Woodman Point
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Located within the Shire of Cockburn on the coast south of Fremantle it was from 1886 until it was closed in1979 the location of the main quarantine station for Western Australia,during the epedemics that appeared post WW1 it's role was crucial in the States' health strategy, part of the land area was also used,until it's closure in the late 1970s, as the State Explosives Magazine. Today,apart from a long established cement factory,the whole area is set aside for public recreation; much of it left to revert to the original bush vegetation. Close to the site of the quarantine station is a small overgrown cemetery containing several graves but the only ones now bearing identification are those of Sister O'Kane and Nurse H.Williams. Sister O' Kane and nurse Williams were in a party of 45 Australian Army Nursing Service nurses travelling to the battlefields on the SS Wyreema in 1918 but had not proceeded further than South Africa when peace was declared. Returning to Australia the Wyreema arrived at Fremantle in December 1918 by which time the effects of the worldwide influenza epedemic were being felt, 20 volunteers from the Wyreema nurses were called for to work at the Quarantine Station Hospital to minister to returning soldiers,amongst the volunteers were Sister O' Kane, Sister Thompson and Nurse Williams. These three were to die from influenza in the following months plus one other, Sister Ridgeway,and were buried with full military honours in the cemetery adjoining the Hospital as were some twenty plus soldiers who also died in the epidemic.In 1958 the War Graves Commission reinterred all military personnel buried there at the Perth War Cemetery with the exception of Sister O'Kane and Nurse Williams. Sister O'Kane's grave was not moved because her relatives would not agree unless the memorial obelisk marking her grave was re-erected in the War Cemetery,however, this was against the War Graves Commission policy which requires all grave markers to be of a uniform size and appearance. In the case of Nurse Williams (believed to be Hilda Grace Williams, a West Australian ) it is not,at this time, known why her grave still remains there. The Memorial on Sister O'Kane's grave stands about 3 metres tall.
The road leading to the quarantine hospital site,which is now a holiday camp,is named ' O'Kane Court '
(Thanks to the Birdman of Woodman Point)