Meg McKeown From Lenah Valley

by Hobart Magazine

Having just spent a year in Antarctica, Dr Meg is ready to get back to her patients and passion projects in Hobart.

What do you love about the suburb you live in?

We are in Lenah Valley, right on the edge of the Mountain, and I can go for a run through the bush; but equally we are close enough to Cornelian Bay to go for a run by the river. I love being so close to nature whether it be the water or the trees.

What’s the best thing about Hobart?

I grew up on the North West Coast of Tasmania and moved away to the mainland after school to study Veterinary Science, something I couldn’t study in Tassie. I lived away for 20 years but have been back for 7 years now. Hobart has always been a happy place for me to visit when I lived interstate. Now I am back, my husband Graeme and I are lucky enough to call Hobart home.

And the worst?

I don’t like the way the housing crisis is accelerating, I worry about this aspect of Hobart.

Tell us a little about your work?

I am not a vet anymore after returning to uni to study medicine in 2006, I am now a GP. I have just spent 12 months in Antarctica as an Expedition Medical Officer for the Australian Antarctic Program but now I am heading home to give some attention to my home state. I will be working as a street medicine doctor with Moreton Group Medical Services and you might see me and other GPs in Hobart and the surrounds bringing care to the vulnerable Hobartians.

Where’s your favourite eatery?

I am so excited to get back to Hobart and see all the new eateries. I hear the Red Square Precinct at Macquarie Point has come alive and I can’t wait to see how it has changed while I have been in Antarctica. I have heard good things about the coffee and snacks at Evan’s Street Eatery there.

Drink of choice and where do you head for it?

For a good coffee with a view I love to head to the Mt Nelson Signal Station. For a gin or other Tasmanian drink I will be in Gold Bar, Hobart’s own speakeasy.

Guilty pleasure?

Devouring a vanilla slice from the bakery inside Hill Street or hot chips from the Corner Bite in Lenah Valley.

What do you never leave home without?

I never leave home without saying goodbye to my little border terrier Wurzel.

When there’s nothing to do, I . . .

Have a nap!

Favourite Hobart secret?

More of a fun fact than a secret and I hope one day it is true again but in the 1800s: “there was a time when residents of the Hobart suburb of Taroona complained of being kept awake by the sounds of whales snorting in the River Derwent”.

What do you love doing outside work?

Outside my paid work I busy myself with a charity I cofounded called Sportula Microgrants. It is a Tasmanian grass roots charity that helps make life better for the medical students while they study at the University of Tasmania. Seeing medical students make it through their studies and become junior doctors has been very rewarding.

Quote to live by?

“Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are” Theodore Roosevelt 1913. ■

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