[Editorial, The Hedland Advocate (Port Hedland, WA), Saturday 17 December 1910, page 6]
About August last an urgent wire was received by Dr Shelmerdine announcing, with feverish haste, that in September, a boat would call at Hedland and take away the diseased natives sent from inland for shipment to the hospital. They were taken across the harbor to the people’s only pic-nic ground, where they are now (with the exception of Death’s claim). Last week another crowd arrived, and as they marched down the street, their appearance made hardened old navvies (who hitherto had shuddered at nothing) exclaim, “My God, what tortures these poor people are suffering!”
...
The day they were taken across the harbor Drs Shelmerdine and Durack examined the new lot and were surprised to find that three of those sent by the previous evening’s train from the Bar were totally free from any disease. Whew! Now who is responsible for this disgraceful state of affairs? Three natives, free from any disease, crowded into a truck at the Bar with a horde of foully diseased compatriots and sent at the country’s expense to Hedland!
...
Does this cap fit?—There are whites (not men) who are spreading horrible diseases among the natives, who contemplate, at future dates, taking wives from respectable southern families. They should also be isolated, as the gins who are sent back from the hospitals cured are again attacked by these diseased white brutes, and thus the object for which the hospitals were established is defeated.
AB notes:
Barker notes the unreliability of the system of medical examinations.
“Drs Shelmerdine and Durack examined the new lot and were surprised to find that three of those sent by the previous evening’s train from the Bar were totally free from any disease. Whew! Now who is responsible for this disgraceful state of affairs?”
