Infection Control Nursing c. 1918-19: The Woodman's Point Quarantine Station Experience

In 1918, 45 members of the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) embarked on the troopship Wyreema. They never reached their destination, Salonica, because peace was declared in November of the same year. On returning to Fremantle the Matron of the Wyreema called for twenty nurses to volunteer for duty at the Woodman's Point Quarantine Station. Of the twenty nurses who were chosen, eight contracted the disease and recovered and four contracted the disease and died. Staff Nurse Susie Cone was one of the more fortunate nurses who survived the disease and importantly. so too did her record of events. The author, after travelling to Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria found the only known primary source. Two small diaries, held at the Royal Melbourne Hospital Archives, provides a record of what happened at Woodman's Point Quarantine Station from the perspective of one of the Wyreema nurses. This is Susie Cone's story.