From the Archives at the Guyra Museum Compiled by Dorothy Lockyer

Camphor bags were worn around the neck top ward off colds and flu

14th Oct 2025

Remedies and Recipes
Today, surrounded by the conveniences of modern living it is difficult to envisage living, working and rearing a family under the conditions known to have existed for our grandparents and great grandparents in last century and even later.
The womenfolk used a variety of well-known remedies to cope with sickness and common ailments.
There was castor oil and chlorodyne for stomach upsets and diarrhea. Camphor oil was used to rub the chest, followed by a warmed vest made of brown paper for colds.
A small bag of camphor was worn around the neck to ward off colds and flu.
Kerosene was used for cuts. Baking Soda and olive oil mixed in a paste was used for minor burns. For more serious burns a pig would be killed and the warm pigskin would be wrapped around the burnt area, and left for a number of days. This would ease the pain and stop infection. Starch was mixed to a paste and was used for stings. This was also used for red back spider bites.
Kerosene on sugar was used for sore throats and to ward off diphtheria. A piece of cloth soaked in methylated spirits and wrapped around the neck was also used for sore throats and to ward off diphtheria. Powder Blue Stone was used for proud flesh. Sick rooms were fumigated with Sulphur burnt on hot coals.
If a mother died due to childbirth, or could not feed her baby then the baby was fed on goat’s milk. Teats for feeding babies were made from grape vines. A piece of vine was cut and shaped like a teat to fit in the neck of a bottle, the soft centre was burnt through with a red-hot hat pin or large needle. These were also uses to feed pet lambs.
Mustard poultices were applied for various infections. Venus Turpentine was guaranteed to remove not only splinters from humans but also stakes from Horse’s hooves and legs.

Sheep Dipping
Early sheep owners faced many problems and hazards. The sheep scab was a very contagious fungoid disease affected the sheep’s skin and therefore affected the growth of wool, if not treated the scabby patches spread finally killing the sheep.
Affected sheep were scrubbed or dipped with a variety of washes in an effect to find a cure, and in the end a mixture of one pound of each tobacco and Sulphur to five gallons of boiling water. The sheep were dipped in the mixture as hot as they would bear it without scalding them.
The mid 1860’s were very wet years in New England and worms and fluke took heavy tolls of sheep in the area. One report reads was that E.C Blomfield was trying to check heavy losses of sheep on Boorolong. He experimented with arsenic as a dose. He killed quite a lot of sheep before he found the right dose, but in the end proved that arsenic was effective dose and dissolved with soda and later Epsom salts, it was used for years to control worms and fluke in sheep

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From the Archives at the Guyra Museum Compiled by Dorothy Lockyer

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