John Williams, Treasures of Nhill & District Facebook page, Nhill Free Press & Kaniva Times

The delightfully named inspector was responsible for keeping Nhill clean, which was a thankless and almost impossible task over four decades from the town’s establishment in 1880.

A qualification for the job was probably a “good nose” dedicated to dealing with industrial smells, boiling bones, accumulations of filth, offensive trades, dead dogs in drains, effluvia from public graves, abattoirs, dead horses and sewage contamination.

It was not a job for the faint hearted so the obvious choice for the first Inspector of Nuisances in Nhill was the local policeman and for him it was handy pocket money as a part time job.

The cause of some of the human diseases back in the day was the state of Nhill’s drains and gutters. The town was wallowing in filth, forcing fed-up residents in 1888 to petition the Central Board of Health over lack of action by the Shire.

For a brief time the task then went to the local doctor because public health was the main concern during an era of filth and diseases such as typhoid fever, scarlet fever, diphtheria, influenza, dysentery, meningitis and la grippe. Not to mention various disease epidemics that afflicted cattle, horses and crops in the region.

In 1892 Doctor Ryan reported two Chinese Gardeners for “causing nuisance injurious to the public health” when it was discovered that human excrement from the night cart and slaughter yard offal were found among the growing vegetables.

The Inspector of Public Nuisances returned to a policeman’s lot because he was armed with the power to enforce Council by-laws.

But by 1914 the muck was still piling up and the Shire blamed lack of action by the Inspector of Nuisances who was failing in his part time job.

He was put on notice for his lack of vigilance and not dobbing in hotel owners for allowing their garbage to run into the drains making them fever beds.

However some took to their work with zeal which made them as popular as a modern day parking inspector.

Eventually the Lowan Shire Council decided on an “inhouse” Inspector of Nuisances who would have a broader range of tasks

In 1920, the Lowan Shire had one Council employee who, in addition to being Inspector of Nuisances was a ranger, dog pound-keeper, paddock overseer, caretaker and day-labourer.

He also served as width of tyre inspector and milk thistle inspector.

Unlike the gaslighter for street lights the function of the Inspector of Nuisances still exists today and is called the Environmental Health Officer operating in a more salubrious environment in the Hindmarsh Shire”¦.but basically the job is still the same.

Footnote: The first Inspector of Nuisances was created in London in 1848 by a man delightfully named Thomas FRESH.

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This article appeared in the Nhill Free Press & Kaniva Times, 11 September 2024.