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Mortality at Sydney Cove, 1788–1792 *
Author(s) -
Gandevia B.,
Cobley J.
Publication year - 1974
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.596
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1445-5994
pISSN - 0004-8291
DOI - 10.1111/j.1445-5994.1974.tb03160.x
Subject(s) - demography , medicine , epidemiology , cove , mortality rate , geography , surgery , archaeology , pathology , sociology
Summary: Death and disease greatly influenced the development of the first Australian settlements but no detailed study of mortality over the critical years 1788–1792 has previously been made. Mortality was virtually confined to three distinct “epidemics”, each with different characteristics, and none related to the phases of severe rationing. The first epidemic occurred in the first months of the colony and affected both children and adults. The second, associated with the arrival of the notorious Second Fleet, was limited to the months of July and August 1790 and to adults. The third extended for a year after the arrival of the Third Fleet between July and September 1791; both children and adults died. Mortality after arrival amongst convicts on any individual ship was not related to the morbidity or mortality experience of the outward voyage. Convicts already in the settlement were little if at all affected by the second or third epidemics. After eighteen months in the colony, male survival rates from the time of embarkation were 91%, 57% and 74% for the three fleets. Contemporary records are reviewed in an attempt to establish the causes of mortality and to explain the epidemiological data, including the low mortality in inter‐epidemic periods.