Palm Island Hospital site

Palm Island Hospital site, originally uploaded by Ladymaggic.

http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/info/ind/community/missions/mainland/f-g


Fantome Island

Fantome Island was gazetted as an Aboriginal reserve in 1925. Aboriginal patients suffering from venereal disease were first taken to the island in 1928. Fantome Island became part of the Palm Island reserve in 1938. The island was proclaimed a lazaret in 1939 and opened in January 1940. All Aboriginal patients from the lazaret on Peel Island in Moreton Bay were transferred to Fantome Island in 1940.

In 1941 it was decided that as a treatment facility for venereal diseases and a lazaret existed on Fantome Island, the areas allocated to the two institutions should be clearly defined. This resulted in half the Island being re-gazetted as a reserve for Health Purposes (for the reception and medical treatment of lepers) and the other half re-gazetted as a reserve for the medical treatment of Aboriginals suffering from venereal disease.

Nearby Orpheus Island was also considered as a place to establish a camp for Aboriginal people suspected to have leprosy. In 1939 the island was visited by missionaries from Mona Mona mission who were seeking to remove suspected lepers from Mona Mona. Orpheus Island, however, was found to be an unsatisfactory location and no suspect camp was ever established.

In 1945 the Lock Hospital was closed down and the administration of the lazaret was taken over by the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary. According to the 1944/45 Annual Report of the Director-General of Health and Medical Services the use of penicillin at Palm Island had made it possible to close the isolation settlement at Fantome Island. The lazaret on Fantome Island did not close until around 1973 when the remaining six patients were removed to Palm Island. In 1975 the island was de-gazetted as a reserve for the treatment of leprosy patients.http://www.archivessearch.qld.gov.au/Search/AgencyDetails.aspx?AgencyId=4501

ESTABLISHMENT AND FUNCTION:
Under the "Health Act of 1937", the Governor-in-Council, by proclamation, could appoint any place to be a lazaret for the reception and treatment of lepers.

On 11 May 1939, Fantome Island in the Palm Island Group, North Queensland, was proclaimed a lazaret for the treatment of aborigines with leprosy. In Jul 1939 there were 15 patients at Fantome Island and, in Jan 1940, a further 49 patients were transferred from Peel Island Lazaret.

With improvements in treatment the number of patients gradually decreased, particularly in the 1950s, and, in 1973, patients with Hansen's Disease, as leprosy was now called, were transferred to Palm Island Hospital.