Helen was born and bred in South Africa to English parents. Though her upbringing was privileged compared to many others, she was aware from a young age of both politics and the social and racial inequality that permeated South African society, and her family was opposed to the apartheid system.  She would eventually meet Owen, an Australian man in South Africa after hitch-hiking through Africa and to cut a long story short, they ended up in Launceston, Tasmania, where they have lived for around 40 years.Adjusting to life in Australia and Tasmania was not as easy as Helen had expected. Despite coming from an English-speaking country, there were certain things that were vastly different.