Channel Island

One of the effects of settlement of the Northern Territory was the introduction of leprosy (Hansen’s disease). The disease was first observed among Chinese in 1882 and in 1884 the first cases among Aborigines were identified.

For many years no action was taken in respect of Aboriginal sufferers, but, from 1884, Chinese with the disease were confined on Mud Island pending repatriation to China.

In the late 1920s the Northern Territory administration implemented a policy designed to confine everyone who had contracted the disease. Channel Island, which had been a Commonwealth quarantine station since 1914, was chosen as the site for the confinement. The island site was thought to be ideal to enforce isolation and discourage escape.

At first the Channel Island institution was staffed by a married couple curator / matron, but from 1942 Catholic Nuns, then a male Brother went to the island. The Catholic church then staffed the island institution until it closed in 1955.

Buildings were makeshift, fresh water was always scarce, food was seldom wholesome and medical treatment was non-existent or erratic and always ineffective until the early 1950s.

443 leprosy sufferers were recorded as having been admitted to the island. At least 142 died and were buried on the island. A few people escaped to the mainland and some survived until the institution was transferred to the East Arm leprosarium in 1955. Only a very small number of sufferers were ever allowed to leave the island.

The average population on the island was usually about 100, mostly but not entirely Aborigines. Some Aborigines had been sent to the island from Western Australia.

Today there are a few visible relics of the leprosarium on the island, but most materials were salvaged for removal to Bathurst Island on closure in 1955.