A Heritage Site Predating Federation - Australia's Past Explored
Quarantine Station (also known as Q Station) is a series of heritage listed buildings at North Head, Manly, NSW. It operated as a quarantine station from August 1832 until February 1984.
Quarantine Station is a site of significant cultural and heritage value to Sydney and Australia. First established in 1832 - eight tents in total - to house ship passengers who had been in contact with contagious diseases.
People admitted to Quarantine Station were kept at the isolated North Head site until all signs of disease were gone. Then the people could safely be introduced to the Sydney population without fear of reinfection.
From 1839 kitchens, bathrooms and a hospital were constructed on the site. By 1853 the Quarantine Station could house 150 people but it often received over a thousand passengers at a time and expansion was required. From 1873 onwards Quarantine Station continued to expand, accommodating first class passengers in a higher standard of living.
From 1880 the newly established Board of Health made Quarantine Station a far more sanitary facility and health standards continued to improve. The prevalence and impact of common diseases was greatly reduced.
In 1909 the Commonwealth government took over management of the Quarantine Station and upgraded the facility so that it could accommodate 1,200 people. Most of the brick industrial buildings still present on the site today were constructed during 1910-1950. The success of public health measures and the improvements in medical science are shown by the fact that only two deaths occurred at the Quarantine Station after 1919.
The last ship to be quarantined was the tanker Sakaki Maru in 1973, whose crew was landed for a short period while a suspected infection was found not to be a quarantinable disease. After that time the only people admitted to the Station for quarantine were airline passengers who arrived without adequate vaccination certificates (78 people in 1975).
In 1984 the site ceased functioning as a quarantine station and was declared part of the Sydney Harbour National Park. Sydney Harbour National Park became a national park in 1975.
The National Parks & Wildlife Service (NPWS) established guided tours (including a ghost tour) and a Conference and Functions Centre at the Quarantine Station. The site also houses a restaurant called 'The Boiler Room'. Hotel accommodation at the station is now managed by the Mawland Group.
The Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife's Involvement
From October 2006 to December 2008, the Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife provided funds for conservation works to the Quarantine Station site at North Head, Manly, and the establishment of a Visitor's Centre and Museum for cultural heritage displays relating to the history of the Quarantine Station in Sydney Harbour National Park.
Leased in 2006 the site is under the wing of the Mawland Group, a multidisciplinary group specialising in heritage management. Mawland have rebranded the site Q Station and adopted an innovative approach to heritage development in its adaptive reuse of this culturally significant part of Sydney. It operates now as an iconic hotel, conference centre, tourist attraction and complete heritage experience.
Since the site reopened in 2008, ongoing conservation work and modern heritage projects, spearheaded by Managing Director Max Player and Curator Anna Williams, have sought to revive the legacy of personal stories inscribed on this landscape.
As a result, Q Station has established a Moveable Heritage Collection. The ultimate goal of this collection is to preserve the materials used during quarantine and present to the public stories from the past – stories of the vast numbers of people who have worked and lived at the Q Station and who have shaped the history of this important site.
In recognition of these efforts, the Q Station received a grant from the Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife to help maintain and enhance the sites rich natural and cultural heritage. The grant has enabled the Q Station to execute some essential project objectives including the employment of an Assistant Curator; the development of site wide plans as required by the Department of Environment Climate Change and Water (OEH); planning for display improvements to the Visitor Centre; the installation of Interpretative signage and extensive conservation painting.
The employment of an Assistant Curator has enabled important research and work to proceed on items in the Moveable Heritage Collection including researching oral histories of staff and passengers who worked or were interned during the Station’s history. This grant has also helped to accelerate the cataloguing process for all the items within the collection which now numbers almost 16,000 objects. These include cultural items from Europe and Asia, luggage, staff records, photographs, household items, medical and dental equipment, crockery (designated for different classes of passengers) and linen. All these items date from the period 1830-1984. In addition the funding has helped in the management and supervision of research interns from Sydney University and in the planning of new displays for the Visitor Centre.
In consultation with Premises Manager, Todd Durrant and General Manager Brendan Millett, Anna has prepared mandatory site-wide plans as required by OEH for the governance of the site’s landscaping, heritage, visitor management and restoration works.
