is an important reminder of pandemics past before it became a jewel in our pest free island network.

Senior Heritage Advisor Richard Nester shares with us the MIQ experience from 149 years ago...

Harbour Islands around the world were once the preferred location for managed isolation and quarantine. Their natural remoteness and the ability to easily service them from a port town or city ticked a lot of the logistical needs.

March this year marked one year from New Zealand’s Alert Level 4 lockdown to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

Coincidentally it was in March, 149 years ago, the immigrant ship England sailed into Wellington Harbour. It was flying a yellow flag, the internationally recognised signal that the vessel’s crew or passengers were carrying disease, and sent a chill through local authorities.

The passengers, having endured unhygienic and unpleasant conditions since departing Gravesend in the United Kingdom some 90 days earlier, were ordered to disembark on Matiu/ Somes island, 7 kilometres short of their 25,000 kilometre journey. Tragically, some of them never got to leave.

Smallpox was the main cause for concern. Official records showed 16 deaths occurred during the trip. A number of people were showing signs of illness as medical and port authorities made their initial inspection and the decision was quickly made to have everyone quarantined.

The first passengers to be sent to Matiu/Somes Island must have despaired. Despite the island being designated for quarantine purposes in 1869, no major construction of facilities had begun. They found themselves sheltered in two hastily built dwellings, those showing no symptoms at the north end of the island and the sick in the south.

At the same time, a sergeant and two privates from the local Armed Constabulary were requested to the island to mount guard and prevent any form of communication between the island and the shore. The Harbour and Quarantine Regulations were strictly enforced, allowing for the arrest of any persons:

“…quitting the quarantine ground or visiting it from without.

“The strictest possible measures have been taken to cut off all communication with the unfortunate im-

Below left: Remains of the fumigation shed on Matiu/Somes Island. Below right: Wellington Independent, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3530, 21 June 1872.

Source: National Library.