Adelaide - Public Nuisances
Miscellany
Also see Public Health and Adelaide - Streets - Miscellany
Insanitary Adelaide
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[In 1846 it] lay panting and sweating..., hot as Hades and as wicked. Stifling
smoke from bush fires on the hills, plenty of dust, sand flies, cockroaches,
flat insects and fleas numerous and big enough to lift one off the ground.
(Register, 25 June 1904, page 6.)
Taken from Geoffrey H Manning's A Colonial Experience
There are, in the multitude of social reformers, some who seem anxious to go backwards, and who speak with reverent enthusiasm of the simple serenity of our forbears, which looks so attractive when compared with the complicated urgencies of the twentieth century. People who feel genuinely distressed that they did not live the best years of their life more than half a century ago will, I trust, find solace when they read about the horrible nuisances in Adelaide in the latter half of the 1840s.
Today, Adelaide is famed for its cleanliness. However, in 1848, the year I removed to Norwood, its condition was not only highly disgusting, but a menace to any one who was so unfortunate as to breathe its fetid air. Its miserable hovels cried in vain for the intervention of any pretence of municipal government between the rapacity of the landlord and the helpless dependency of the tenant.
The general state of the city was filthy in the extreme; nor is it to be wondered at, when you consider the fact that deposits of every description, emanating from the ever-increasing population, had been allowed to remain and accumulate on the surface ever since the year 1836 - we literally lived on a dunghill of nearly thirteen years standing. Carcases of horses and bullocks lay exposed, garnished with heaps of putrescent animal and vegetable matter of every description.
In the neighbourhood of East Terrace, on the north side of Peacock's tanyard, a row of eight habitations (I cannot call them houses), were divided into 16 tenements, the upper of which were accessible only by means of open stairs, or rather stepladders, in the rear. Their dimensions were only 10 feet by 12 feet and had 100 persons occupying them, all of whom were compelled to use the same convenience, which adjoined one of the ladders, and stood within two feet of the house. Many died there from fever. On the west side of this structure stood 12 houses belonging to the same landlord, all thickly inhabited and having but one privy among them.
The substandard dwellings occupied by the working class were described in the following descriptive prose:
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There are scores of large families that exist and transact all the mysteries
of cooking, washing, sleeping, etc., in two small rooms - in these two aromatic
rooms where sick and healthy, not forgetting pigs, goats and poultry, are
squeezed together, and quarrelling in heat, rum and dirt, a large number
of infants are brought crying into the world.
No wonder they weep, poor little things, but few remain long to enjoy life under such disadvantages - their little lights are soon put out like candles down foul wells - they soon find themselves in West Terrace Cemetery...
It is a custom on Christmas Day for the rich to wake up and remember the poor and hungry, just as some people think of religion that, like fine clothes, must be put on only on Sundays, or as we were only Christians on Christmas Day...
The same correspondent was to write again with further insight and compassion:
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If the poor had clean healthy houses to live in there would be less sickness,
misery, drunkenness and crime, better morals and consequent increased happiness
and prosperity... All wealth is wasted that does not honour God and benefit
man ... but no real good can be accomplished until the poor have improved
houses to dwell in; for as a clean soul cannot exist in a vicious body, neither
can religion or morality thrive in filthy hovels.
Home is, as it were, a sacred well, whose waters give life and happiness... Building grand churches or recklessly giving alms does little good, because so many of the poor make the public house their church...'
An abominable nuisance emanated from Mr Clarke's brewery in Gilles Street. There was a natural hollow intersecting the public thoroughfare and the largest part of this depression was filled with beer drainings and slush from the brewery and covered an area from 60 to 100 yards. This nuisance, bad enough in itself, was aggravated by carbonic acid gas given off from fermenting vats. This was a favourite pool for the daily wallowing of pigs which were attracted by the odour.
Perhaps I should explain that domestic animals roamed freely throughout the city and environs. For instance, an individual seeing his neighbours pig astray, took down his gun and deliberately shot it. He was, apparently, unaware that under such circumstances he exposed himself not only to a fine of £5 for shooting in the public streets, but to an action for damages in the Magistrates' Court. The law stated that should pigs be found on a neighbour's ground, they had the liberty to impound them and could claim damages for trespass.
There was a narrow street opposite Wakeham's public house in Grenfell Street leading to Pirie Street, where several tenements were huddled together in such a manner as to defy cleanliness and ventilation. Owing to the total absence of drainage, in winter the roadway was a mass of mud, while a slaughter house and piggery extended one half the way and the abominations from the brewery poisoned the other. Combined, they occasioned an abominable stench at all seasons. And that was not all, for in the same vicinity were a tannery and chandlery which poured their foul emissions on the luckless inhabitants whenever the wind blowed from certain quarters.
The glorious Park Lands were also subjected to human degradation as day by day, from natural decay, hastened by imperfect attention, from the fires of wandering natives and the midnight axe of lawless depredators, the old native timber gradually disappeared. You, the reader, may well ask as to what solutions were brought forward to counter these evils - I append them in tabular form:
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Empty the cesspools, cleanse the yards, and streets,
Banish fellmongers and pigs, burn or bury all filth,
Do not allow two butchers, greengrocers or candle-makers to carry on trade on the same acre,
Cause the eaves of the houses to be furnished with gutters, the footways to be paved,
The cesspools to be covered over and provided with stink-traps,
Allow no slaughtering of any description within the town, and,
Until proper sewers can be constructed let wells be sunk at the corners of each streets, into which gutters containing the refuse water should be directed,
Water should be laid on to each house as early as possible - the Torrens water from near the Frome Bridge would be found the best and cheapest,
Appoint an officer with power to inspect premises and enforce cleanliness, repairs of drains and gutters and burial of filth, etc.,
Appoint public scavengers and nightmen to act under him,
1Require all future erections to have back, as well as front entrances, and to have at least one window and a chimney in each room,
Houses to be roofed with slate and be furnished with proper drains, closets, etc.
Following these harrowing tales of Arcadian Adelaide a touch of humour may be a fitting finale. In the midst of winter the streets of Adelaide were usually a quagmire which prompted a laconic citizen to proffer some 'Sailing Directions for Currie Street':
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On leaving Gilles Arcade, make all sail northward, and beat around to the west
at the opposite corner. Here a practicable fence in about one fathom of mud
will carry the active voyager safely to Solomon's. Cross to the blacksmith's
shop, which is a favourite spot, the mud shoaling to about half a fathom...
A short distance ahead is a little church, in which if you reach it in safety,
you may return thanks and offer alms.
Finally, man's 'best friend' was the subject for complaint from a long-suffering citizen:
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As I know you love a nuisance, permit me to introduce one to you in the shape
of a dead dog, swollen to about four feet in circumference, now lying between
North Terrace and the Railway Terminus. Should you be passing either the
corner of Morphett Street or King William Street, your exquisite sense of
smell will at once lead you to the exact spot.
A Song for the City
Dedicated to the Opponents of Sanitary Reform
Close your eyes and fold your arms
Easy good people about
Mid filth and stench from sewer and trench
Have your nap quickly out.
Let animal matter and household slops
In the festering cesspool steam
To poison the air of your city fair
While you securely dream.A cloud hangs over the city,
Through Adelaide's million pores
It fumes up a main from offal and drain
And assassin-like haunts our doors,
Yet sleep - sleep on wise rulers
In your ignorance still be bold!
But remember my rhyme when retributive time
Makes you pay for your sloth tenfold.
An Essay on the Suburban Dustman
Old boots, broken crockery, kitchen refuse, rags and fish tins. What more profitable occupation can be named than that of collecting them. Yet banish the dustman and what a nuisance would result. As purifiers of backyards they do work that must be done by someone, and fortunate it is for householders that such men can be found to do it - well, too, generally. Of course, the scavenger cannot wear kid gloves, high collar, patent leather boots and a nosegay, but what matter. His stock-in-trade are an old tub and a roomy tip dray with a horse to match.
Tramping by the side of his steed, or in the wake of his rumbling dray, the dustman plods along the lanes and byways - usually a bit of a philosopher after his own fashion. Rarely does he see the householder because the household rubbish is not kept too close to the house. Generally the only welcome he gets is from dogs - occasionally cross dogs.
The "Boss" scavenger talks:
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Our chaps are as happy as Larry. The work is healthy and they never have an
ache or pain. It makes 'em as hard as barbwire and there's no strain on the
mind. Talk about smells giving people fever! Why, there can't be anything
in it. I'm not fond of dirt but I've noticed that the nervous folk are the
first to go under when they get scared with these germ notions - it wouldn't
do for our chaps to worry their heads about them.
It's pretty hard graft. They can get eight bob [shillings] a day anywhere at other work but seem to be content to carry those old tubs around for seven. You see it's constant and that's why they stick to it. We get our really busy times. It's when the cauliflowers are in. You'd be surprised at the difference they make to us. Think of all the stalks and leaves the people throw away compared with what they eat.
We get on well with people taking 'em all through. It's only now and then we have a bit of a "scrummage". Last week a fellow objected to our chap opening his white gate with dirty hands. But, then, the poor cove was only newly-married, so you mustn't be too hard on him. Dare say he will get the conceit taken out of him before too long. We are not bound to cart away anything and everything.
One lady was wild when we had to tell her that brickbats, garden cuttings and yard sweepings were not in our line. The circulars headed "Duties of the Scavenger" which we carry round save no end of arguments. People think at first it's a bit of lawyer's work of your own but you can see for yourself that they're issued by the Local Board of Health.
No home dog likes to see strangers taking stuff away - specially bones; and that's why they want to go for our chaps. But we can refuse to go into any yard where a savage dog is off the chain. One got at me the other day. When my hands touched the tins he started to bark like mad and brought the missus out. "That's only his play", she said. But where the cur nipped me and hung on until I lifted him away with the point of my boot I thought it was no play for me. The lady said she was sorry, but Towser must have been in a bad temper that morning. I guess he was sorry, too, when he felt my boot.
We have some funny experiences. The other day a lady offered one of our chaps half a crown if he could find her false teeth among the rubbish. How she lost them I don't know, but she said she had hunted all over the place except the dustbin. Another one had lost her wedding ring while sweeping the floor. She was a sweet young thing and was in a terrible fluster about telling her husband. Any of our chaps would have eaten his hat if only he could have handed her that little bit of jewellery.
I am often asked whether we pick up anything valuable. My reply is that if we were to wait till we made a fortune out of what's left in local dust heaps we'd be as old as two blooming Methuselahs and a Wandering Jew and a half, and then die as poor as Lazarus's dog.
General Notes
The Register of 11 August 1838, page 3b says:
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The water of the river, as well as the air of Adelaide, has been of late actually
poisoned by the numerous brickmaking establishments on the public land.
Indiscriminate shooting of animals in the streets is commented upon in the Southern
Australian,
8 September 1840, page 3c,
12 January 1841, page 1c (supp.).
"Metallurgical Nuisances" is in the Register, 14 October 1846, page 2d:
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The place selected for making a dreadful experiment [a smelter] is in the immediate
neighbourhood of the only infirmary and hospital in this colony, adjoins
an extensive nursery... and it is also within a few hundred yards of Adelaide
itself.
Under the heading "Public Nuisances" a subscriber to the Register says on 1 January 1848 at page 3c:
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A great personage, in every sense of the word, thinks proper to keep what an
Hibernian would call the largest moiety of a pack of hounds at the back of
Trinity Church. They are usually to be found in a partially closed yard,
with many horses, carriages and carts... from amongst which they occasionally
make hostile excursions...
A further general complaint is in the Register on 25 March 1848, page 3e when the "nuisances" are listed and commented upon; they include boiling down works, chemical manufactures, horses driven by drunken men and drunkenness, etc.
"South Australian Stenches" is the cause of a complaint in the South Australian,
11 April 1848, page 3a.
The Adelaide Times of 12 February 1849, page 4 reports a public meeting in respect of various "nuisances" when one citizen stated that:
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[He] crossed the Park Lands daily and witnessed the source of annoyance...
instead of being closed in and covered with green herbage, they were nothing
but one vast road, or magazine of dust, from which clouds issued by every
breath of wind all over the town.
"The Goat Nuisance" is complained about in the Register,
23 February 1853, page 3b:
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I have long been endeavouring to protect my house from the ardent rays of the
sun, by plants of umbrageous growth, but despair of success in consequence
of these marauding animals.
(Also see Register,
6 September 1853, page 3e,
29 September 1855, page 3d,
20 December 1856, page 3g,
28 April 1865, page 3g,
Chronicle,
10 May 1879, page 13a.)
Drains are condemned by a correspondent to the Register on 31 October 1853, page 3c:
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Do [the Council] intend taking any notice of the drains, or rather the filth
that is consistently being poured into the streets from the public houses,
such as remains of bottoms, beer barrels, wine and other refuse as equally
as noxious, the cause of all stench which is an intolerable nuisance.
The atmosphere is by no means desirable, at least during the summer months...
Nothing can be more deleterious to the health of the inhabitants than the
collection and retention under a broiling sun of all the accumulated refuse
of the city.
(Register, 28 November 1853, page 2e.)
No one, I am persuaded, can arrive in Adelaide and visit the adjacent
parts without being struck by the disgusting masses of filth, bones, tattered
garments and other offensive refuse that present themselves.
(Register, 16 December 1853, page 3b.)
A correspondent to the Register on 20 July 1854, page 3b under the heading "Bombardment of Adelaide" says:
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Can you assure me that the party of men ostensibly employed in quarrying stone
near North Terrace are not secret emissaries of Russia... Their present proficiency
in the destructive art is most alarming... Yesterday, a shower of stones
was thrown, grape-shot fashion, into the populous neighbourhood between Hindley
Street and North Terrace.
The Observer of 28 January 1854, page 5e carries a complaint that:
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Near the Stag Inn... is to be found the carcasses of dead cats and dogs, rotting
in the sunshine, and decayed vegetable matter of every description, helping
to form the gas so fatal to human life. The stench reeking up from this foul
bed resembles that of a charnal-house [sic].
Another nuisance in Halifax Street is cause for complaint in the Register,
4 October 1854, page 3d:
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Day after day, as I pass it, its fetal bosom is still the same, swelling, slimy,
bare to the sun. Its fearful stench rises and seems to affect the very pigeons
that fly over it... The cows that graze on its filthy shore waste woefully
thin...
This nuisance, which proceeds from Mr Primrose's brewery, is not only
causing sickness amongst his neighbours, but also militates against their
success in their different callings by causing a diversion of the usual
traffic.
(Register, 28 October 1854, page 2f.)
"The Grenfell Street Nuisance" in the form of Burford's Soap Works is discussed
in the Register,
25, 26 and 30 January 1855, pages 2e-3b, 3e and 2e.
"The Reign of Nuisances" is in the Register,
14 March 1855, page 2d.
"City Nuisances" in the form of pigs, goats, etc, are discussed in the Observer,
24 March 1855, pages 3h-5d.
New City By-laws are recorded in the Register,
13 October 1855, page 2f:
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Butchers and other owners of pigs must forthwith banish them from the city;
stockholders are no longer at liberty to drive mobs of horses and horned
cattle through the streets in daytime; all residents must keep their chimneys
clean, or, if their flues catch fire from being foul, they will be mulcted
in the penalty of one pound; all water carts must be kept full of water at
night...
"Summer Odours" is in the Observer,
15 December 1855, page 1f (supp.).
Under the heading "The Wrongs of Rundle Street" the Register of 21 March 1856, page 3h says:
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The disgusting stench of the putrefying matter [is] being swept over the street
at noon-day and left for several hours, sometimes days, exposed to the sun
before it is carted away... The houses, shops, and comparatively open spaces
are utterly devoid of pure air...
Adding to this complaint an irate wife and mother informed the Register on 2 April 1856, page 3d:
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Their was nothing said of the "Hot Saveloy" man, who very wrongly comes as
punctual as a clock could be, every night at 11 o'clock, and in a stentorian
voice proclaims his hot saveloys! causing my baby instantly to wake and scream
of fright.
(Also see Register, 9 April 1856, page 3e.)
At the western end of the city another nuisance in the form of an organ was cause for complaint in the Register, 9 April 1856, page 3e:
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[It is] of questionable tune, which from the hours of 6 to 10 a [horrid grind]
issues from a public house as an inducement to thirsty souls to drop in...
Our breasts, instead of being mollified by the soothing strains, are fast
relapsing into a state of savageness.
"Waste and Impure Water" is in the Register,
21 June 1856, page 3d.
"The City Watertable" is in the Register,
9 November 1865, page 2e.
Also see Adelaide
An amusing editorial headed "A Street Grievance" is in the Register,
26 February 1859, page 2e:
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In some parts of Adelaide little flocks of geese are kept by householders for
no other apparent purpose than to annoy and endanger passers-by... We have
seen a horse driven almost into a state of frenzy... by the open-mouthed
assault of one of these hissing, cackling tribes... Another source of frequent
mischief... is the practice of placing objects of an unusual character upon
the roadway... We have seen, even in King William Street, an empty sugar-bag
lying for days on the crown of the road - an object of terror to horse after
horse...
"City Nuisances" is in the Register,
25 March 1859, page 2g,
"The Corporation and the Butchers" on
5 August 1861, page 3a.
A correspondent to the Register lodged the following complaint on 29 December 1862 at page 3c:
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The inhabitants of Rundle Street have been subjected to a most poisonous effluvia
for a month past, arising from the current of filthy water which continually
flows down the gutter... A stench enough to produce typhus in its worst form.
(Also see Register, 24 February 1863, page 2c.)
"Public Nuisances and Candle Factories" is in the Register,
31 May 1864, page 3b,
1 June 1864, page 2f,
Advertiser,
22 and 24 May 1865, pages 2f and 2f,
Also see Adelaide - Factories
"Public Nuisances" in the Observer,
2 July 1864, page 5d.
"Offensive Trades" is in the Chronicle,
6 and 27 May 1865, pages 1e (supp) and 1e (supp.),
Express,
12 September 1866, page 2e.
"The Law of Chemistry and Smells" is in the Register,
22 May 1865, page 2d,
13 June 1865, page 2c,
Observer,
27 May 1865, page 6c,
"City Stinks" in the Advertiser,
12 February 1866, page 3d.
The Register of 25 June 1866, page 2e reports "a very serious nuisance caused by the impure drainage which flows... into the Botanic Gardens":
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The ornamental sheets of water in the place of recreation are poisoned. Fish
cannot live in them and the smell of which arises is so offensive at times
to be the cause of much discomfort and ill-health to those who reside on
the spot... The lakes and ponds... receive the refuse of tanyards, soap manufactories,
hotels and private houses...
(Also see Register,
30 June 1866, page 3b,
23 July 1866, page 2e,
8 November 1866, page 2c.)
An editorial headed "Unsavoury and Unsightly" is in the Advertiser,
23 February 1867, page 2e:
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A viler collection of dirt and rubbish, a more ruinous and miserably-neglected
thoroughfare is not to be found than may be seen in North Terrace... blocks
of stone, broken bottles, sardine cases, rags, bits of old harness, old boots
and shoes, scraps of wall-paper, old pots and kettles... complete the garniture
of the most aristocratic quarter of the city.
"Insanitary Adelaide - Horrible Nuisances of Early Days" is in the Register,
8 April 1921, page 8g.
"How the Refuse of the Town May Become the Riches of the Country" is in the Express,
29 May 1867, page 2b.
"What is a Legal Nuisance?" is in the Advertiser,
15 March 1869, page 2e; also see
Chronicle,
13 and 20 March 1869, pages 8f and 6c.
A correspondent to the Advertiser on 21 November 1870, page 3h ventures ventures the opinion that:
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Adelaide is now the very centre of a chain of nuisances, the pestiferous fumes
of which blow over the city and suburbs from every point of the compass.
It seems a pity in a territory so broad as that of South Australia, that
we must run up anti-malaria ramparts; and even in the sultry myths of summer
seal ourselves hermetically in our houses to avoid inhaling poison... In
many of the centre streets of Adelaide the air is powerfully impregnated
with what, under favourable meteorological conditions, may prove to be
the seeds of typhus and other epidemic diseases... [The suburbs] are all
in turn subjected to the most loathsome smells that it is possible to conceive.
(Advertiser,
17 January 1871, page 2d; also see
19 January 1871, page 2h.)
"Nuisances in the City and Suburbs" is in the Observer,
21 and 28 January 1871, pages 15e and 6a; also see
24 June 1871, page 5f,
23 September 1871, page 5d,
18 November 1871, page 6g,
Express,
27 January 1871, page 3e,
22 and 23 June 1871, pages 2f and 2c.
Also see Adelaide - Suburbs
"Poisoned Air" is in the Express,
13 September 1871, page 2c.
A lengthy and informative letter on "Public Stenches" is in the Register,
20 July 1871, page 5e which was no doubt prompted by an earlier complaint about
the Bone Mill at Dulwich;
for the aftermath of the complaint see
22, 26 July 1871, pages 5f and 6a;
14, 21 September 1871, pages 5e and 5a;
18 October 1871, page 5c; also see Dulwich.
A "tongue-in-cheek" response to the earlier complaints appears on
6 September 1871, page 5c:
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The Mayor of Adelaide deserves our thanks. I don't know how we should get along
an earn an honest penny in this healthy climate if his Worship... did not
set up a few fever traps to help the people off. [signed] "An Undertaker's
Mate, With a Wife and Seven Children".
Also see Register,
7 September 1871, page 3f,
23 October 1871, page 5c,
18 November 1871, page 7e and
7 November 1872, page 3e:
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Without employing much hyperbole the air seemed charged with globules of decomposed
cow or putrid horse. It was indeed an odour that could be felt - almost seen...
I must say, strange as it seems, the more I have of it the less I like it.
(Also see Register, 21 November 1872, page 5c.)
Further complaints were forthcoming, the following being a random selection:
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Impure water [is] allowed to flow from East Terrace into the creek by which
the ornamental ponds in the [Botanic] Garden are chiefly fed... So great
was the noxious impurity that the fish were said to be lying [dead] in the
ponds.
(Register,
12 December 1872, page 5b; also see
13 December 1872, page 5b-f.)
Stagnant water [is] lying about in green pools, full of festering rags
and decaying vegetable matter, courtyards with far too many people for the
house space and all the dirt, slops and refuse pitched into the open space...
(Register, 20 December 1872, page 7a.)
I regret to see typhoid fever has broken out in the Botanic Gardens, and
that one of the daughters of the Curator has fallen a victim, the cause of
the disease being the foul state of the ... waters in the garden.
(Advertiser, 12 December 1872, page 3c.)
This was not the end of the problem; further comments appear in the Register,
26 February 1873, page 5e,
11, 12 and 31 March 1873, pages 4e, 5f and 4e, while
"City Scavenging" is discussed on
30 April and 16 May 1873, pages 4e:
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There is scarcely a breeze that blows from the suburbs but comes laden with
noxious vapours... suggestive of the most malignant and putrid diseases that
the human subject is liable to...
Perhaps we should allow the Register's resident poet to express the general community concern:
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When once the citizens arose,
Proclaiming in one common breath,
"The putrid filth that slowly flows
Adown our streets is breeding death.
Our drains are spreading fever seeds,
We want not words; we look for deeds;
You've promised oft before,
Now act." These Senators observed,
"The public health must be preserved",
And then - did nothing more.
(Register,
17 December 1872, page 5e; also see
Observer,
18 March 1882, page 21e for another poem.)
The wheels of the municipal council turned slowly, if at all, and on 4 November 1873, an irate citizen wrote to the Register (page 6d) under the heading "The State of the City":
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[The council] has been warned by the press, begged and prayed by the citizens,
but they will not move, and nothing but some due pestilence, the seeds of
which are already germinating, will arouse these wise men of Sleepy Hollow...
Every citizen should procure a dustbin... this when filled could be conveyed
to the street to be carted away by the scavenger for a small payment... I
observe that in Gawler this plan is adopted...
(Also see Register, 5 November 1873, page 7g.)
On 6 January 1874, page 6d-e another angry ratepayer added grist to the mill:
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Typhus has at last commenced in Hindley Street... One walk of a hot day down
the southern side... causes such a nausea as to take hours of fresh country
air to remove...
On 29 January 1874, page 4f the Editor of the Register attacked the council - "once more the policy of procrastination has triumphed".
This outburst was rebutted by a citizen on
3 February 1874, page 6b; also see
5 February 1874, page 4f.
On 11 February 1874, pages 5b and 6a-b, a report recommending the introduction of a "scavenging" scheme, was presented to the council; the Editor of the Register makes a final comment on 27 April 1874, page 4f.
However, the newly introduced scheme of rubbish collection did not prove to be a panacea to certain "stenches" in the city and on 23 January 1875, page 5f a citizen had some harsh words to say about North Terrace:
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I do not pretend that the worthy doctors are to blame; but their united efforts
and solemn warnings would produce a remedy. They cannot ignore this foul
disgrace. I have frequented tanneries, fellmongers' yards, butchers' shambles,
boiling-down places... but I have never yet come across so noxious... a stench.
The prettiest walk in Adelaide is utterly destroyed by its foul presence...
Another correspondent supported this claim on
25 January 1875, page 5e, while on
29 January 1875, page 6f "more stenches" emanating from a soap factory in Sturt
Street were the subject of another disparaging letter.
The same factory was cause for complaint on
13 January 1883, page 6c:
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The stinks - for that Anglo-Saxon word is the only one that accurately describes
the gaseous products of this factory which are wafted over the portions of
the city to which I refer - are characterised by a fearful capacity for penetrating
the most closely shut doors and windows and saturating every article in the
houses with a particularly disgusting odour of fat...
Also see Register,
15 and 23 January 1883, pages 6f and 5a,
10 and 12 February 1883, pages 7d and 7c,
2, 5 and 6 March 1883, pages 7f, 5b and 4d-g,
2 May 1883, page 6g,
13 and 16 June 1883, pages 5d and 4e,
17 and 24 May 1884, pages 7e and 4d - the last four references concern a prosecution
of W.H. Burford and Sons; also see
21 and 22 April 1885, pages 5a-7a and 4f-7c,
Advertiser,
6 March 1883, page 4d.
On 9 April 1875, page 6e a correspondent to the Register brought the problem home to the doors of the municipal council:
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A little of the zealous vigilance shown by the officers of the Board of Health
might well be expended in a visit to the immediate vicinity of certain corporation
buildings in the Central Market. If their nasal organs are not already dulled
by the variety of perfumes which they must inhale during their peregrinations
I can promise them one of the (un)"healthiest old sniffs" they have ever
experienced.
Further evidence of the unsavoury condition of the city is expounded in the Register on 20 January 1876, page 6e:
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There is still a wide field for [the Council's] labours - that is, to invite
or compel money-grasping owners of houses to keep their property in a wholesome
condition and to have it properly drained, as the majority of houses are
let for years without a whitewash-brush ever being applied to the walls,
and fetid water accumulates around them in every direction, which makes it
really sickening to pass them.
With apparently no dumps available in which to deposit collected refuse the Register of
22 March 1877 at page 5g carries a letter complaining of the offal being "deposited
in the Squares and very carefully spread over the surface...".
For reports on "scavenging" see Register,
19 November 1886, page 7c,
11 April 1887, page 7h,
3 July 1897, page 5i.
On a humorous note the Register of 1 May 1877 at page 5e contains a poem - it reads in part:
-
A Song for the City
Dedicated to the Opponents of Sanitary Reform
Close your eyes and fold your arms
Easy good people about
Mid filth and stench from sewer and trench
Have your nap quickly out.
Let animal matter and household slops
In the festering cesspool steam
To poison the air of your city fair
While you securely dream.
A cloud hangs over the city,
Through Adelaide's million pores
It fumes up a main from offal and drain
And assassin-like haunts our doors,
Yet sleep - sleep on wise rulers
In your ignorance still be bold!
But remember my rhyme when retributive time
Makes you pay for your sloth tenfold.
An editorial on the subject appears in the Register,
2 May 1877, page 4e.
"Nuisances" is in the Register,
13 March 1876, page 4g.
"A Deadly Nuisance" is in the Express,
28 February 1878, page 3b.
A complaint about Tidmarsh's Soap Factory in south-west Adelaide is in the Register,
31 January 1878, page 5g,
while the evils emanating from night-carts is discussed on
9 February 1878, page 4g; also see page 5g on the same day.
Under the heading "The Typhoid Ponds" an irate citizen says in the Register on 18 December 1878, page 5a:
-
Onward runs this pestilential fluid... this abomination takes its course zigzag
through the Parklands into the West Torrens district, percolating through
to the wells, impregnating the water with germs of every deadly disease conceivable.
For what, may I ask, do we pay sanitary taxes...
(Also see Register, 18 and 19 December 1878, pages 6c and 1g (supp.) and South Australia - Health - Fevers - Typhoid.)
Further, on 20 December 1878 at page 6c it is said:
-
I have observed the poor half-starved cows... standing by those "death-giving
streams" evidently obliged to drink thereat or die of thirst. How, in the name
of all that's good, can the milk and cream be fit for human consumption. No
wonder our babies die...
On 21 December 1878 at page 4d the Editor observes:
-
We are almost ashamed of having to call attention to the sanitary conditions
of the city... The wonder is not that in Adelaide the infant mortality is
excessive, the wonder is rather that in the more crowded parts of the city
any infants survive at all...
(Also see Register, 1 January 1879, page 5e.)
"More Adelaide Stinks" is in the Observer,
12 April 1879, page 14c.
The citizens of Adelaide were, no doubt, pleased that the introduction of deep drainage got rid of many of the unsavoury odours in the city, but on 31 January 1883 in the Register at page 7a a complaint is lodged:
-
That particular smell on North Terrace comes upon us in the dark to stifle
us in our beds and, like Macbeth, to murder sleep... [It emanates from] those
arch-defilers of the midnight air - the city nightmen - in the discharge
of their filthy nocturnal duties...
Nuisances from cesspits are described in the Advertiser,
8 March 1883, page 2b (supp.),
"Varied Stinks" is in the Express,
27 February 1885, page 3d.
"The City Council and City Nuisances" is in the Register,
6 March 1883, page 4d.
Nuisances from cesspits are described in the Advertiser,
8 March 1883, page 2b (supp.),
"Varied Stinks" is in the Express,
27 February 1885, page 3d.
"City Smells" is in the Express,
8 April 1890, page 3c.
In 1896 a correspondent under the pseudonym of "Hugh Kalyptus" (Mr S.J. Skipper) complains of foul odours in the southern portion of the city:
-
It does not require a blacktracker or a Cuban bloodhound to follow up the trail
- a Sanitary Inspector in a balloon beating to windward would locate it easily...
The doors and windows of some places south of Victoria Square had to be closed
and in public institutions the stench almost stopped business.
(Register, 13 March 1896, page 5b.)
Refuse destructors are discussed in the Register,
27 February 1899, page 4i.
The prevention of smoke emanating from factories is reported upon in the Advertiser,
1 November 1901, page 7c.
"The Smoke Nuisance" is in the Register,
19 November 1901, page 7g.
Also see Adelaide - Factories
and Mills
An editorial on the dust nuisance under the heading "The
Flying Microbe" is in the Advertiser,
11 January 1902, page 6c; also see
22 January 1902, page 4d,
11 October 1902, page 6f,
29 September 1903, page 6e,
13 October 1903, page 4c,
6 February 1904, page 6f,
12 April 1904, page 7b,
27 September 1904, page 7e,
10 November 1904, page 4f:
-
Fierce squalls of wind shot around street corners, whipped off men's hats and
ladies wraps... Staid gentlemen whose heads were bowed to penetrate the blast,
butted indecorously into anybody who happened to be in the way, and everybody's
mouth was filled with grit and dust... About noon King William Street was
completely obscured by dust.
(Also see Advertiser,
4 November 1907, page 6f,
29 and 30 January 1908, pages 10d and 6d.)
"Sunday Scavenging" is in the Register,
17 March 1903, page 4f.
Also see South Australia
The "Nocturnal Noise" of railways on North Terrace is the cause for complaint
in the Advertiser,
15 January 1908, page 6d.
Also see Adelaide - Transport
"City Nuisances" is in the Advertiser,
25 November 1913, page 12b.
A humorous letter headed "A Plague of Cats" is in the Advertiser,
11 January 1921, page 9c.
"Noises of the Night - Nerve-Racking Torture" is in The Mail,
7 July 1928, page 12c.
"Noise Nuisances in the City" is in The News,
8 December 1931, page 6d,
"Adelaide Calm About its Noises" in the Advertiser,
16 January 1932, page 13d;
the noise of motor cycles is the subject of editorial comment in the Advertiser,
5 December 1929, page 22e,
6 April 1934, page 18e.
