Patient zero: First outbreak
Disease devastates Aboriginal communities in 1789
“Aboriginal people had a name for it... they called it ‘Devil Devil’...”
In 1789, a disease tore through Aboriginal communities around Sydney Cove, or Warrane, leaving dead bodies floating in the harbour, and scattered along the shorelines. The evidence points to this being smallpox, but there’s still debate
over how it got to Australia. Was it an accidental import with the arrival of European ships? Did it come from trading with other peoples in the region? Or was it deliberately introduced as a form of germ warfare?
In this episode, Olivia Willis and Nakari Thorpe ask Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people about this catastrophic moment in their history, and hear how their ancestors survived a cocktail of diseases they’d never before encountered.
Producers: Jane Lee, Cheyne Anderson
Senior Producer: Carl Smith
Executive Producer: Joel Werner
Sound Design: Tim Jenkins
Patient Zero is a production of ABC Science, Radio National, and the BBC World Service
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- Mon 31 May 202119:32GMTBBC World Service
- Tue 1 Jun 202103:32GMTBBC World Service Australasia, South Asia & East Asia only
- Tue 1 Jun 202104:32GMTBBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean
- Tue 1 Jun 202108:32GMTBBC World Service
- Tue 1 Jun 202112:32GMTBBC World Service except East and Southern Africa, East Asia, South Asia & West and Central Africa
- Mon 7 Jun 202100:32GMTBBC World Service except Americas and the Caribbean
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