How people lived in Australia around the turn of the century

A photograph of Wexford Street in Sydney 1900. Many poorer people in the city lived in conditions like these

•Think

•Pair

•Write 2-3 sentences describing the conditions for the people who lived here in 1900

A photograph showing ratcatchers during the Sydney plague crisis of 1900. Rats

where responsible for the rapid spread of the deadly bubonic plague

Bubonic Plague• The Bubonic Plague hit Sydney in

January 1900. Spreading from the waterfront, the rats carried the plague throughout the city. Within eight months 303 cases were reported and 103 people were dead.

• Cleansing and disinfecting operations in quarantine areas lasted from 24 March – 17 July and included the demolition of ‘slum’ buildings.

Cleansing the streets.

Johnstone's Lane, Sydney c. 1900.

Incinerator used to dispose of dead rats c.1900

Rear of No. 16 Exeter

Place, Sydney - showing

toilet facilities c.1900

WCc. 1900

A photograph of children playing outside the Sydney Harbour Trust Poor School in The Rocks, c. 1895. Although the weather was cold, as indicated by the children’s layers of clothing, the

poorer children do not have shoes.

Inauguration of the Commonwealth of Australia