Isolation Wall

The threat of disease to the population of Western Australia was one reason why Woodman Point was officially selected for a quarantine station in 1876. Not only is it very close to the port of Fremantle, but because of the shape of the land, it remained quite isolated – and important feature for a quarantine station trying to prevent the spread of disease.

Woodman Point is a peninsula that sticks out into the Indian Ocean. Jervoise Bay in Cockburn Sound is along the southern side of the peninsula, and Owen Anchorage is along the northern side. In the 1830s, this area was the town ‘Clarence’ – a failed settlement that has its own story.

A limestone wall was built in 1886 as a “sea to sea” barrier, to cut off the peninsula from the mainland for the Quarantine Station. There was one small and one large gate in the middle as the only access to the site by land.