I recently came across George Emery a distant ancestor of mine who died of typhoid 31 Oct 1897 when he was living in the Port Adelaide area.  He was only 22 years old.  Knowing that this was a poor area of Adelaide I wondered about the living conditions of the area and on searching Trove found the following article which explains it quite well.

[trove newspaper=35100298]

This descriptive quote from the State Library website certainly paints a dire picture.

The City Fathers were apparently unmoved, for six years later under the heading ‘The Typhoid Ponds’ an irate citizen said:

“Onward runs this pestilential fluid… this abomination takes its course zigzag through the Parklands into the West Torrens district, percolating through to the wells, impregnating the water with germs of every deadly disease conceivable. For what, may I ask, do we pay sanitary taxes…” http://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/manning/sa/health/fevers.htm#typhoid