Summary

Liz Downes answers the question 'Why is this significant?'

The identity of the architect who drew up the plans held in the Library Special Collections is unclear. In the Queensland Heritage record for the listed former quarantine station at Pallarenda – to which several of the Magnetic Island quarantine station buildings had been transferred – the original architect is identified as John James Clark.

Clark was a British-born but Australian-raised architect who designed some of Australia's most notable buildings, including the Treasury buildings in both Melbourne and Brisbane. It is intriguing to consider him working on the much more humble, though still essential, timber buildings destined for a remote beach in north Queensland. Nonetheless, since Clark had been appointed as Queensland's Colonial Architect in July 1883, this type of government facility would have fallen within his area of responsibility.

Clark's drawings for an initial five buildings, including a hospital with quarters for men, women and married couples, and a store, were completed in 1883, with building work starting the following year. However, there are reasons to believe that Clark was not responsible, or only partly responsible, for the buildings that followed. It is the plans for these later buildings that are held in Library Special Collections.

Clark's position as the State's architect brought a huge workload and his tenure was stormy, with ongoing disputes between the architect and his bosses within the Department of Public Works. By late 1885 rows had developed over delays and estimated costs of the plans of several public buildings for which Clark was responsible, culminating in his dismissal by the Queensland Government on 17th December. George St Paul Connolly was appointed to fill the resulting vacancy and held this position until July 1891.

It is for this reason that we can safely claim that, of the plans held in the Library Special Collections, the last two – for the combined wash-house / kitchen and the luggage shed – dated May 1886 and May 1888 respectively, would have fallen within the remit of Clark's successor. But responsibility for the design of the Caretaker's Cottage (dated 3/12/1885) and Surgeon's Quarters (dated 22/12/1885) is more open to question. While it is possible that Clark had a hand in both these plans before his dismissal, initials inscribed on each plan suggest they were the work of others - perhaps assistant draftsmen.

Each of the dwellings provided two bedrooms, allowing a married man to live there with his family, and each had a sitting room and kitchen. The surgeon's family also had the benefit of a separate dining room. If the rooms seem small by our standards, the wide verandahs would have provided extra living space and access to cooling breezes. 1000 gallon (4,546 kL) water tanks and the archetypal outside 'dunnies' provided for other essential needs.

In 2021, with the management of human quarantine an urgent and contentious issue around the world, it is salutary to consider how it was addressed 140 years ago. Vaccinology was in its infancy and medical knowledge and treatment light years behind what we enjoy. Yet fast international travel, with its super-spreading potential, was unknown and the world's population only a fifth of what it is today. Those humble timber dwellings deserve our respect for the part they played in humanity's ongoing fight against disease.