The 1918–1919 influenza pandemic stands as one of the greatest natural disasters of all time. In a little over a year the disease affected hundreds of millions of people and killed between 50 and 100 million. When the disease finally reached Australia in 1919 it caused more than 12,000 deaths.
Spanish flu “Up to 15,000 Australians died from the influenza pandemic in 1919 – equivalent to the number who died on active service every year throughout World War I. For a nation of five million people, the impact was shocking.”
