Speaker: The Spanish Flu and Other Stories

Following a chance encounter at an Open Day at the Thomas Walker Hospital in Concord West, Trish Skehan was granted access to a diary written by a young lady who had enrolled as a Voluntary Aide to work at the hospital during the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1919.

What Trish first read as an interesting piece of local history, suddenly came to life as a more serious narrative. This aroused her interest in the Spanish Flu and led to her scouring through old newspaper reports in Trove. The more she read, the more horrifying that time seemed to be and, in her own words, “There’s a story crying out to be told”.

Trish will be talking about her book, “Frontline of the Pandemic: Australia 1919”, as well as other wartime stories from that era that were also crying out to be told.

This event is FREE, but donations are always welcome.