About Jocelyn Auer

Photo: Marion Lester

I grew up in central Victoria.  Maryborough was then a thriving industrial town with a strong Catholic, Protestant divide.  Not a lot happened in the town but New Year celebrations were a big deal with dozens of pipe and brass bands and wonderfully decorated floats parading down the main street.  I made it to university – studied economics and politics – at Monash the year it opened (1960).   There were just 350 students in that first year, lots of mud and wild winds. I scraped through but learnt lots.

After travel and more study – social history at Birmingham University in England – I moved to South Australia in the mid 1970s and retrained as a social worker at Flinders.  Over the years I’ve worked in correctional services, women’s health and the wider health sector, universities and as a freelance consultant in review and evaluation.

I live with my partner of 20+ years in the Adelaide Hills, on 100 acres of steep, rocky, grazing and bush land. We have a small stone cottage, an even smaller western red cedar cubby, a wonderfully productive home orchard, 2 wonderfully unproductive red kelpies and 8 breeding cows.  I work from my office which sits under the main shed roof.  Often there are blue wrens, red-browed finches, singing thrushes and nesting pardalotes.  The views are stunning!