27 Jan 1919 - Influenza pandemic reached NSW
On 27 January 1919, the NSW Government announced the first confirmed case of pneumonic influenza, commonly known as the 'Spanish Flu', in NSW.
Between January and September 1919 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.
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