Rebecca Le Get - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Rebecca Le Get

Research paper thumbnail of More than just peaceful and picturesque: how tuberculosis control measures have preserved ecologically significant land in Melbourne

Four government-run tuberculosis sanatoria, located within grassy eucalypt woodlands, once operat... more Four government-run tuberculosis sanatoria, located within grassy eucalypt woodlands, once operated in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. Their landholdings have been partially retained as bushland reserves because of their biodiversity. Yet the reasons for these four properties sharing similar ecology and institutional purposes are largely unknown. This article aims to investigate if the placement of these sanatoria in eucalyptus woodlands was a deliberate action, even though it was not directly attributable to floristic considerations by the state and federal governments at the time of their decision.

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Research paper thumbnail of Therapeutic labour and the sanatorium farm at Greenvale (1912–1918)

Provenance: The Journal of Public Record Office Victoria, 2021

By the turn of the twentieth century, tuberculosis was understood as a public health concern in A... more By the turn of the twentieth century, tuberculosis was understood as a public health concern in Australia. In response, state governments began to construct specialised hospitals, called sanatoria, for the isolation, education and treatment of tubercular patients. The treatments undertaken in these institutions could involve work in the outdoors, ranging from assisting in maintaining the sanatorium buildings to farm work. But, to date, there has been little examination of the variety of outdoors work that was utilised within these Australian institutions, or which sanatoria instituted these regimens.

The Greenvale Sanatorium, established in 1905 north-west of Melbourne, expanded the role of agriculture in patient therapy in 1912 to a scale that had not previously been seen in Australia. The farm work undertaken at Greenvale is documented in the transcript of a 1918 Royal Commission into the management of the institution, and other records held by Public Record Office Victoria.

Greenvale Sanatorium’s use of farm work as therapy, and as a cost-saving measure, can be traced over time. By examining the sanatorium farm at the time of the Royal Commission’s investigation, and in its wake, it is possible to draw attention to the intrinsic role that patient labour played in early twentieth-century sanatorium operations, and how the land used for farming has contributed to Greenvale’s appearance in the present.

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Research paper thumbnail of Tuberculosis in Echuca, and the Therapeutic Migration to Southeastern Australia (1889–1908)

Arcadia: Explorations in Environmental History, 2018

In the second half of the nineteenth century, tuberculous individuals traveled to southeastern Au... more In the second half of the nineteenth century, tuberculous individuals traveled to southeastern Australia with the hope that living in a new climate would cure them. But once they arrived at this new continent, which country town’s environment would offer the greatest chance of recovery? For many desperate patients the river port of Echuca, surrounded by forests and in a rural area, was their destination.

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Research paper thumbnail of Under the Shadow of the Tubercle: The Work of Duncan Turner

Health and History, 2018

Doctor Duncan Turner was a Melbourne-based physician with a speciality in chest diseases, includi... more Doctor Duncan Turner was a Melbourne-based physician with a speciality in chest diseases, including tuberculosis. Active from the 1880s to the 1910s, he had a prominent position in Victoria’s medical fraternity. He is primarily remembered an example of the persistence of contagionist-theory denialism in Australia during this period. Such characterisation grossly simplifies his nuanced views and the rationale behind them. Turner held legitimate concerns regarding the social stigma faced by sufferers of tuberculosis, and sought to promote the importance of a healthy environment and climate in preventing chest diseases. Turner’s contribution to medicine should therefore be re-examined, as an example of an individual contesting the discrimination experienced by people with chronic conditions and in need of care.

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Research paper thumbnail of Contagious bovine pleuro-pneumonia within the 19th century miasmatic landscape

Australian Veterinary Journal, Jul 26, 2018

When Contagious Bovine Pleuro-pneumonia was first detected on a farm north of Melbourne, at Bundo... more When Contagious Bovine Pleuro-pneumonia was first detected on a farm north of Melbourne, at Bundoora in 1858, the predominant theory of miasma was being challenged by contagionist theories of disease transmission. This well-documented case was recorded during a period of change in the scientific assessment of disease, and therefore affords an exploration of what aspects of the landscape were considered important for livestock health at the time. Although the introduction, vaccination programs, and eventual eradication of Contagious Bovine Pleuro-pneumonia on mainland Australia has been well explored, scholars have neglected this aspect of the disease’s history. By comparing 19th century records of farmland with how the site appears today, it is also possible to highlight the limited information provided by contemporary texts, while at the same time developing an appreciation of the ways in which the perception of the rural landscape has changed. This differing perception has implications for the utilisation of these sources for veterinary and environmental historians seeking to understand the mid-19th century agricultural landscape, and how it relates to animal health.

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Research paper thumbnail of More than just “Peaceful and Picturesque:” How Tuberculosis Control Measures Have Preserved Ecologically Significant Land in Melbourne

Victorian Historical Journal, 2018

Four government-run tuberculosis sanatoria, located within grassy eucalypt woodlands, once operat... more Four government-run tuberculosis sanatoria, located within grassy eucalypt
woodlands, once operated in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. Their
landholdings have been partially retained as bushland reserves because of
their biodiversity. Yet the reasons for these four properties sharing similar
ecology and institutional purposes are largely unknown. This article aims
to investigate if the placement of these sanatoria in eucalyptus woodlands
was a deliberate action, even though it was not directly attributable to
floristic considerations by the state and federal governments at the time
of their decision.

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Research paper thumbnail of A home among the gum trees: the Victorian Sanatorium for Consumptives, Echuca and Mount Macedon

Landscape Research, 2019

The history of the treatment of tuberculosis in Australia has largely been focused on the develop... more The history of the treatment of tuberculosis in Australia has largely been focused on the development of medical treatments, the architectural features of custom-built sanatoria and the human impact of the disease in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These discussions often mention contemporary debates amongst medical men and the laity regarding the best treatment, but the influence of medical climatology in deciding where medical facilities should be placed is often overlooked. The first sanatorium in the Colony of Victoria had two branches: Echuca and Mount Macedon. These two locations differ in terms of altitude, the surrounding forest and meteorological variation. Yet, both sites were considered suitable at the time for the location of a sanatorium, possibly due to the health-promoting and aesthetic aspects of nearby eucalypt forests. This article explores why they may at first modernly appear to be substantially different locations, but contemporary medical climatology emphasised their similarities.

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Presentations by Rebecca Le Get

Research paper thumbnail of From sanatoria to urban bushland: An environmental history of Melbourne’s former sites of tuberculosis treatment.

Glen Eira Historical Society, 2021

Presentation given for the Glen Eira Historical Society, May 26, 2021. Rebecca Le Get is an inde... more Presentation given for the Glen Eira Historical Society, May 26, 2021.

Rebecca Le Get is an independent scholar and environmental historian. She is interested in how tuberculosis and its treatment has influenced the development of green spaces and bushland reserves in suburban Melbourne.
Were it not for these forests being selected for healthcare, it is uncertain if these areas of bushland would have persisted into the present.

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Research paper thumbnail of 721 Chickens, 13 Cows, and 1 TB sanatorium.

Emerging Historians: Breakthrough!

Presenting a snap-shot of the farmwork undertaken at Greenvale sanatorium in the 1910s, and the a... more Presenting a snap-shot of the farmwork undertaken at Greenvale sanatorium in the 1910s, and the archival research that made this possible.

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Research paper thumbnail of The Victorian Sanatorium for Consumptives: Mount Macedon

Keynote presentation for the Annual General Meeting of the Gisborne and Mount Macedon Districts H... more Keynote presentation for the Annual General Meeting of the Gisborne and Mount Macedon Districts Historical Society, 18 November 2018.

Based upon research published as:
Rebecca Le Get (2018) A home among the gum trees: the Victorian Sanatorium for consumptives, Echuca and Mount Macedon, Landscape Research, DOI: 10.1080/01426397.2018.1439461
and
Rebecca Le Get. (2018). Under the Shadow of the Tubercle: The Work of Duncan Turner. Health and History, 20(1), 72-92. DOI:10.5401/healthhist.20.1.0072

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Non-peer Reviewed Publications by Rebecca Le Get

Research paper thumbnail of "Herbarium"

Botanic News, 2022

"There are approximately 1.5 million specimens under the care of the National Herbarium of Victor... more "There are approximately 1.5 million specimens under the care of the National Herbarium of Victoria (NHV), and each one presents
an opportunity for discovery. One of the thrills of working with this collection is uncovering the interesting—and sometimes extraordinary—stories behind the preserved plants, algae and fungi...."

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Research paper thumbnail of A Healing Hillock, or a True “Magic Mountain”? On Defining the Locations of Tuberculosis Treatment.

Environmental History Now!, 2022

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Research paper thumbnail of Taking my PhD learning into post-PhD life

The RED Alert, 2020

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Research paper thumbnail of An update on the Foreign Collection Project at MEL

Australasian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter, 2021

See: https://www.asbs.org.au/newsletter/pdf/21-sep-188.pdf In the June 2019 issue of the ASBS Ne... more See: https://www.asbs.org.au/newsletter/pdf/21-sep-188.pdf

In the June 2019 issue of the ASBS Newsletter, Rita Macheda and Luke Vaughan gave an overview of the Foreign Collection Project at the National Herbarium of Victoria (MEL), Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria (RBGV). Here, we provide an update on how the project is progressing, describe the geographic breadth of the collection, and highlight two collectors whose contributions to MEL’s global collection demonstrate the diversity of the herbarium's holdings across space and time.

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Research paper thumbnail of When Suburban In-fill Created a Real Nightmare

Environmental History Now!, 2019

Blog post as part of Environmental History Now!'s one-year anniversary.

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Research paper thumbnail of 721 Chickens, 13 Cows, & One Tuberculosis Sanatorium

Pharos: Professional Historians Association Victoria and Tasmania Inc Newsletter, 2019

Copy of paper presented at "Emerging Historians: Breakthrough." Page 11, issue 117, August-Septem... more Copy of paper presented at "Emerging Historians: Breakthrough."
Page 11, issue 117, August-September 2019 of Pharos.

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Research paper thumbnail of Aerial photography of Melbourne from 1945: A peephole into past technology and landscapes.

The most surprising, and interesting find during my PhD candidature has been the historical aeria... more The most surprising, and interesting find during my PhD candidature has been the historical aerial photography that is available for the city of Melbourne, Australia.

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Research paper thumbnail of Isolation, collapsing lungs and spitting bans: three ways we used to treat TB, and still might

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Conference Presentations by Rebecca Le Get

Research paper thumbnail of Re-using a Diseased Landscape for Healthcare in 20th-Century Melbourne, Australia

From the Black Death to COVID-19: Airborne Diseases in History, Culture, and Literature, 2022

In 1858, after a long sea voyage, a cow found herself in the Colony of Victoria, Australia. Origi... more In 1858, after a long sea voyage, a cow found herself in the Colony of Victoria, Australia. Originally from the United Kingdom, she had been purchased by a farmer at Bundoora, a
locality to the north of Melbourne.
This cow became the index case of a deadly, airborne illness that was new to the continent.
From this one cow, the disease today known as Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia (CBPP)
spread across Australia and the wider Pacific region—at the time, however, its infectious
nature was not universally accepted. Instead CBPP was conceived of as a disease that arose
due to the influence of miasma. The farm’s environment was scrutinized for tell-tale signs of
disease-causing bad airs, and it was suggested that the locality itself was detrimental to
health.
Seventy-five years later, in 1933, a neighboring property opened as a tuberculosis
sanatorium. It had been deliberately placed on the rural fringe of the city of Melbourne, and
its landscape, climate, and fresh air was praised for its health benefits for people with active
tuberculosis infections. This contrasted with the area’s reputation in the previous century, as
a place of miasma-caused disease.
Through this coincidence of history, we have multiple descriptions of the post-colonization
landscape of this area. With these records, we can see how the perception of this locality
changed over time. The focus on how the environment, could be interpreted as contributing
positively, or negatively to the health of humans and livestock infected with two respective
airborne, epidemic diseases requires further exploration. By comparing the 19th- and 20thcentury descriptions of the Bundoora area, it is possible to come to a new understanding of
the way that the same landscape can be re-interpreted over time.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of 'The use and re-use of medicalised landscapes: the retention of former tuberculosis sanatoria sites in Australia, and their utilisation for health in the present'

British Society for the History of Science Global History Twitter Conference, 2020

Tuberculosis marked lungs, but also the landscapes surrounding places of treatment (sanatoria) as... more Tuberculosis marked lungs, but also the landscapes surrounding places of treatment (sanatoria) as a part of treatment. Former sites in SE Australia have been retained as public parklands, but the continued promotion today of these spaces in public health has been little-explored.

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Research paper thumbnail of More than just peaceful and picturesque: how tuberculosis control measures have preserved ecologically significant land in Melbourne

Four government-run tuberculosis sanatoria, located within grassy eucalypt woodlands, once operat... more Four government-run tuberculosis sanatoria, located within grassy eucalypt woodlands, once operated in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. Their landholdings have been partially retained as bushland reserves because of their biodiversity. Yet the reasons for these four properties sharing similar ecology and institutional purposes are largely unknown. This article aims to investigate if the placement of these sanatoria in eucalyptus woodlands was a deliberate action, even though it was not directly attributable to floristic considerations by the state and federal governments at the time of their decision.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Therapeutic labour and the sanatorium farm at Greenvale (1912–1918)

Provenance: The Journal of Public Record Office Victoria, 2021

By the turn of the twentieth century, tuberculosis was understood as a public health concern in A... more By the turn of the twentieth century, tuberculosis was understood as a public health concern in Australia. In response, state governments began to construct specialised hospitals, called sanatoria, for the isolation, education and treatment of tubercular patients. The treatments undertaken in these institutions could involve work in the outdoors, ranging from assisting in maintaining the sanatorium buildings to farm work. But, to date, there has been little examination of the variety of outdoors work that was utilised within these Australian institutions, or which sanatoria instituted these regimens.

The Greenvale Sanatorium, established in 1905 north-west of Melbourne, expanded the role of agriculture in patient therapy in 1912 to a scale that had not previously been seen in Australia. The farm work undertaken at Greenvale is documented in the transcript of a 1918 Royal Commission into the management of the institution, and other records held by Public Record Office Victoria.

Greenvale Sanatorium’s use of farm work as therapy, and as a cost-saving measure, can be traced over time. By examining the sanatorium farm at the time of the Royal Commission’s investigation, and in its wake, it is possible to draw attention to the intrinsic role that patient labour played in early twentieth-century sanatorium operations, and how the land used for farming has contributed to Greenvale’s appearance in the present.

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Research paper thumbnail of Tuberculosis in Echuca, and the Therapeutic Migration to Southeastern Australia (1889–1908)

Arcadia: Explorations in Environmental History, 2018

In the second half of the nineteenth century, tuberculous individuals traveled to southeastern Au... more In the second half of the nineteenth century, tuberculous individuals traveled to southeastern Australia with the hope that living in a new climate would cure them. But once they arrived at this new continent, which country town’s environment would offer the greatest chance of recovery? For many desperate patients the river port of Echuca, surrounded by forests and in a rural area, was their destination.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Under the Shadow of the Tubercle: The Work of Duncan Turner

Health and History, 2018

Doctor Duncan Turner was a Melbourne-based physician with a speciality in chest diseases, includi... more Doctor Duncan Turner was a Melbourne-based physician with a speciality in chest diseases, including tuberculosis. Active from the 1880s to the 1910s, he had a prominent position in Victoria’s medical fraternity. He is primarily remembered an example of the persistence of contagionist-theory denialism in Australia during this period. Such characterisation grossly simplifies his nuanced views and the rationale behind them. Turner held legitimate concerns regarding the social stigma faced by sufferers of tuberculosis, and sought to promote the importance of a healthy environment and climate in preventing chest diseases. Turner’s contribution to medicine should therefore be re-examined, as an example of an individual contesting the discrimination experienced by people with chronic conditions and in need of care.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Contagious bovine pleuro-pneumonia within the 19th century miasmatic landscape

Australian Veterinary Journal, Jul 26, 2018

When Contagious Bovine Pleuro-pneumonia was first detected on a farm north of Melbourne, at Bundo... more When Contagious Bovine Pleuro-pneumonia was first detected on a farm north of Melbourne, at Bundoora in 1858, the predominant theory of miasma was being challenged by contagionist theories of disease transmission. This well-documented case was recorded during a period of change in the scientific assessment of disease, and therefore affords an exploration of what aspects of the landscape were considered important for livestock health at the time. Although the introduction, vaccination programs, and eventual eradication of Contagious Bovine Pleuro-pneumonia on mainland Australia has been well explored, scholars have neglected this aspect of the disease’s history. By comparing 19th century records of farmland with how the site appears today, it is also possible to highlight the limited information provided by contemporary texts, while at the same time developing an appreciation of the ways in which the perception of the rural landscape has changed. This differing perception has implications for the utilisation of these sources for veterinary and environmental historians seeking to understand the mid-19th century agricultural landscape, and how it relates to animal health.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of More than just “Peaceful and Picturesque:” How Tuberculosis Control Measures Have Preserved Ecologically Significant Land in Melbourne

Victorian Historical Journal, 2018

Four government-run tuberculosis sanatoria, located within grassy eucalypt woodlands, once operat... more Four government-run tuberculosis sanatoria, located within grassy eucalypt
woodlands, once operated in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. Their
landholdings have been partially retained as bushland reserves because of
their biodiversity. Yet the reasons for these four properties sharing similar
ecology and institutional purposes are largely unknown. This article aims
to investigate if the placement of these sanatoria in eucalyptus woodlands
was a deliberate action, even though it was not directly attributable to
floristic considerations by the state and federal governments at the time
of their decision.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of A home among the gum trees: the Victorian Sanatorium for Consumptives, Echuca and Mount Macedon

Landscape Research, 2019

The history of the treatment of tuberculosis in Australia has largely been focused on the develop... more The history of the treatment of tuberculosis in Australia has largely been focused on the development of medical treatments, the architectural features of custom-built sanatoria and the human impact of the disease in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These discussions often mention contemporary debates amongst medical men and the laity regarding the best treatment, but the influence of medical climatology in deciding where medical facilities should be placed is often overlooked. The first sanatorium in the Colony of Victoria had two branches: Echuca and Mount Macedon. These two locations differ in terms of altitude, the surrounding forest and meteorological variation. Yet, both sites were considered suitable at the time for the location of a sanatorium, possibly due to the health-promoting and aesthetic aspects of nearby eucalypt forests. This article explores why they may at first modernly appear to be substantially different locations, but contemporary medical climatology emphasised their similarities.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of From sanatoria to urban bushland: An environmental history of Melbourne’s former sites of tuberculosis treatment.

Glen Eira Historical Society, 2021

Presentation given for the Glen Eira Historical Society, May 26, 2021. Rebecca Le Get is an inde... more Presentation given for the Glen Eira Historical Society, May 26, 2021.

Rebecca Le Get is an independent scholar and environmental historian. She is interested in how tuberculosis and its treatment has influenced the development of green spaces and bushland reserves in suburban Melbourne.
Were it not for these forests being selected for healthcare, it is uncertain if these areas of bushland would have persisted into the present.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of 721 Chickens, 13 Cows, and 1 TB sanatorium.

Emerging Historians: Breakthrough!

Presenting a snap-shot of the farmwork undertaken at Greenvale sanatorium in the 1910s, and the a... more Presenting a snap-shot of the farmwork undertaken at Greenvale sanatorium in the 1910s, and the archival research that made this possible.

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Research paper thumbnail of The Victorian Sanatorium for Consumptives: Mount Macedon

Keynote presentation for the Annual General Meeting of the Gisborne and Mount Macedon Districts H... more Keynote presentation for the Annual General Meeting of the Gisborne and Mount Macedon Districts Historical Society, 18 November 2018.

Based upon research published as:
Rebecca Le Get (2018) A home among the gum trees: the Victorian Sanatorium for consumptives, Echuca and Mount Macedon, Landscape Research, DOI: 10.1080/01426397.2018.1439461
and
Rebecca Le Get. (2018). Under the Shadow of the Tubercle: The Work of Duncan Turner. Health and History, 20(1), 72-92. DOI:10.5401/healthhist.20.1.0072

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of "Herbarium"

Botanic News, 2022

"There are approximately 1.5 million specimens under the care of the National Herbarium of Victor... more "There are approximately 1.5 million specimens under the care of the National Herbarium of Victoria (NHV), and each one presents
an opportunity for discovery. One of the thrills of working with this collection is uncovering the interesting—and sometimes extraordinary—stories behind the preserved plants, algae and fungi...."

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of A Healing Hillock, or a True “Magic Mountain”? On Defining the Locations of Tuberculosis Treatment.

Environmental History Now!, 2022

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Taking my PhD learning into post-PhD life

The RED Alert, 2020

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Research paper thumbnail of An update on the Foreign Collection Project at MEL

Australasian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter, 2021

See: https://www.asbs.org.au/newsletter/pdf/21-sep-188.pdf In the June 2019 issue of the ASBS Ne... more See: https://www.asbs.org.au/newsletter/pdf/21-sep-188.pdf

In the June 2019 issue of the ASBS Newsletter, Rita Macheda and Luke Vaughan gave an overview of the Foreign Collection Project at the National Herbarium of Victoria (MEL), Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria (RBGV). Here, we provide an update on how the project is progressing, describe the geographic breadth of the collection, and highlight two collectors whose contributions to MEL’s global collection demonstrate the diversity of the herbarium's holdings across space and time.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of When Suburban In-fill Created a Real Nightmare

Environmental History Now!, 2019

Blog post as part of Environmental History Now!'s one-year anniversary.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of 721 Chickens, 13 Cows, & One Tuberculosis Sanatorium

Pharos: Professional Historians Association Victoria and Tasmania Inc Newsletter, 2019

Copy of paper presented at "Emerging Historians: Breakthrough." Page 11, issue 117, August-Septem... more Copy of paper presented at "Emerging Historians: Breakthrough."
Page 11, issue 117, August-September 2019 of Pharos.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Aerial photography of Melbourne from 1945: A peephole into past technology and landscapes.

The most surprising, and interesting find during my PhD candidature has been the historical aeria... more The most surprising, and interesting find during my PhD candidature has been the historical aerial photography that is available for the city of Melbourne, Australia.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Isolation, collapsing lungs and spitting bans: three ways we used to treat TB, and still might

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Re-using a Diseased Landscape for Healthcare in 20th-Century Melbourne, Australia

From the Black Death to COVID-19: Airborne Diseases in History, Culture, and Literature, 2022

In 1858, after a long sea voyage, a cow found herself in the Colony of Victoria, Australia. Origi... more In 1858, after a long sea voyage, a cow found herself in the Colony of Victoria, Australia. Originally from the United Kingdom, she had been purchased by a farmer at Bundoora, a
locality to the north of Melbourne.
This cow became the index case of a deadly, airborne illness that was new to the continent.
From this one cow, the disease today known as Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia (CBPP)
spread across Australia and the wider Pacific region—at the time, however, its infectious
nature was not universally accepted. Instead CBPP was conceived of as a disease that arose
due to the influence of miasma. The farm’s environment was scrutinized for tell-tale signs of
disease-causing bad airs, and it was suggested that the locality itself was detrimental to
health.
Seventy-five years later, in 1933, a neighboring property opened as a tuberculosis
sanatorium. It had been deliberately placed on the rural fringe of the city of Melbourne, and
its landscape, climate, and fresh air was praised for its health benefits for people with active
tuberculosis infections. This contrasted with the area’s reputation in the previous century, as
a place of miasma-caused disease.
Through this coincidence of history, we have multiple descriptions of the post-colonization
landscape of this area. With these records, we can see how the perception of this locality
changed over time. The focus on how the environment, could be interpreted as contributing
positively, or negatively to the health of humans and livestock infected with two respective
airborne, epidemic diseases requires further exploration. By comparing the 19th- and 20thcentury descriptions of the Bundoora area, it is possible to come to a new understanding of
the way that the same landscape can be re-interpreted over time.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of 'The use and re-use of medicalised landscapes: the retention of former tuberculosis sanatoria sites in Australia, and their utilisation for health in the present'

British Society for the History of Science Global History Twitter Conference, 2020

Tuberculosis marked lungs, but also the landscapes surrounding places of treatment (sanatoria) as... more Tuberculosis marked lungs, but also the landscapes surrounding places of treatment (sanatoria) as a part of treatment. Former sites in SE Australia have been retained as public parklands, but the continued promotion today of these spaces in public health has been little-explored.

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Research paper thumbnail of Hidden Traces of Tuberculosis Treatment Within Suburban Melbourne

2020 Australasian Urban History Planning History Conference , 2020

Located within the peri-urban area that surrounded Melbourne in the first half of the 20th centur... more Located within the peri-urban area that surrounded Melbourne in the first half of the 20th century, were specialised hospitals for treating the bacterial disease tuberculosis called sanatoria. These institutions were placed on the city’s fringe, in order to treat the metropolis’s residents who were suffering from the illness, while keeping patients isolated from the wider world. From being located within or beside eucalypt woodlands that formed a natural barrier, to being confined to the hospital’s grounds, these patients were separated from other people on multiple scales.

Where historians of medicine have been interested in the internal social world of the institution, and the interactions of patients and staff, this focus has inadvertently ignored the development and placement of sanatorium sites themselves. In the city of Melbourne in particular, these former institutional properties have frequently become islands of remnant, indigenous vegetation amongst suburban sprawl, as the city has expanded over the decades. This is due to the treatment for tuberculosis in Australia changing over time, from a disease treated in a communal setting with numerous cases, to the present where tuberculosis cases are individually treated in the general hospital system, or at home. Ultimately, Melbourne’s sanatoria were closed and the buildings were used for other healthcare purposes, or demolished, leaving behind their large, wooded landholdings.

Formerly a natural barrier that discouraged contact with the outside world, these woodlands are not widely recognised for their role in medical history. Instead, they are now understood as publicly-accessible, suburban green spaces that have been reserved for conservation purposes. Isolated from their ecological communities, former sanatoria sites such as the Gresswell Nature Conservation Reserves in northern Melbourne have had their flora protected in legislation, even as the sanatorium buildings were denied heritage protection and demolished. As the surrounding area has become increasingly urbanised, and former employees of the sanatorium have left the area, local knowledge about the woodlands’ role in tuberculosis treatment has been lost.

Today these green spaces now contrast sharply with the dwellings and associated infrastructure that surround them. These conservation areas are still visited, but are no longer are lived within when they were an integral part of medical institutions. Residents living in neighbouring homes appreciate the woodlands as attractive scenery, glimpsed over back fences or through windows, but these areas continue to be considered to be outside of suburbia, and “outside” of the usual conception of urban space. Even if the knowledge that these areas were once deliberately located outside of the city has been forgotten, they still continue not to be integrated into the suburban fabric of Melbourne.

Using environmental history as the means to identify and examine these locations, it is possible question why sanatorium properties are not also discussed as places of medical heritage, and how their place on the periphery may also have ensured that their woodlands persisted into the present day.

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Research paper thumbnail of Agricultural work as therapy: the medicalised environment of the Greenvale sanatorium farm (1912-1918).

Australian and New Zealand Society for the History of Medicine Conference, Melbourne, 2017

Abstract: In Australia, the earliest farm colonies for patients with tuberculosis are generally b... more Abstract: In Australia, the earliest farm colonies for patients with tuberculosis are generally believed to date to the 1920s. However, a “model farm” had been erected at the Greenvale sanatorium in Victoria, Australia, in the decade prior.

The later convalescent farms, that were intended to train returned servicemen with latent tuberculosis infection, for new careers in farming. Yet the Greenvale farm was worked by patients with active tuberculosis disease, before being discharged back to their previous lives, and often inner-city factory and office work. While the sanatorium strove to be self-sufficient in food production, this explanation for the farm’s existence does not satisfactorily explain why in government records it was described as being therapeutic. How was this farm set up, and justified as part of the patient’s re-training to become non-infectious, hygienic, and less likely to relapse into active tuberculosis?

Using archival records from the Public Records Office of Victoria, the Victorian parliament, and the State Library of New South Wales, it is possible to examine the development of the bushland surrounding the Greenvale sanatorium buildings into a work colony, and the historic role it played in the treatment of tuberculosis for Australian men and women. Do the events at Greenvale explain the shift to a communal farming ethic, seen in the tuberculosis farm colonies, of the following decade?

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Research paper thumbnail of A Home Among the Gumtrees: the Rise and Fall of the Victorian Sanatorium for Consumptives, Echuca and Mount Macedon.

Australian Historical Association Conference, 2016

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Research paper thumbnail of History and Fungi: Does Historic Land Use Affect Fungal Diversity?

FungiMap Annual Conference, 2013

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Research paper thumbnail of Red Gums and Scarred Lungs: Melbourne’s River Red Gum Forests, and Tuberculosis Sanatoria

Australian Historical Association Conference, 2013

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Research paper thumbnail of Melbourne’s sanatoria woodlands: landscapes chosen by coincidence, or by design?

Australian Historical Association conference, 2017

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Research paper thumbnail of Doctor Duncan Turner in Melbourne (1874-1918)

2017 Humanities and Social Sciences Higher Degree by Research Conference, 2017

The Scottish-Australian physician Duncan Turner was a specialist in chest diseases including tube... more The Scottish-Australian physician Duncan Turner was a specialist in chest diseases including tuberculosis, and was active from the 1880s to the 1910s. Turner had a prominent position in Victoria’s medical fraternity, yet today he is often only mentioned as an example of the persistence of contagionist-theory denialism in Australia in this period.

Such characterisation grossly simplifies his nuanced views, ignoring his work with two tuberculosis sanatoria, and his ground-breaking development formal qualifications for dentistry, and role in the land conservation of aesthetically valued areas. A re-appraisal of Turner’s legacy to Melbourne’s medical history is therefore proposed.

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Research paper thumbnail of The Anzac Red Cross Repatriation Farm, Janefield (1920-1925)

2018 Humanities and Social Sciences Higher Degree by Research Conference, 2018

At the end of the first world war, a training farm was set up in Bundoora for former soldiers who... more At the end of the first world war, a training farm was set up in Bundoora for former soldiers who were recovering from tuberculosis. Called Janefield, the farm aimed to provide labour therapy while retraining the men as farmers. The examination of the Janefield farm enables consideration of the environmental impacts the farm had upon the property. It also highlights the unique and unprecedented interface of the training farm scheme with the national Soldier Settlement program.
The Janefield training farm stands as a unique element in the rehabilitation of returned, tuberculous servicemen.

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Research paper thumbnail of Intangible Tuberculosis Heritage: The Retention of Former Sanatorium Grounds as Nature Conservation Areas in Australia

Sites of Health: A Symposium on the Medical Humanities (卫生“场域”：医学人文专题研讨会), 2019

Through late nineteenth and early twentieth century Australia, sanatoria for treating tuberculosi... more Through late nineteenth and early twentieth century Australia, sanatoria for treating tuberculosis were erected in, or by, large, woodlands and forests. By the beginning of the twenty-first century, however, many of these institutions have been demolished with their green spaces retained as public lands.

Until now, research into place-specific medical heritage of sanatoria has primarily focused on architectural significance and the re-use of buildings. It has largely ignored the large landholdings that surrounded such institutions, and how these spaces were re-conceptualised after the buildings were demolished.

The public lands that were once sanatoria grounds, are now being used to manage the health of local plants and animals. But they are also unacknowledged places of disease treatment, and ill human health. Using environmental history as the means to identify and examine these locations, it is possible question why sanatorium properties are not also discussed as places of medical heritage.

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Research paper thumbnail of Re-training servicemen for agriculture at Australian Repatriation Training Farms (1920-1925): The heritage of demobilisation after the First World War.

ICOFORT International Conference Proceedings (古代战争与城防古迹遗址保护 国际学术研讨会 论文集), 2019

At the end of the First World War, the Australian government’s Repatriation Department proposed t... more At the end of the First World War, the Australian government’s Repatriation Department proposed to establish a network of training farms for former soldiers who were recovering from active tuberculosis infection and were no longer contagious.

This paper focuses upon one of the two farms that operated, at Janefield. This training farm scheme has attracted little scholarly attention, despite having significant military heritage values for Australia. Currently, portions of the property are preserved as publicly accessible parklands, while other areas have been converted into residential housing and commercial areas. It is through this process of deliberately building over portions of the farm, while simultaneously designating other areas as needed for public green spaces, that makes it possible to critically examine Janefield. It is important to examine what parts of the site have been considered worthy of protection, and how the military heritage of the landscape has been preserved.

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