When news that the Spanish flu was spreading across Australia, Terang did what everyone else was doing - closed schools, cancelled horse races and movies and held church services outside.
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But when the first case came and went, the public got restless and the restrictions were lifted.
So when the Spanish flu arrived in full force three months later there were no social distancing measures in place and the number of cases became "too many to number".
The history of the Spanish flu in Terang is documented in a book written about the history of the town's hospital called But Generations to Come by Meg Orton.
Orton wrote that Terang had been given plenty of notice to prepare themselves for the Spanish flu which was being brought back to Australia by soldiers after World War II.
As early as December 1918 Hampden Shire Council was warned to get ready for any outbreak and told to set up special hospitals to segregate patients and ensure there were enough supplies for disinfection.
With a death rate reportedly as high as 10 per cent at the time, there were complaints at first that the vaccine didn't seem to be doing much to prevent the disease, the book says.
However, there was later evidence to show that the vaccination did reduce the rate of complications and seriousness of the attack.
By the end of January 1919 there were free inoculations in town and after just one week 741 doses had been administered.
Just like the COVID-19 pandemic, people were told not to gather in groups but were allowed to get fresh air and exercise.
But in 1919 church services were allowed to go ahead although they had to be held in the open air.
Movies were also cancelled and all horse racing was prohibited.
Schools statewide were closed and in March the OK was given to use the Terang State School as an emergency hospital.
"But there was disquiet in Terang about the upheaval this would cause for the schoolchildren," the book says.
It was eventually decided that the Presbyterian church school hall would be used as a hospital instead, run by nurse "Janey" Long. It was believed her mother had learnt the craft from the famed founder of modern nursing Florence Nightingale.
On February 4 Terang recorded its first case which was followed by a lull. By May the flu hit with full force.
"When the Spanish flu did arrive in Terang it was brief but severe," the books says.
"One of the effects of the long lead-up time was that people had become tired of the preventative measures that had been imposed in the early months.
"When the first case appeared in town, all communal activities were cancelled.
"By the time the second and much more deadly wave arrived, none of the measures were in place."
When the first case appeared in town, all communal activities were cancelled. By the time the second and much more deadly wave arrived, none of the measures were in place.
- Meg Orton
When the flu arrived in earnest, horse racing was back up and running and the movies were being screened in the town once again.
A young Noorat man and the Terang policeman were thought to have succumbed to the flu before the isolation hospital was able to open its doors on May 19.
Both were young and seemingly health young men who lost their lives to the flu.
That month 10 patients were treated at the isolation ward and at least one is known to have died.
The Terang health officer reported during the crisis that the number of influenza cases in the town were "too great to number". But despite the massive spike in cases, by July there were no more flu patients and by early August the isolation hospital closed its doors.
While the worst of the outbreak had made its way through Terang, it wasn't until August that it ran rampant through the Mortlake district infecting at least 200 people in a matter of weeks.
Just how a quarter of the town's population of 800 came to be infected so quickly is unclear, but the town's football team had just returned from a match in Cobden and many of the players contracted it.
Despite so many in town being struck down with a flu that had killed millions around the world, no one in the town died from it.
The height of the pandemic had hit Warrnambool that May when nine people died that month, a number of them young children. The final toll on the city's population is unknown.
The Spanish flu had arrived in Melbourne in January 1919, and by the time it was under control about 12,000 Australians had died.
Worldwide the flu killed as many as 50 million people and infected a third of the world's population.
The cost of running Terang's isolation hospital was so great that the council passed on some of the fees to the patients who had spent time there. The outbreak highlighted the need for a hospital in town to care for the poor and those on low incomes.
At the time there were a number of private hospitals for people who could afford to pay for nursing care. Irish migrant Norah Cosgrave, whose family had come to Australia during the Irish potato famine, left what would have been in today's money about $1 million in her will to start the Terang hospital.
Her estate was made up of prosperous farms but were not extensive grazing lands and not part of the "squattocracy establishment" of the areas.
The first European settlers in the area were graziers who squatted on their runs during the 1830 and 40s and had hailed from Scotland.
Mrs Cosgrave was of Catholic Irish descent and it was said the rivalry in the region was behind resistance to the establishment of a "rival" hospital in Terang.
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