​​

The following are extracts from Edie's letters on the influenza pandemic of 1918/19.  
 
December, 1918
Everard’s ship was due at Freemantle yesterday but I have heard nothing further. The transports are coming in every day but a lot of them have to go into quarantine for this wretched influenza. I hope Everard’s is a clean ship.
 
January, 1919
Everard arrived in Sydney on Boxing Day - they were quarantined in Melbourne as I feared.
 
February, 1919
We are all going around liked masked burglars in Sydney on account of the influenza, everybody masked down to the smallest child. All schools and churches, picture shows and theatres are shut, also all public houses. All race meetings are stopped and auction sales except those in the open. Mask wearing is very trying in this hot weather so I go out as little as possible. All Red Cross depots are closed but I am spinning at home for the knitting machines.
 
It was unlucky this wretched influenza should break out just as he came home, as it keeps us from going out. He might like surfing or walking or something.
 
The law on masks has been relaxed and we only have to wear them on trams, trains and in the cabins of ferries. I am sorry to see influenza is so bad in England. I only hope John escapes it as he is so liable to colds
 

Adjusting to having a man in the house again, after his being away at war for nearly 5 years, Edith looks as if she is practising social distancing.
​