Rebecca Le Get is an environmental historian and ecologist, who is currently focusing on the history of properties where tuberculosis was treated in southern Australia. She is particularly interested in the role that the landscape frequently played in therapeutic responses to tuberculosis in the late 19th to mid 20th century, and is eager to connect with scholars with a similar focus.
Rebecca recently completed a PhD in environmental history, examining five former tuberculosis treatment institutions in 19th and 20th century Victoria, Australia. Her thesis argued for a re-assessment of these locations, as the rationale for preserving these areas has been, to date, motivated by their ecological values alone. This environmental focus has influenced how these lands are interpreted for the public and understood by land managers, inadvertently obscuring their significant medical heritage values.
As a part of her continuing research, Rebecca hopes to continue to raise awareness around the medical heritage values of sites that may no longer have obvious remains of hospital buildings and infrastructure, and that such areas require conservation management plans that not only preserve biodiversity, but also preserves the heritage and historical knowledge of such sites.