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.
Last month 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.
Source: National Library
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.
Source: Alexander Turnbull Library.
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.
Source: National Library.
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 immigrants and the city, so as to allay all alarm and reduce the chance of the disease spreading to the shore to a minimum…” [i]
Once on the island those quarantined were fumigated, some losing clothing and belongings as these were burnt to prevent the disease from spreading. By late April, those that had survived and recovered from the quarantine process were eventually released to their new life in New Zealand.
In an act of kindness, locals quickly came to the call to support those on the island by providing replacement clothes and other items to help them become established.
Source: National Library.
This was the first of numerous vessels to be quarantined at the island, particularly between 1872 and 1876. More permanent facilities were built including a fumigation shed for passengers and luggage at the wharf, a horse track to transport luggage to the purpose-built quarantine station, and an island cemetery.
The island was used for human quarantine for last time during the influenza pandemic of 1918/19. The grave of George Stanley – A Royal Navy Signalman died on the island in 1919 and poignantly symbolises this period. The island continued to be used for the quarantine of livestock up to 1995.
Source: Alexander Turnbull Library.
Today the island is owned again by Taranaki Whānui and managed by DOC, but visitors can explore its history. New storyboards tell iwi stories and visitors can still see structures from the time of quarantine: the fumigation shed lying in the tide by the wharf, a memorial with the names of those recorded buried on the island, and the barracks building constructed in 1919.
Matiu/Somes Island was one of a number used for human quarantine purposes in New Zealand. Others that can be visited include Quarantine Island/Kamau Taurua – Otago Harbour, Otamahua/Quail Island – Lyttleton Harbour and Motuihe Island/Te Motu-a-Ihenga, Auckland Harbour.
I will have to visit Somes Island… it sounds awesome.
Thanks Richard and team for this glimpse into our past. Another interesting chapter occurred during WWII, as per the Te Ara brief account at: https://teara.govt.nz/en/speech/13033/prisoners-of-war-on-somes-island
There’s also an excellent DOC YouTube clip at:
Charles Hammond, the brother of my great grandmother came over from London, aged 15 to join his sister living in Wellington in 1885. Here is the entry from his diary describing his time quarantined on Quail Island in Port Chalmers.
On Sunday 6th May 1885, we steam into Port Chalmers, New Zealand but having smallpox aboard, we are landed on the Quarentine Island. I shall never forget my first glimpse of Maoriland. The weather was bright and mild; no-one had been on the island for years. The wild tropical foliage and highly coloured birds; everything so peaceful. Surprised all my wildest expectations and was happy all the time fishing and wandering about through the forest.
On Thursday 14th May, we set foot on the main land, a great crowd assembled on the wharf to witness the landing of the ‘new chums’. Port Chalmers was a small primitive place after London.
See the illustrations at:
https://charliehammond.org/travels.html