{"id":1596,"date":"2020-03-30T16:30:35","date_gmt":"2020-03-30T06:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/?page_id=1596"},"modified":"2020-04-24T11:20:40","modified_gmt":"2020-04-24T00:50:40","slug":"lolo-houbein-author-conservationist","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/?page_id=1596","title":{"rendered":"Lolo Houbein; Author & Conservationist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Text and Images: Elisabeth Anderson<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around 2006 a department at Curtin\nUniversity set out on a quest to preserve the Dutch cultural heritage of\nAustralia\u2019s immigrants. As part of their research the History of Migration\nExperiences Centre gathered stories Australia-wide for its website Dutch Australians At A Glance <\/em>and, <\/em>as a contributor, I saw this as the\nright opportunity to shine a light on well-known Adelaide Hills dweller,\naccomplished author and conservationist Lolo Houbein, whom I had previously met\nat her writers\u2019 workshops in Stirling\u2019s Coventry Library.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lolo, who was born in Hilversum in the\nprovince of North Holland, came to Australia from The Netherlands with her\nhusband and children in 1958 at the age of 24. She spoke no English yet eleven\nyears later she matriculated as an adult student, continued her studies and\nbecame an accomplished writer in English, with an impressive list of awards and\ncommendations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Lolo in Amsterdam in 1951 <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Lolo achieved her Bachelor of Arts in\nAustralian Literature, Anthropology and Classical Studies through the\nUniversity of Adelaide in 1975 and then furthered her studies at the University\nof Papua New Guinea before gaining a Graduate Diploma in Teaching from the\nAdelaide College of Advanced Education in 1978. This was also the year when she\nreceived her first literary prize, the Rolf Boldrewood Short Story Award, for No Stranger,<\/em> at Eaglehawk in Victoria. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The genre of the novels, histories, poetry, essays and short\nstories that followed would reflect sensitivity to a life enriched by travel,\ncultures, migration and also the environment. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A critic described one of her early works, a 1988 autobiography of\nrace and identity titled Wrong Face in\nthe Mirror<\/em>, as an \u201celegant testimony to her command of the learned\nlanguage\u201dand it earnt her the Dirk\nHartog Award for Migration Literature (Amsterdam).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her novel Walk a Barefoot\nRoad,<\/em> published in the same year, depicted \u201cwith numbing clarity the\nalienation and solitude of the migrant\u201d, in the words of the reviewer, and for\nthis she received the ABC Bicentennial Award. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Lolo Houbein\u2019s novel Walk a Barefoot Road<\/em> winner of the ABC Bicentennial Award in 1988. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Lolo also assembled Australia’s\nfirst bibliography of ethnic writers, now part of the Australian Literature\nData Base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of the foregoing can be found in\nmore detail on www.daaag.org<\/a> \u2013 \u201cArt and Culture\u201d, <\/em>the website created at Curtin University. And those who wish to touch\nmore than the surface of Lolo\u2019s fascinating life story and view of the world\nwill find her autobiography Wrong Face in\nthe Mirror <\/em>(1988) an absorbing read. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/em>But her story continues. Out of her profound\npersonal childhood experiences of famine during the food shortages of World War\n2 has now emerged a trilogy of beautifully produced books in which Lolo guides\nhouseholds to her way of achieving fertile vegetable gardens and nourishing\nmeals and so steer them through\nclimate change, global warming, and \u201cwhat\u2019s to come\u201d.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Her first book, One Magic Square:\nGrow Your Own Food on One Square Metre<\/em> (2008), is a hands-on guide for growing organic vegetables. It won\na Gourmand Award in 2009 and was short listed for the Le Cordon Bleu Best Food\nBook in 2010. It is also published in New Zealand, North America, South Africa\nand Great Britain and has never been out of print. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its companion book, Outside the Magic Square: A Handbook for\nFood Security, <\/em>followed in 2012. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By 2019 she and co-author Tori Arbon\nhad collaborated to complete the trilogy with Magic Little Meals: Making the Most of Homegrown Produce. <\/em>Many\nhouseholds now have and use all three publications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In her foreword Lolo reveals her passion for the land and\nexpresses concern about the speed at which the Australian environment is being\nlogged, mined out and sold off. It is an issue that had already demanded her\nattention nearly four decades earlier. In 1981 she and long-time partner\nBurwell Dodd established the movement today known as Trees for Life in South\nAustralia. Millions of native trees have been grown and planted since then to\nchange the landscape of this State. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1996 Lolo founded, and then\nco-ordinated for six years, the South Australian branch of the voluntary\nmovement Wrap with Love. She inspired many to knit and crochet wraps for people\nexposed to the cold and susceptible to hypothermia and especially those who had\nexperienced loss and trauma as a result of war. Wrap with Love continues today\nas an autonomous movement. It has a world-wide outreach and in 2019 contributors made 25,295 wraps distributed to\n17 countries as well as Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Portrait of Lolo by Dutch-Australian photographer Eric Algra <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Lolo admits to an endless list of\nother things that she would have liked to do or write and feels that life is\nsimply too short. Meanwhile however, suffice it to say that her far-reaching endeavours\nwere officially recognised in 2002 when she received the Australian Medal for\nServices to Literature and the Environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn more about Lolo Houbein in our Gardening topic here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n


Do you have stories or memories of Lolo Houbein and her time in the Adelaide Hills? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contact us at mldhsgateways@mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au<\/a> or drop into the History Centre at the Coventry Library, 63 Mount Barker Road, Stirling.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Text and Images: Elisabeth Anderson Around 2006 a department at Curtin University set out on a quest to preserve the Dutch cultural heritage of Australia\u2019s immigrants. As part of their research the History of Migration Experiences Centre gathered stories Australia-wide for its website Dutch Australians At A Glance and, as a contributor, I saw this … Continue reading “Lolo Houbein; Author & Conservationist”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"spay_email":""},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/PaNLq6-pK","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1702,"url":"https:\/\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/?page_id=1702","url_meta":{"origin":1596,"position":0},"title":"From Famine to Magic Food Plots","date":"April 18, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Text and Images: Elisabeth Anderson Lolo feeds the chickens at her Uncle Wim\u2019s in Holland As a young girl Lolo Houbein saw her hometown in western Holland implode under the impact of World War II, until all animals, birds and rodents were eaten, all fish angled, all trees used for\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1605,"url":"https:\/\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/?page_id=1605","url_meta":{"origin":1596,"position":1},"title":"Our Migrant Heritage","date":"March 30, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Return to Gateways Topics In this section we explore the impact of those people who have come from other countries to make the Hills their home and we tell their stories from past and present. Italian Migrants in the Adelaide Hills Fr Frank Manak Joseph Stanislaus Ostoja-Kotkowski My 1951 Sea\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2137,"url":"https:\/\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/?page_id=2137","url_meta":{"origin":1596,"position":2},"title":"Our Migrant Heritage","date":"July 8, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Return to Gateways Topics In this section we explore the impact of those people who have come from other countries to make the Hills their home and we tell their stories from past and present. Italian Migrants The Rossini Family The Good Neighbour Council Fr. Frank Manak The Rutte Family\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Manna-2a.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1822,"url":"https:\/\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/?page_id=1822","url_meta":{"origin":1596,"position":3},"title":"My 1951 Sea Voyage","date":"April 25, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Text and Images: Elisabeth Anderson As with Barbara Wall, (read Barbara's story here) the Corona Virus pandemic of 2019-2020 and the saga of the cruise ships have brought to mind for me a long-ago sea voyage. Mine was with my mother and three siblings, immigrating to Australia in 1951. And\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/my-sea-voyage.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3799,"url":"https:\/\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/?page_id=3799","url_meta":{"origin":1596,"position":4},"title":"Jong’s Flowers","date":"July 20, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Driving through the hamlet of Forreston, you can be puzzled to know what the large enterprise is on the western side of the road, with its sizeable collection of greenhouses. Signage is not prominent, because this is a wholesale business that makes no great effort to capture the passing retail\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/botanic-gardens-Glimpse-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2690,"url":"https:\/\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/?page_id=2690","url_meta":{"origin":1596,"position":5},"title":"New Acquisitions April 2021","date":"July 2, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Text: Jackie MussaredImages: Jackie Mussared A selection of new items added to our archive during April 2021 The Practical Home Gardener A copy of T R N Lothian\u2019s book \u2018The Practical Home Gardener\u2019 was given to MLDHS by the Lothian family. The subtitle is: A Guide to the Cultivation of\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Picture1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1596"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1596"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1820,"href":"https:\/\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1596\/revisions\/1820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}