PRELIMINARY During the past seven years my duties have brought the problems of Medical Service in Northern Australia under my immediate observation. Throughout that period I have been impressed with the urgent necessity of improving existing conditions both in respect of the service rendered and the cost of providing it. As the field I have […]
Hygiene Report of South Western Ceylon
12-A.G.H., A.I.F.,WELISARA.14.3.42 MEMO:C.O. 12- A.G.H. Herewith is furnished a summary of the salient sanitary features of the area included in the 25-mile wide band extending from Colombo to Matara. It is to be borne in mind that ,whilst the statement is believed to be as complete as it consistent with brevity, certain insuperable difficulties associated with […]
Report on Scrub Typhus outbreak 1943 [EN 6/38, 39]
AUSTRALIAN MILITARY FORCES H.Q. 2 Aust Corps18 August, 1943 DDMS 2 Aust CorpsD of H LHQADMS 9 Aust DivADMS 6 Aust DivDADMS 17 (Cairns) L of C Sub Area SCRUB TYPHUS – 24 AUST. BRIGADE Throughout its jungle training period on Atherton Tableland from mid April to mid June, 1943, no case of Scrub Typhus […]
Personal letter re 1944 outbreak of Scrub Typhus
AUSTRALIAN MILITARY FORCES Headquarters,NEW GUINEA Force16 Apr 44 Dear Bob, We seem to have got into quite a profitable and mutually instructive discussion. I myself think it fine and am learning lots going out in new fields to try and outflank you. Would like to keep it up but sensed I thought, a little acrimony […]
Hygiene Report on Morotai Island [EN 6/51, 53]
DGMS Adv LHQ SUBJECT: STAGING AREA 2 – ADV LHQ SITEPRELIMINARY HYGIENE REPORT DDMS Adv LHQ Staging Area 2 AD of H Adv LHQ inspected this site 23 Feb 1945 TERRAIN: Low lying coral sand flats cultivated with coconuts. Flanked by sea on two sides – coral bottomed MOROTAI strait side, sandy beach HALMHERAS sea-side. […]
Disposal of Burned Cans [EN 6/51, 53]
DGMS Adv LHQ Staging Area 2 It is urgently recommended that the policy of setting aside Brigade or equivalent camp dumps for the burial of burned and crushed cans be reconsidered. It is further recommended that this proposed method of disposal be abandoned in favour of that adopted by 1 Aust Corps after ample field […]
Health in Tropical Australia – 1950 [EN 8/3]
The following represents a synopsis of a lengthy report upon health administration and associated problems in Northern Australia. Statements made positively in this synopsis without discussion or qualification can be supported by reference to the more detailed report. The situation confronting the Commonwealth in tropical Australia may be outlined as follows: Three factors which have […]
Tropical Disease and the Australian Native [EN 8/5, 6]
by C.E. Cook, M.D., Ch.M., D.P.H., D.T.M. & H A paper delivered at the Commonwealth Conference of the BMA, Brisbane, May 1950 The region with which this study is concerned includes roughly that portion of Australia lying north of the 19th parallel of South Latitude and embracing the Peninsula and Carpentaria Divisions of Queensland, the […]
Health – Northern Australia [EN 8/8]
Notes prepared by Dr Cook as a briefing paper for a conference in August 1950 following his general survey of June-July, 1950 It being no longer possible for Australia confidently to rely upon the successful exclusion of dangerous infections and disease vectors from overseas solely by practicable measures of Quarantine, attention must be directed towards […]
Health problems in Northern Australia [EN 8/4, 8/9, 8/13]
Report on a survey of health and social problems created by the maladjustment of the native population in North Queensland, Northern Territory and northern Western Australia*. *The survey occurred in June-July 1950 and Cook prepared this report in mid-1951 INTRODUCTORY: Although the functions and responsibilities of Health and Native Administration in Australia, except in Commonwealth […]
The Native Problem Why Is It Unsolved?
Lieut.-Col. C.E.A. Cook, C.B.E. M.D., etc. of Commonwealth Department of Public Health, Canberra; Chief Medical Officer and Chief Protector of Aborigines, Northern Territory, 1927 – 1939. Published in Australian Quarterly December 1950 “The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.” Herbert Spencer. From time to […]
Health and Native Administration – 1952-3
INTRODUCTION: Several factors contribute to the complexity of the problem of providing an adequate health and medical service in Northern Australia: The environment favours the endemicity of the major tropical disease. A large component of the population is of native race living at a very low standard of sanitation under conditions likely to contribute to […]