The Peel Island Lazaret (Episode 55)

This week it's a public health special on a topic you probably don't need to worry too much about: leprosy. Today it's treated with a three-drug cocktail, but in 1892 Queensland, Australia, it was so feared that the government made Peel Island, off the cost of Brisbane, into a leper colony. Here, sufferers from across the state would be housed, treated, and kept isolated from the general population until they died. Of course, from the moment the first patients arrived ... nothing went smoothly.

On this episode, we're getting into healthcare architecture, uninhabited islands, Hansen's Disease, some incredibly racist public health policies, dueling pianos, and why you shouldn't inject gold into your bloodstream.

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Main sources for this episode include:

“Isolation and Segregation: An Intercultural Analysis of the Peel Island Lazaret” by Juckes, Greenop, and Jarzab, 2013

“Peel Island: Paradise or Prison?” by P Ludlow, 1999

"Peel Island Lazaret" CyArk Project, 2017

"'Intended solely for their greater comfort and happiness': Historical archaeology, paternalism and the Peel Island Lazaret", by J M Prangnell, 1999