Social distancing in 1929

How are you coping with your isolation?

I started working from home on Tuesday 24^th March 2020 in response to the coronavirus pandemic. I am not in quarantine or self-isolation, just socially –  more precisely physically – distancing from public spaces by staying at home.

Every single Australian life has been disrupted as our collective social activities ground to an unexpected halt. Even the scale of this crisis is in isolation, not having been experienced to this degree in generations. In the era of social media and ‘facetime’ technology, socialising and staying connected with family and friends is immediate and easy. However, it wasn’t always like this. Let’s go back to a case of isolation, two generations ago, on a pastoral station in outback Queensland, near Cloncurry.

My grandfather Jack was spritely twenty-four year old lad, who had survived the Spanish Flu in 1919, but was in poor health a decade later due to tuberculosis. Jack’s sister Mary, who’s calm description of the influenza outbreak in Melbourne in 1919 can be read here, was also ill with tuberculosis in 1929. Whereas serving members of the Meagher family had survived the First World War, and the civilian members survived the Spanish Flu, they were not immune to the scourge of tuberculosis a decade later. Whilst Mary was gravely ill, the family sent Jack far north to a pastoral station owned by the Whartons, his sister-in-law’s family, to recover in the dry, warm climes of the outback.

SS Orungal shipping line from Melbourne, Victoria to Cairns Queensland 1929

Jack wrote in his diary dated 22 May 1929, ‘I leave for Queensland on Orungal. Exceptionally sad parting as Mary is so ill. Pup [Jack’s father, John S. Meagher] is very worried. It is a sad time for us all.’  When Jack arrived on 3 June at Winslade, a pastoral station 732 kilometres west of Townsville, a telegram was waiting for him. Mary died nine days after Jack left.  He retrospectively wrote ‘May her soul rest in peace’ in his diary on the day Mary died.

First page of Jack’s diary, 22 May 1929

Adapting to a new way of life

Jack settled easily into his new life on the pastoral station. On his first day, he was ‘shown all over Winslade by Tony Dodd.  Met Stephen Wharton and found him very decent chap about my own age.  Mrs Dodd is very nice and only about 29 years old.’ Suburban Jack learns how to be a jackaroo, riding horses and mustering sheep. He takes on the work of repairing fences, roads and bore pumps, working with the shearers in drafting, branding and wool loading; skills that build his strength and fitness. He enjoys the socialising with neighbours from Arrolla Downs and Levuka stations. They regularly came together to share meals, music, and play tennis and bridge.

Steve Wharton outside makeshift camp at Lyrian, Queensland 1929

After a month on the property, Jack and his fellow jackaroo Steve Wharton headed north of the railway line – which cut through the Winslade property – to work on a particularly remote part of the station. They camped on the job for several days and bookended their trip with a visit to Cloncurry, a town 44 km east of Winslade.  Jack’s diary records the first visit on Tuesday 2 July, ‘Bought a lot of things and had a haircut.  Had a new meet with two sweeties but Steve got oiled and went to sleep so I had to do likewise.’ The return via Cloncurry was a bit more rambunctious, as his diary on Monday 8 July records, ‘Woke up in the pub at Cloncurry. Drank an awful lot. Had about 5 rums and 4 beers before breakfast. Went to sleep in the middle of the day. Left for Winslade about 4 PM … Returned to Winslade feeling not too good. Bed at about 8.30 and none too early at that.’  In addition to a roaring hangover, Jack also picked up an infectious virus that reared its head exactly thirteen days later.

Post Office Hotel, Cloncurry, Queensland 1929

Infectious disease of the spotty kind

Jack wrote in his diary on Sunday 21 July:

‘Feeling a bit off today. Miles and Hagons over for tennis been very hot and I felt pretty well done at the end of the day.  I think I must have got a touch of the sun. Wrote to Lux and Pup and began a letter to Aileen. Wrote to Lux about our united prayers for my intentions.  I have hope and faith in the results.’

Jack ready to play tennis at Winslade Pastoral Station, 1929

On Monday 22 July, he wrote:

‘Stayed home and finished letter to Pup. Felt off all day and rested in the afternoon.  Received by to-night’s mail a letter from Joe, one from Aileen.  All the photos came back printed at Townsville and three letters from Gwen. Two long ones and one short one to let me know the records are on the way.’

On Tuesday, Jack continues to work, writing:

‘Finished my letter to Aileen and caught the mail with it.  Went out with Tommy with lorry and put wire netting round the drying up water hole in Stag paddock.  Went across to other hole and sheep trough and came home. Bed early.  George Hacon here for dinner but I retired immediately after feeling rotten.’

On Wednesday 24 July, feeling no better, Jack wrote:

‘Hacon stayed the night but departed this morning.  I rested and dozed all day.  When Tommy came home he looked at me, and noticed the spots coming out.  Took my temperature it was 103 degrees, so straight to bed. He rang the doctor and explained the symptoms who diagnosed it as chicken pox.  Medicine to be sent out on to-morrow mornings train.’

Isolation, 1920s style

On Thursday 25^th July, Jack wrote:

‘Thank goodness the medicine and lotion have arrived. Feeling rotten and blazing and itching all over. My face is also affected and looks awful. Read most of the day.  Looking forward to the mail to-night. The worst of this damn disease is that I might have to be isolated here for three weeks on account of the baby here. One letter only in the mail and that from Aileen.’

From his diary, it appears Jack’s room was separate from the main house, as he was free to go into the garden, and on one occasion he mentioned that he was quite cold and went to bed early to read. Jack whiled the long hours away by reading – he mentions two volumes of Anna Karenina, the prayers of the Mass and letters (15 letters in total were noted as received during his isolation) – a thirty-day prayer to the Blessed Virgin for special intentions; watering the garden, and writing and dispatching countless letters.

Winslade Pastoral Station, Queensland

On day six he wrote bitterly, ‘Dead sick of writing letters so I will leave the others.’ The day before he had ‘Got letters from Gwen Aileen Pup and Saturday evenings post from Aileen. Both a bit peeved about my letter supply.’ His isolation seemed to leave him stricken with lovesickness too; he dispatched a photo of a love interest named Maude for enlargement, which cost him six shillings, and wasn’t received back until 23 September.  The night before saying how sick he was of writing, he wrote, ‘at last decided to write to dearest Maude.  Wrote her about eight pages all about old times and my love and longing for her. Waiting anxiously for her reply.’

Jack was back on his feet playing a game of tennis on Sunday 4 August, and started to do some work on Wednesday 7 August. He was finally allowed back into the house on Thursday 8 August. Jack wrote, ‘Back to the house again thank goodness.  I was nearly bored to death isolated in my room all that time.’

As we are learning about how virulent the coronavirus is, Jack’s attempts to self-isolate may have been in vain. Jack noted on Friday 9 August, ‘All day on that room on verandah [painting] the same as yesterday.  The weather is now warming up considerably.  Charlie is ill and we fear he may have caught chicken pox from me.  I am rather excited about to-morrow as I am going out mustering McMahons sheep in Wrights paddock. Worst luck I have a sore on my behind too but I hope for the best.’

There was no further mention of illness of the viral kind in the diary and Charlie was back in the saddle by the end of the month. Although none of the letters mentioned in Jack’s diary survive; the diary, photographs and ephemera gives us insight into his life at Winslade, and the realities and pain of social distancing of almost 100 years ago.

People mentioned in Jack’s diary during his isolation

• Gwen McPherson, a Melbourne based girlfriend.
• Aileen Neylan, a Brisbane based woman he met on the ship, Orungal.
• Olive Bowler, a Sydney based woman he met on the ship, Orungal.
• Maude [Surname unknown], a Melbourne based love interest.
• Lux Meagher, Jack’s older brother, a doctor based in Melbourne.
• Keith and Gwen Miles, neighbours based at Levuka Station, Qld.
• Hunter and Joan Hagon, neighbours based at Arrolla Downs Station, Qld.
• Arthur William (Tommy) Dodd and wife Margie Dodd, Winslade Station manager, Qld. Tommy had been the best man in Jack’s brother Leo Meagher and Lynne Wharton’s wedding.
• George Hacon, grazier from Ballaghmore Downs Station, Qld.