Point Nepean Quarantine Station

19th century

A quarantine station was established at Sydney's North Head in 1832 to preserve the colony's lack of European diseases, specifically cholera. New South Wales quarantine laws were carried over into Victorian law after separation. The Port Phillip District set up a quarantine station at Point Ormond, and later Hobsons Bay, in the 1840s. Immigration to Victoria increased when gold was found in the north-west, and the requirement for a proper quarantine station became more important.^[5]

Point Nepean was selected as the site for a new quarantine, and the colonial government assigned £5,000 for a 'sanatorium'. At the time, the site was being leased by Patrick Sullivan, the son of a settler, and William Cannon, both of whom were involved in lime burning. The site already had several buildings built by Sullivan and Cannon, including a stone house, three wattle and daub structures, a dairy, and Cannon and Sullivan's Lime Kilns. In October 1852, Governor La Trobe and General Surveyor Robert Hoddle found that Sullivan and Cannon's leases ended that year and, upon expiry, their leases were not renewed.^[5]

In November, less than a month later, the Ticonderoga sailed through the heads with almost three hundred people on board with scarlet fever and typhus, and a further hundred dead. The ship departed from Liverpool, with 714 passengers and 48 crew. The news reached Melbourne within a day via Captain Wylie of the Champion, who had passed the Ticonderoga at the heads. Captain Charles Ferguson investigated and came back to Governor La Trobe on 9 November, reporting that Sullivan had been moved from the site and the passengers of the Ticonderoga had set up tents on the shore.^[6]

Sullivan and Cannon's buildings were used to house the sick, beginning the quarantine station. Ferguson found that many of the passengers happened to be stonemasons, and instructed them to build a storage building on the site, and suggested to La Trobe that a building be built for the healthy inhabitants of the quarantine station.^[7] It was officially referred to as the "Sanitary Station", until the 1880s, when "Quarantine Station" became more commonly used.

Limestone hospitals

Between 1852 and 1887, several buildings were proposed, half-constructed, and then left unfinished because of a lack of timber. This also saw many people buried without coffins. The hospital could house fifty patients, (and a further 450 in tents) which quickly became inadequate. Dr James Reed, resident doctor was denied an extension of the hospital by the government, as they wanted to build out the station through purpose and planning, as opposed to its rapid growth due to the Ticonderoga's emergency.^[8]

Between 1888 and 1889, five limestone buildings were constructed, which remain extant. Two were built on a hill as hospitals for the sick, while three were built in a line on the flat land to house healthy passengers.^[9] A pier and cookhouse were also constructed at this time. Soon after, the Tudor arrived with almost everyone on board sick. This tested the new buildings' capacity, but also brought a new issue. To prevent illness being spread through possessions, luggage and clothes were treated in boiling water, which upset the passengers, as much of their belongings had been ruined and their clothes shrunk. Dr Reed wrote in his report that a more effective, less destructive method of sanitation would be through an oven-like machine, but this would only be implemented forty years later.^[9][10]

Into the 1860s, there was a downturn in immigration as the gold rush subsided, also leading to a decrease in the colony's income. This, partnered with better hygiene on ships, cast doubt on the usefulness of the sanitary station and stalled construction of any new buildings – including the oven-like machine suggested by many doctors from the quarantine. The government conducted an inquiry into the quarantine station and found the conditions unsuitable. They considered relocation of the quarantine and repurposing the Portsea site for a mental asylum. The staff and Chief Medical Officer fought against this, but the resident doctor was dismissed, and staff numbers reduced to just two people. This meant the ship's surgeon would have to tend to the patients, once they reached shore, as there was no doctor. Toilets were added to the hospitals.^[11]

In 1870, the limestone buildings' uses were switched, so that the hill was used for first and second class, hospitals 3 and 4 on the flats were for steerage class, and the fifth was for isolated, sick patients. Telegraph communications were implemented in 1874. It was fenced off in 1890.

The hospital buildings of 1858-1859 are important examples of Early Colonial buildings, which are rare in Victoria, and the work of the Public Works Department architect, Alfred Scurry. The design of the administration building is an accomplished example of Victorian Colonial Revival architecture, with planning influences from noted architect, John Smith Murdoch CMG.^[2]

20th century

Forty years after it was first suggested, Reed's disinfecting system was built in the early 1900s. A tramway was constructed to take luggage from the pier, into a sanitation chamber where they are heated, and out the other side. In this complex was also a bath house. At Federation, the quarantine was transferred to the Commonwealth government. A waiting room for healthy patients reboarding the ship was built in 1911, and the following year a weatherboard extension was added to Hospital 5, to house more sick patients.^[9]

1916 brought several new buildings to the quarantine station. A dining hall for first and second class was built on the hill, connecting to hospitals one and two. An administration building was constructed, including a post office and quarters for police and visiting staff. Stables were also built, using materials from a stable at Police Point (slightly closer to Portsea) and some sheds nearby.

The 1918–1920 flu pandemic pandemic brought new use for the quarantine station, and as such, several wooden "influenza huts" were hurriedly built for the influx of patients. These twelve2 huts, built over five weeks, processed 300 ships between 1918 and 1919 – returning World War I soldiers.

The last notable construction as a quarantine was the addition of a morgue to Hospital 5 in 1921.

The Point Nepean Quarantine Station continued use into World War II. In 1952, most of the former quarantine station site was repurposed into the Officer Cadet School. It ceased to operate as a quarantine station in 1980, and the Cadet School, School of Army Health, and other military uses persisted into the late 1990, as well as housing Kosovar refugees from the wars in the Balkans.^[12] Following a review of military training establishments in Australia in the mid-1980s, the officer cadet school was closed in 1985, as the Royal Military College, Duntroon, assumed sole responsibility for training Army officers.

It was declared part of the Point Nepean National Park in 2009, which now encompasses Police Point, Fort Nepean and Cheviot Beach, the site of Harold Holt's disappearance.