We've faced a pandemic before. Influenza. 1919

The Influenza crisis made its presence felt in Australia from the time troops returned home from the war in Europe at the end of 1918. 

Our local area was not immune. 

In Brunswick, the Albert Street State School was used as an emergency hospital to begin with, but then, as the crisis deepened, the hospital moved to Broadmeadows where it was managed by the Brunswick Council.

Broadmeadows Influenza Hospital, No. 2 Ward, 1919. 

Courtesy Moreland City Libraries. Image O3.4.

Horse and drag transporting staff from the Emergency Influenza Hospital at Broadmeadows to Bell Street, Coburg, 1919. Courtesy Moreland City Libraries. Image O3.1.

I've written about the influenza epidemic in Coburg before and you can read about that here and here and here. 

As you can imagine, there were many deaths among returned servicemen and some were given an official military burial at Coburg Cemetery, even though they were not from the local area.

They were:

Died October 1918

4675 Pte William Henry Bullivant

2134 Pte John Burrell

5655 Pte Henry Matson

2893 Sgt R.W. Saunders

5199 Pte Francis Edward Sandie

Died January/February 1919

2913 Pte William Alfred Bushby

5658 Pte Albert Roy Butler

6382 Gnr Kevin McAloon

2536 Pte Wm G. Hefford

Died March/April 1919

2810 Sgt Robert Moore

4790 Pte Thomas F. Donnelly

3755 Cpl Henry Fitzpatrick

1399 Pte Percy Harold Ostler

Died in May/June 1919

2276 Pte Arthur O’Dell Lowes

24420 Driver Christopher M. McKinstry

506 Driver John Sandy

Died in July/August 1919

4559 Sgt Thomas Jones

5450 Pte James Joseph Cleary

367 Cpl Edgar Alfred Bell

3809 Cpl William Robert Fuller

2060 Tpr Athelstane Thomas Rowland

11815 Driver William Ness Law

6286 Pte George John Johnson

Sgt Charles Curtis Dedman (died Sep-Dec 1919)

2536 Pte William G. Hefford