Welcome Sweet Peace: Returning home after the Great War
The 1918 influenza epidemic, Wellington
Photographer unknown, Ambulances in Wellington during the 1918 influenza epidemic, Black and white original negative, Photographic Archive, Alexander Turnbull Library, Reference: PAColl-7489-69
The 1918 influenza epidemic, Wellington
Coinciding with the Armistice in late 1918, the influenza pandemic swept through the country at a time when New Zealanders believed an end to death and misery had arrived.
It is most likely that troops returning from the Western Front were the source of the outbreak in New Zealand. Māori were worst hit; their death toll per one thousand was estimated at seven times higher than the rate of Pākehā deaths. With the deaths of nearly 8,500 civilians and returning soldiers, the influenza pandemic remains New Zealand’s worst natural disaster.
Hospitals were unable to cope with the dead and dying, and voluntary organisations such as the Red Cross and St John Ambulance Brigade were called on to assist and co-ordinate care of the sick. Schools, offices, shops, cinemas, theatres and public houses were not only closed, but often served as temporary mortuaries until such time as the dead could be buried.
Permission of the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga O Aotearoa, must be obtained before any reuse of this image
