Bernier and Dorre Island lock hospitals

Last updated

Bernier and Dorre Island lock hospitals
Shark Bay.svg
Shark bay; Bernier and Dorre island seen in the top left.
Geography
Location Shark Bay
Administration
Australia
State Western Australia
Region Gascoyne

The Bernier and Dorre Island lock hospitals were two lock hospitals set up on Bernier and Dorre Islands from 1908 to 1919. Only Aboriginal people suspected of having a venereal disease were incarcerated. The conditions inmates were put under was inhumane and resulted in more than 40% not returning to their homelands.

Contents

History

From 1908 to 1919, the Western Australian government created lock hospitals on Bernier and Dorre Islands, in order to forcibly incarcerate Aboriginal people suspected of having a venereal disease. [1] :59–61 [2] :26

Specifically, Aboriginal people suspected of being infected with syphilis were incarcerated. However it is known that many cases had been misdiagnoses. [2] :2,36 Aboriginal men were kept on Bernier island and women and children on Dorre. [2] :102,128

During the 2019 centenary commemoration, Regional Development Minister Alannah MacTiernan described the Bernier and Dorre lock hospital era as "a really horrific piece of Western Australian history". [3]

Treatment of inmates

The facilities at the lock hospitals were inadequate, inmates had no contact with their families back home, and they underwent experimental medical treatments. [3]

More than 40% would not return to their homelands. [2] :32 It is conservatively estimated that 200 people died on the two islands, with their remains left in unmarked areas. [4] 70% of the deaths were unrelated to the condition for which people were incarcerated; "poor accomodation, inadequate food rations and toxic medical treatments provide[ sic ] to patients attribute to the death rates." as well as "...general debility, respiratory disease, heart failure and strokes." Many who were released did not return to their homeland as the practice was to release them at "...the nearest mainland port, at Carnarvon, with no provision for return to where they had been collected." [2] :129,417

Inmates subsisted on the limited rations acquired from the hospital as well on the local environment. In 1909, rations were halved to 10 pounds (4.5 kg) of flour, 1.5 pounds (0.68 kg) of sugar and 0.25 pounds (0.11 kg) of tea per week. Rations were often delayed when weather did not permit boats from Carnarvon. Stingemore notes that "Even the insane in Australia seem to have received better provisions than the Aboriginal people incarcerated under the Lock Hospital Scheme." The government justified limited rationing under the pretense of allowing Aboriginal people to live 'traditionally'. However, many of the Aboriginal people on the islands had no experience subsisting on a coastal environment. [2] :381–385

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aboriginal Tasmanians</span> Indigenous people of the Australian island state of Tasmania

The Aboriginal Tasmanians are the Aboriginal people of the Australian island of Tasmania, located south of the mainland. At the time of European contact, Aboriginal Tasmanians were divided into a number of distinct ethnic groups. For much of the 20th century, the Tasmanian Aboriginal people were widely, and erroneously, thought of as extinct and intentionally exterminated by white settlers. Contemporary figures (2016) for the number of people of Tasmanian Aboriginal descent vary according to the criteria used to determine this identity, ranging from 6,000 to over 23,000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shark Bay</span> Bay of the Indian Ocean in Western Australia

Shark Bay is a World Heritage Site in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The 23,000-square-kilometre (8,900 sq mi) area is located approximately 800 kilometres (500 mi) north of Perth, on the westernmost point of the Australian continent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daisy Bates (author)</span> Irish-Australian journalist known for her work with Aboriginal People

Daisy May Bates, CBE was an Irish-Australian journalist, welfare worker and self-taught anthropologist who conducted fieldwork amongst several Indigenous nations in western and southern Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Contagious Diseases Acts</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Contagious Diseases Acts were originally passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in 1864, with alterations and additions made in 1866 and 1869. In 1862, a committee had been established to inquire into venereal disease in the armed forces. On the committee's recommendation the first Contagious Diseases Act was passed. The legislation allowed police officers to arrest women suspected of being prostitutes in certain ports and army towns. Since there was no set definition of prostitution within the Act, the question was left to the police officer’s discretion, and women could be arrested even if there was no actual evidence of prostitution. The women were then subjected to compulsory physical examinations for venereal disease. If a woman was declared to be infected, she would be confined in what was known as a lock hospital until she recovered or her sentence was completed. Men suspected of frequenting prostitutes were not subjected to the same treatment of compulsory checks and confinement. The law was initially aimed at working-class women in towns near military bases, due to the concern that sexually transmitted infections were hampering Britain’s forces. The original act only applied to a few selected naval ports and army towns, but by 1869 the acts had been extended to cover eighteen "subjected districts".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peel Island (Queensland)</span> Suburb of Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia

Peel Island is a small heritage-listed island located in Moreton Bay, east of Brisbane, in South East Queensland, Australia. The island is a locality within the local government area of Redland City and a national park named Teerk Roo Ra National Park and Conservation Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fantome Island</span> Island in Australia

Fantome Island is one of the islands in the Palm Island group. It is neighboured by Great Palm Island and is 65 km (40 mi) north-east of Townsville, Queensland on the east coast of Australia. The island is small with an area of 7.8 km2 (3.01 sq mi) and is surrounded by a fringing reef. The Djabugay (Aboriginal) name for this island is Eumilli Island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western barred bandicoot</span> Species of marsupial

The Western barred bandicoot, also known as the Shark Bay bandicoot or the Marl, is a small species of bandicoot; now extinct across most of its former range, the western barred bandicoot only survives on offshore islands and in fenced sanctuaries on the mainland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rufous hare-wallaby</span> Species of marsupial

The rufous hare-wallaby, also known as the mala, is a small macropod found in Australia. It was formerly widely distributed across the western half of the continent, but naturally occurring populations are now confined to Bernier Island and Dorre Island Islands off Western Australia.

This is a timeline of Aboriginal history of Western Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernier Island</span> Island in Shark Bay in Western Australia

Bernier Island is one of three islands that comprise the Bernier and Dorre Island Nature Reserve in the Shark Bay World Heritage area in Western Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lock hospital</span> Type of hospital specializing in sexually transmitted diseases

A lock hospital was an establishment that specialised in treating sexually transmitted diseases. They operated in Britain and its colonies and territories from the 18th century to the 20th.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Punishment in Australia</span>

Punishment in Australia arises when an individual has been accused or convicted of breaking the law through the Australian criminal justice system. Australia uses prisons, as well as community corrections. When awaiting trial, prisoners may be kept in specialised remand centres or within other prisons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Channel Island, Northern Territory</span> Suburb of Outer Metropolitan Darwin, the Northern Territory, Australia

Channel Island is a suburb in the Middle Arm region of Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located in the local government area of Litchfield. Channel Island Power Station and the Darwin Aquaculture Centre are located on the island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorre Island</span> Island in Shark Bay, Western Australia

Dorre Island is one of three islands that make up the Bernier and Dorre Island Nature Reserve in the Shark Bay World Heritage area in Western Australia. The island was named after Peter Dorre, the pilot of a Dutch vessel, the Eendracht, in 1616.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indigenous health in Australia</span> Medical condition

Indigenous health in Australia examines health and wellbeing indicators of Indigenous Australians compared with the rest of the population. Statistics indicate that Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders are much less healthy than other Australians. Various government strategies have been put into place to try to remediate the problem; there has been some improvement in several areas, but statistics between Indigenous Australians and the rest of the Australian population still show unacceptable levels of difference.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fantome Island Lock Hospital and Lazaret Sites</span> Historic site in Queensland, Australia

Fantome Island Lock Hospital and Lazaret Sites is a heritage-listed former leper colony at Fantome Island, one of the Palm Island group in the Aboriginal Shire of Palm Island, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1926 to 1945 by Queensland Government. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 8 June 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taroom Aboriginal Settlement</span> Historic site in Queensland, Australia

Taroom Aboriginal Settlement is a heritage-listed Aboriginal reserve at Bundulla, Taroom, Shire of Banana, Queensland, Australia. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 13 May 2011. It is also known as Taroom Aboriginal Reserve and Taroom Aboriginal Mission.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chamberlain–Kahn Act</span> US Federal public health law

The Chamberlain–Kahn Act of 1918 is a U.S. federal law passed on July 9, 1918, by the 65th United States Congress. The law implemented a public health program that came to be known as the American Plan, whose stated goal was to combat the spread of venereal disease.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gladys Maud Sandes</span> Irish surgeon and venereologist

Gladys Maud Sandes Alston was an Irish surgeon and venereologist and the first woman surgeon at the London Lock Hospital in 1925. Inspired by Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, she became an active member of the medical community and published widely on venereal diseases like syphilis and the treatment of children after sexual assault.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palm Island Aboriginal Settlement</span> Australian Aboriginal reserve (1914–1975) in Queensland

Palm Island Aboriginal Settlement, later officially known as Director of Native Affairs Office, Palm Island and also known as Palm Island Aboriginal Reserve, Palm Island mission and Palm Island Dormitory, was an Aboriginal reserve and penal settlement on Great Palm Island, the main island in the Palm Island group in North Queensland, Australia. It was the largest and most punitive reserve in Queensland.

References

  1. Hunter, Ernest (1999). Aboriginal health and history: power and prejudice in remote Australia. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   0-521-41629-9. OCLC   918206471.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Stingemore, Jade (April 2010). Surviving the "Cure":Life on Bernier and Dorre Islands under the Lock Hospital Regime (Doctoral Thesis thesis). University of Western Australia Centre for Forensic Science. OCLC   903835771 . Retrieved 8 December 2024.
  3. 1 2 Michelmore, Karen; Feng, Sonia (10 January 2019). "Lock hospitals on Bernier and Dorre Islands acknowledged in ceremony as 'horrific piece of WA history'". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 29 July 2024.
  4. "Commemorative Sculpture Acknowledges Lock Hospitals' History". Gascoyne Development Commission. 17 April 2019. Retrieved 12 July 2020.