Australian of the Year Katherine Bennell-Pegg says Tasmania is now a global hub for extreme and remote environment medicine, having joined leading astronauts, engineers and doctors in Hobart for a major space medicine workshop.
Bennell-Pegg, Australia’s first professional astronaut, took part in Humans in Space: Challenges for Exploration 2026, a four-day event running from August 24 to 27 at the Crowne Plaza in Hobart.
“It’s so great to be here in Tassie,” she told Pulse.
“Tassie’s now a global hub for extreme and remote environment medicine, whether that’s Antarctica, space or remote and regional Australia.”
The workshop is hosted by the Australasian Society of Aerospace Medicine and forms part of the Tasmanian School of Medicine’s Healthcare in Remote and Extreme Environments program.
Bennell-Pegg said she was learning alongside an impressive group, including a retired Canadian astronaut and researchers with deep spaceflight experience.
“So there’s a lot of learnings that I’m taking, but I’m also contributing through the insights I learn on astronaut training as well,” she said.
“So it’s a real meeting of minds.”
She said she was determined to be ready if given the chance to represent Australia in space.
“I wanna leave nothing on the field to bring the benefits back home,” she said.
Bennell-Pegg was named 2026 Australian of the Year after becoming the first Australian to qualify as an astronaut under Australia’s space program.
She graduated from Basic Astronaut Training at the European Astronaut Centre in 2024.
Her Hobart visit comes shortly after she completed the Tasmanian School of Medicine’s Expedition Medicine course at Mount Cameron, an eight-day program delivered in partnership with the Australian Antarctic Division.
Bennell-Pegg said the space sector held enormous economic potential, with the global space economy set to triple in the next decade.
“People are now starting to realize that space isn’t a nice to have, it’s a need to have and it’s also an opportunity that underpins our future,” she said.
She also used her platform to push for more young people to pursue technical subjects, saying year 12 enrolments in intermediate and higher maths and physics are at their lowest on record.
“We need to have every curious mind engaged regardless of gender or background or of post code,” she said.
