Forgotten Gem: WA’s Historic Quarantine Station

By the sparkling turquoise waters of Woodman Point, just south of Fremantle, sits an important piece of WA history.

Woodman Point Quarantine Station is where they used to send us if we had an infectious disease like Spanish Flu or Smallpox.

We would stay there until we were infection-free, or dead.

From 1886, the Quarantine Station kept our fledgling colony safe from savage diseases. It closed in 1979, when the WA Government purchased the site from the Commonwealth and

it’s now used for activities by the Department of Sport and Recreation.

Most West Australians though, have no idea this place exists, and what a vital role it had in keeping our community safe.

The Starfish recently called into the Station. Driving towards the coast, we’re met by a cluster of buildings, some dating back to the 1880s, sprawled across manicured lawns.

Though outside,  it looks more like holiday camp sur mer, (and people can come and holiday there these days) it was once the go-to place for those with contagious diseases.

If a ship hit WA shores and had sick people on board, it was required to divert to Woodman Point.

Passengers would be brought ashore, their clothes and luggage removed and fumigated, then assessed and taken to various buildings, depending on their condition.

If you appeared well, you would be housed in quarters until you were definitely no longer contagious, and able to spend your days fishing, swimming and playing tennis until your quarantine period was up.

If you were crook, on the other hand, you would be housed in a different building altogether – perhaps the Isolation Hospital (built in 1901) and sadly, could end up in the crematorium a little further to the north.

“It’s Australia’s first crematorium,” guide Neil Wilson shows us what’s left of it.

His grandfather, who once ran the place, had the unenviable task of cremating several of the Station’s former patients.

Neil takes us round the premises, carefully preserved by Friends of Woodman Point,volunteers passionate about honouring the Station’s legacy. Entering some of the historic buildings, including the hospital, complete with beds,  is to return to another era.  You can see the original instruments used to help tend the patients back to health.

Among the noteworthy displays is a room honoring those who were on the HMAS Boonah, the last Australian troop ship to leave Fremantle, bound for the Middle East, in October 1918.

The troops got as far as Durban, South Africa, before learning the war was over and they’d be returning home. But tragically, while the ship was restocked with supplies for the journey back to WA, local dockworkers with Spanish flu infected those on board.

By the time the ship arrived in WA, hundreds on board were infected.

A call was put out asking for nursing volunteers to help once the troops arrived at the Quarantine Station; so many put their hands up they had to pick names out of a hat.

Sadly, 27 soldiers and four nurses died at the Station (including a young woman from Claremont, Hilda Williams, who against her family’s wishes had volunteered to help at the Station.)

Friends of Woodman Point offer regular guided tours of the premises.

You can see what a splendid job the volunteers have done in preserving much of the Station; but there’s more to be done.

“We do need help; we’d dearly love those who may be able to support us to pay us a visit and consider donating towards maintaining some of these beautiful buildings,” says Neil.

To arrange a tour or learn more, visit Friends@woodmanpointquarantinestation.com