I see that in 1897 in the Bendigo City Court my great grandfather was one of six men charged by Mounted Constable Lysaght with having neglected to vaccinate their children against smallpox virus. At the close of the 18th C this contagious disease killed 400,000 people in Europe each year and 80% of children who caught it died. After 1853 all Australian colonies, except NSW and Queensland, introduced compulsory vaccination for smallpox, and it wasn't until 1980 that WHO declared it eradicated.
My ancestor was fined 10 shillings and 2/6 costs for failing to provide a vaccination certificate, whether through preoccupation, laziness, or misguided principle we can't know.
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The Genealogical Society of Victoria (GSV) could help your COVID-affected small business during this difficult time.
Do you, or does someone you know, have a small business in Victoria offering services to the family-history community? If your business is having a tough time in this locked-down world tell us what you do and the GSV may tell others on this popular blog Family History Matters, which goes out to over 3000 people.
Maybe you provide genealogical or record-searching services, research and write about people or old houses, offer publishing or print services for family historians, provide photographic and digitisation services, photo-restoration, or provide archive material or skills. COVID-19 has reminded us of the importance of our connections to others, to the past and to our family's future. The value of whatever you do to help us capture our family stories is all the more apparent as we live through the pandemic of our own times.
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'Small Pox in Melbourne'; Illustrated Australian News, David Syme & Co, 3 Sept 1884 (SLV Accession IAN03/09/84/133).