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Leper colonies in Australia

Bob Crowley

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There was an item on the ABC news a couple of days ago about a young boy being killed in an accident at a shopping centre in Palmerston, which is about 15 minutes drive from Darwin. My wife and I spent a couple of weeks in Darwin in June / July this year, wiht a side trip to Palmerston, and I was curious as to where the shopping centre was.


When I looked at the map of Palmerston online and then shrunk it on-screen, I noticed a road going to a place called Channel Island. We weren't aware of it when we were in Darwin.

So I looked up Channel Island on Google, and came up with the fact it used to be a leper colony before treatment became available. It's can be surprising where a train of thought can lead sometimes.


This reminded me that Peel Island off Brisbane also used to be a leper colony.


This got me curious about leper colonies in Australia and there were a couple more.


Several leper colonies, or lazarets, existed throughout Australia. Notable examples included Peel Island, off the coast of Brisbane, Fantome island, near Townsville (exclusively for Aboriginal patients), and Mud Island and Channel Island, in the Northern Territory.

Unfortunately, as per the above article, it seems "leprosy isn't quite done with us yet".
 

Kylie

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My understanding is that leprosy today is quite rare and easily treated. Out of the 8 billion people in the world, only about 208,000 have the condition. And a cure is available. There's no need for leper colonies today. Even the article you cited last indicates that leprosy was curable as far back as the 1940s.
 
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