History reduced to ashes: 120-year-old hospital destroyed
Friday 8 February, 2002

A 120 year-old building on the site of Sydney's historic harbourside Quarantine Station was destroyed by fire yesterday - just four days before a public inquiry into plans to lease out the area for 45 years.

The fire started about 3pm at the 1883 hospital building on North Head and completely destroyed the 120m long, two level weatherboard building.

Forty firefighters from eight surrounding fire stations had to suck water from Sydney Harbour and pump it up a cliff to douse the flames, but they only managed to save surrounding buildings.

It took crews more than an hour to put out the flames.

It is the second time in four months that fire has ripped through the site.

In October, a fire gutted the third-class accommodation buildings, causing an estimated $1 million damage.

Public hearings of a commission of inquiry into environmental aspects of a proposal to lease the 57ha Quarantine Station site to private company Mawland was due to begin on Monday.

The hospital building was to be used for interpretive tours as part of a $14 million development which was also to involve the construction of a 90-room retreat, function centers and restaurants.

It was a highly controversial development with the environmental impact statement released late last year attracting 1100 submissions.

Historically, the 163-year-old-site was used to accommodate people who arrived in Australia with diseases including small pox, influenza and the plague.

More than 500 people died of disease at the station.

It is now owned by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS).

Manly state MP David Barr last night accused the NPWS of not doing enough maintenance on the site.

"None of those buildings has been maintained properly and I have a reliable source that it [fire] could happen in any building there," he said.

"The Government has been fiddling while the Quarantine Station burns.

"The Quarantine Station is unique in international terms but the Government is underfunding maintenance and it should pull out of this leasing process."

Mr. Barr said pigeons and possums had been allowed to enter some of the buildings and rats were able to chew through unprotected electrical conduits.

A National parks and Wildlife spokesperson denied Mr. Barr's claims that poor maintenance was to blame for the fire.

He said at this stage no one knew how the fire had started.

A NPWS spokeswoman said Energy Australia workers had had to be called to the site yesterday morning after a blackout.

A 1999 conservation report said the hospital precinct had among the highest heritage values of any section of the site.

"The hospital precinct is of outstanding significance because it demonstrates the evolution of the technology of the diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases," the report said.

The 1883 hospital ward was the biggest of the buildings in the hospital precinct and had a verandah on four sides.

The hospital was modified in 1912 with the addition of heritage features such as coloured glass in the windows and strapwork on the chimneys.

The environmental impact statement said the NPWS spent $375,000 maintaining the site each year.

The Quarantine Station history:

1832: A new law ships entering the harbour to be screened for disease

1837: First buildings constructed

1853: Capacity of the station is increased

1881-82: Used to isolate infected people during a smallpox epidemic

1900: Used to isolate people during the plague epidemic which lasted until 1922

1909: Commonwealth Government takes over responsibility for the station

1918: Station used for influenza outbreak

1973: The tanker Sakaki Maru is the last ship quarantined at the station.

2000: State Government announces plans to lease out site for 45 years for a harbourside retreat and education centre.