27 Jan 1919 - Influenza pandemic reached NSW

#OnThisDay 27 January 1919, the NSW Government announced the first confirmed case of pneumonic influenza in NSW.

Between January-September 1919, pneumonic influenza, commonly known as the 'Spanish Flu', killed 6,387 people in New South Wales, infecting as many as 290,000 in Metropolitan Sydney alone. The pandemic threw the people and Government into a community effort - rivalled only by that of the recent war - in an attempt to lessen the spread, and impact, of a deadly disease.

Source: Parliamentary Papers. (1920). Volume 1, Outbreak of Pneumonic Influenza in New South Wales in 1919. Section V, Part 1, p. 149.

Read more about the NSW Government's efforts to limit the spread and impact of the deadly 'Spanish Flu' in 1919 »