Plagues and Federation

You’d hardly know our street anymore . . . it looks like some place in Africa where there’s been fighting, not like Sydney. I know they had to pull down houses that you couldn’t live in no more and they’ll put up new ones instead only they’ll be different so The Rocks’ll really never look the same again, will it? The year 1900 was a momentous one for Kitty Barnes. Bubonic plague, the Black Death, was killing large numbers of people; the country was on the verge of becoming a federation; Kitty’s brother was in Africa fighting in the Boer War; and Kitty was finding herself somewhat attracted to Reggie, the boy down the road.