Stories from our Elders: My passionate friendship with a rebel poet
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Who was Alison Hoddinot and how did her early life in Tasmania shape her ambitions?
All this week on Conversations, we're bringing you stories from our elders. And today, it's my conversation with the late Alison Hodnot. Alison was born in Tasmania in 1931. And as a young woman, she won a scholarship to study at Oxford University. But when she arrived, none of the male professors, including J.R.R. Tolkien, would take on a woman PhD student. Back in Tasmania, Alison became great friends with the poet Gwen Harwood. The two shared recipes, letters and the challenges of combining work and motherhood. And during their friendship, Gwen shocked the nation when she pulled an outrageous literary hoax on the Bulletin magazine. I spoke with Alison in 2018 about her life story. Hi, Alison. Hello. I lived in Hobart for a year, Alison, and when I was there, people would always introduce themselves to me as fifth generation Tasmanian or fourth generation Tasmanian.
Is that true for you? Yes,
I was fourth generation on both sides. But I think it's arguable whether I'd be a dual citizen as I'm married an Englishman.
So both of your parents were Tasmanian? They
were
both Tasmanian. From
which part? My father came from a family on the northwest coast beyond Devonport. It was called Central Castro. And when I asked him why a neighbouring town was called Kindred, he looked at me in amazement and said, because all of them were related there, you know. And my mother came from a family in Hobart. which had been there for several generations, it was always hushed up the fact that my grandfather was the grandson of a convict who had been transported. My father said, you didn't need to know about that. He came from free Scottish settlers from the north of Tasmania.
And were they proudly Tasmanian? Did that state
identity...? Oh, yes. Oh, yes. You were a Tasmanian. You talked about Melbourne as the other side... And I didn't leave Tasmania until I was 17. What did your father do for work, Alison? My father was a lawyer and then he became a senator and he combined his legal practice with being a senator. He was there. He went into the Senate with Bob Menzies in 49 and he didn't retire until the late 70s.
And did that affect your family life growing up, the fact that he was a senator? He must have been away from home a lot.
He was away from home from Monday till Friday and he used to come home and we would say, he's just coming up the road now. Turn off all the lights. We're all going to be in the same room at the same time because Dad was very conscious of the fact that we were wasting electricity.
Oh, right. So you'd all quickly run into the one room?
Yeah, we'd run into the one room and just have the one room.
So were things more relaxed when
he was away in Canberra? He'd been in the army, of course,
during the
war.
Where was he stationed?
He was stationed in North Queensland. He was prepared to go away and bleed and die for country. And he was very upset that he was not being sent to the Middle East because Japan just came into the war and Curtin decided that all troops would remain in Australia to repel the enemy. So he was sent to North Queensland, where he... He marched his men up and down the road in order to keep them active and happy.
Do you remember your father
coming home then once the war was over? Yes, I do. I remember him coming home and he had delayed enlisting until the end of 1940 because my younger sister, who was the fourth in the family, was due to be born in December of that year. So he waited till she was hatched and then he enlisted, leaving my mother with the four children during the war. And she was extremely, extremely brave in her management of the children. But my sister, who had not seen him since she was a baby, was very taken aback because he brought with her the only present he could think of, which was a statue, a marble statue of a Greek goddess. For
your
baby sister. She thought, what is this? She often told the story about how she thought, who is this strange man? And what is this odd marble figure that he is giving me? I wonder where he acquired that from. I don't know. It was not easy to get soft, cuddly toys, I think,
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Who was Alison Hoddinot and how did her early life in Tasmania shape her ambitions?
0:00–5:24
2
What obstacles did Alison face as a woman scholar at Oxford, especially with J.R.R. Tolkien?
5:24–9:57
3
How did Alison meet poet Gwen Harwood and what made their friendship so unique?
9:57–16:13
4
What were the daily rituals, recipes and letters that defined Alison and Gwen’s domestic bond?
16:13–22:33
5
How did Gwen Harwood execute the infamous 1961 Bulletin hoax using acrostic sonnets?
22:33–29:03
6
What were the reactions and repercussions for Gwen after the hoax was uncovered?
29:03–36:11
7
Why did Alison investigate her family’s convict ancestry and what did she discover?
36:11–43:32
8
How does Alison reflect on balancing career, motherhood, and the legacy of women’s education?
43:32–51:01
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Conversations
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