Page 66 - Tropic Magazine Issue 35

TROPIC • CAIRNS HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Bold and brave

REGIONAL HISTORY
Bodies were put on the line as
Cairns scientists solved the
enigma of what was killing
and harming swimmers at
our beaches.
While local Indigenous people have
been wary of entering the water over
the wet season for thousands of years,
the medical establishment had no
idea marine stingers were causing
deaths and sickness among beachgoers
until fairly recently. Two men made
the breakthroughs: radiotherapist, 1 3
toxicologist and natural historian
Dr Hugo Flecker and military Finding the culprit for Irukandji All three were taken to hospital. “The lad
commander, GP and toxicologist syndrome (named after the Traditional reported mild abdominal pain twelve
Dr Jack Barnes. Custodians of the Cairns Northern minutes after being stung,” Barnes wrote
Recorded deaths go back as far as 1885, Beaches country), was more difficult. in the Medical Journal of Australia.
when a boy named Frederick William However, Flecker suspected a jellyfish “The volunteers adopted a stance which
died after being stung by a swarm of was to blame and began asking for help I can best liken to that of an infant with
jellyfish in a Townsville creek. from the public to catch a specimen. a full nappy. All had abdominal and back
However, it wasn’t until the 1940s that “His appeal followed six stinging cases pain, pain in the anterior chest wall with
Flecker and others realised the jellyfish reported during the weekend – a man, some difficulty in breathing, and diffuse
responsible for severe stings were two girls and two boys at Yorkeys Knob aches in muscles and joints. It was agreed
box-shaped. Identifying the box jellyfish on Saturday and a man at Palm Beach that movement did not relieve symptoms,
was much easier than the tiny Irukandji (Cove) today,” a newspaper report said at nor did pressure and rubbing.”
because victims often died with tentacles the time. Barnes went on to figure out how to
wrapped around them. In 1955, when extract venom from the Chironex fleckeri,
a five-year-old boy died after being leading to the development of an anti-
stung at Cardwell, Flecker got out his venom. There is no similar antidote for
net and found three types of jellyfish. Efforts to identify the fish stings from Carukia Barnesi, or Irukandji.
One he couldn’t identify was sent to
medical zoologist Dr Ronald Southcott responsible have failed,
in Adelaide, who was able to confirm it for not one specimen has CHIRONEX FLECKERI
as a new genus and named the species Chiro comes from the Ancient
Chironex Fleckeri, or the box jellyfish. been collected Greek word for hand
Cairns Post,
1954 Nex means murderer in Latin

Fleckeri honours its
Lifesavers were roped in to help and lo discoverer
and behold, another new marine stinger
was identified: Carukia Barnesi. Finding 1. Box jellyfish Credit: Australian Institute
proof that this tiny jellyfish could cause of Tropical Health & Medicine
2. Dr Jack Barnes. Credit: Cairns Historical Society
Irukandji syndrome came later, though. 3. Dr Hugo Flecker. Credit: Cairns Historical Society
After Flecker’s death in 1957, Dr Jack
Barnes inherited his research and took In partnership with the
his detective work to the next level by Cairns Historical Society
catching a live specimen and allowing
it to sting not just himself, but also his MORE: cairnsmuseum.org.au
2 young son and a lifeguard.

66 • Tropic • Issue 35