Overview

In 1929, eleven-year-old Lotte Steffen arrived in Australia from Germany with her family after they lost everything. Like many migrants of the interwar period, they came seeking the possibility of starting again. What awaited them was not comfort or certainty, but a demanding life in rural Central Queensland. With no formal schooling in Australia, Lotte learned instead through work, observation, and persistence. Over time she became a prolific letter writer, farmer, businesswoman, mother and a grandmother. Her life unfolded across multiple moves and settlements, shaped by the realities of rural life, family responsibility, and constant adaptation to new environments. In her sixties, Lotte began writing her memoir, drawing on memory and lived experience to record a life shaped by migration and change. What emerges is not a romanticised account of settlement, but a grounded, firsthand record of what it meant to build a life in regional Australia across the twentieth century. This memoir traces a family's repeated acts of starting again: moving to unfamiliar places, working the land, forming communities, and sustaining family life through hardship and uncertainty. It offers a personal perspective on the broader story of Australian migration, rural settlement, and resilience, told through the steady and observant voice of a woman who lived it. At its heart, this is a story about belonging - to family, to place, and the animals she cared for. It is both a family record and a contribution to Australia's migration history, preserving experiences that might otherwise be lost. Written with candour and humour, Lotte shares a rich account of a life shaped by family, hard work and continual change.

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Lotte Steffen migrated from Germany to Australia in 1929 at the age of eleven, after her family lost everything. They arrived seeking a new beginning in rural Central Queensland.With no formal schooling in Australia, Lotte became a prolific letter writer, farmer, businesswoman, mother and grandmother. In her sixties, she embarked on writing her memoir, determined to record the life she had lived.This memoir traces a family's repeated acts of starting again: moving, settling, working the land, and forming connections in unfamiliar places. It is a record of endurance, adaptation and memory, told in the voice of a woman whose family and beloved animals were always at the heart of her life.

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