- HONEST HISTORY - https://honesthistory.net.au/wp -

McQueen, Humphrey: Spanish flu pandemic Australia 1912-19

McQueen, Humphrey

‘The “Spanish” influenza pandemic in Australia, 1912-19’, Jill Roe, ed., Social Policy in Australia: some Perspectives 1901-1975, Cassell Australia, Stanmore NSW, 1976, pp. 131-147 (pdf of out-of-copyright material made available by the author)

This article was originally delivered as a conference paper in 1972. The author argues that the response to the influenza pandemic revealed a lack of national administrative unity (despite the alleged development of a national character during the war) and did not enhance the reputation of the medical profession. Yet Australia did not suffer as much from the pandemic as Europe did.

There is background on the pandemic here, here and here. Australian material is here, here, here (impact on one town) and here. The pandemic is believed to have killed up to three times the number of people world-wide as died in the war itself. Ten thousand died in Australia. Returning soldiers may have helped spread the disease.

Honest History records its appreciation to Humphrey McQueen for making his private archive available to Honest History.