'Spanish Flu' pandemic in Australia 1919

[imastawka]

I thought this article from the National Museum Australia, was a very interesting read.

My mother was born in 1908, and I did ask her about it before she passed.

She had no memory of it at all, but maybe because she was born and raised in country Victoria, it didn't reach there.

Or not enough to bother an 11 yo at least.

But it's good to see Aussie authorities were on the ball re quarantine.

Women wearing surgical masks during influenza epidemic, Brisbane 1919

https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/influenza-pandemic

[*kazumi*]

Note the people were quarantined in tent city;  no WIFI and I imagine they did not complain that it is infringing on their civil liberties.

[rogespeed]

About 15,000 died attributed to Spanish flu out of a published population of approx 5.3 million defined as citizens

Of note but most likely not offically documented is the observation that 50% of the desendants of the pre-1770 citizens were badly affected meaning probably succumbed 

[springyzone]

I have an aunt who is now 92, lives alone, drives, cooks etc. Amazing woman.

She was telling me a while back that when she was little, which would have been in the 1930s, the polio epidemic caused a lot of upheaval. The school starting age was moved upward, children were not allowed out of their yard and even when people travelled, they kept the children on the grounds. My father and his siblings went on several holidays to a farming place in Yarra Glen and had a great time, but my aunt said although they had a lot of fredom, rode horses etc, they were never allowed to actually leave the farm.

I think past generations did experience challenging times. When I got older I sometimes used to think about how my parents would not have had an easy time. Polio, great depression when they were young children, then the second world war just as they hit the teenage years.

Not trying to debunk the seriousness of covid19, but I think we have had an easier path through life, on the whole.