Tony Robinson continues his Time Travels in Twists of Fate. He explores the plague that turned up in Queensland, the coincidence of a gun fired in both World Wars, and the discovery of the biggest natural harbor.
Townsville was a thriving community at the turn of the 20th Century. It had been a frontier settlement and eventually grew into an international port. It would have been shocking for the locals to discover that the Black Death would enter the town. The Black Death would have come as a shock to the locals. The Plague came aboard ships on the back of the rats. There would have been no proper sewage treatment. Townsville would have been a playground for the rats. Why would a Medieval Plague be found in Modern Australia? In 1894, the Black Death was discovered in Canton. With Australia’s closeness to Asia, it would have only been a matter of time before the Black Death arrived. In 1900, 24 people got the Black Death and nine people died. The government officials denied that it was the Black Death. Perhaps they did this to not cause panic among the population. Many rats were killed to prevent the spread. However, the greatest fear month for the locals was being separated from their families. Quarantine hospitals were set up and these families would often time never see their loved ones again. One man refused to send his son to a plague hospital. Eventually, more police were called and the man was forced to stand down. Over 500 people died from the Black Death and it would only go away in the 1920s with better sanitation and rat control. Tony goes back to the 1780’s next. This story will highly impact the discovery of one city had on the world. In 1787, a social experiment started: Australia was founded as a Penal Colony. Botany Bay was marked as a perfect place to start a settlement. The Leader of the original settlement was discouraged with what he found. The water was brackish, the wood was hard, and the soil was sandy. Eventually, the largest natural harbor in the world was discovered. The harbor was claimed in the name of England. The next site Tony visits are Brisbane City Hall. He is looking for a wall. During World War II, the men would sign the walls in the bathroom. This was discovered when the City Hall was being renovated. Today, the wall is preserved behind glass and Tony looks at the names on the wall. The men who signed the wall, all came back to Australia alive. This wall was a snapshot of what the soldiers went through before they went off to war. Finally, Tony visits a site that was built in 1914. This site has a gun that was fired in both World War I and World War II. He talks about a series of events so bizarre that nobody could have predicted. Who was the man behind the event? What was this event? Was this the site where the first shot of World War I went off? How does this event tie into World War II? Tune into this episode to find out more. Unfortunately, this episode was not divided into easy time stamped pieces. The story on the Black Death was fascinating and would be something interesting to share with a science class. The section on Botany Bay and the Penal Colony would be a good section to show to a geography class. For a funny story, then you can show the last section to a class on World War I and World War II.
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