Wendy Lowenstein


Wendy Lowenstein 1927—2006 was an Australian historian, author and teacher notable for her recording of people's everyday experiences and her advocacy of social activism.
She pioneered oral history in Australia, with Weevils in the Flour in 1978 but she began collecting folklore and oral histories of early Australian working life in the 1960s.
Lowenstein experienced working life in different industries, as a proofreader, print and radio journalist, full-time mother, folklore collector, a teacher-librarian, a writer, an oral historian and a public speaker on working life and self-publishing.

Oral history recordings

The Lowenstein Oral History Collection consists of at least 741 hours of interviews recorded between 1969 and 1999. The interviews in the collection cover a diverse range of topics from the social effects of the 1930s Depression and working life in Australia to Children's Rhymes and Australian folklore, from pearl luggers and the Gurindji strike and walk-off in Wave Hill to the Patrick's Waterside dispute at Melbourne Docklands in 1998.

Topics recorded

Australian outback interviews — 1969

109 work; 126 hours
These works were recorded during a year-long collecting trip in 1969, when the Lowenstein family, travelled around Australia. This was Wendy Lowenstein's first major collecting trip and many of the interviews were used as material for "Weevils in the Flour". However the collection, which consists of 126 hours of sound recordings also gives a vivid picture of Outback life in Northern Australia in 1969.
Copies are held in the Lowenstein Family Collection, the National Library, the State Library of Victoria and some recordings are also available in libraries in Western Australia and Queensland.

Australian Folklore and Social History 1968–1972

TBA work; TBA hours, description and information to be added

Interviews including:

1930's Depression in Australia

TBA work; TBA hours description and information to be added

Interviews including:

Melbourne waterside workers

60 work; 60 hours description and information to be added

Interviews including:

Communists and the left in the arts and community

99 work; 125 hours; description and information to be added
Interviews including:

Oral history of childhood

5 work; 9 hours description and information to be added
Interviews including:

Robe river / pekoe wallsend industrial dispute

TBA work; TBA hours description and information to be added

Interviews including:

Changes to working life in Australia — 1990s

TBA work; TBA hours description and information to be added

Interviews including:

Wonthaggi coal mining interviews

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Interviews including:

Miscellaneous interviews

39 work; 59 hours ; description and information to be added

Interviews including:

Published works based on oral history recordings

Wendy Lowenstein is chiefly known for her written oral histories, which include The Immigrants 1977, Weevils in the Flour 1978 and Under The Hook 1992. Lowenstein is less well known for her recordings of Australian folklore and her passionate commitment to interviewing everyday people about Australian working life. Her work concentrates on early manual labouring industries such as coal mining, cane cutting, northern cattle station work, waterside workers and the pearling industry. Lowenstein sought to record the worker's perspective in a range of industrial disputes over wages, and working conditions and "closed shop" worksites, where union membership was required to be employed. She has recorded interviews from strikes and

The Immigrants

by Wendy Lowenstein and Morag Loh, Hyland House, Melbourne, 1977.
This book tells the experiences of 17 immigrants who came to Australia in living memory, who tell their story in their own words. Foreword by Professor Henry Mayer, University of Sydney states " It is the authors' achievement to have translated these immigrant and human voices into vivid print."

Weevils in the flour

by Wendy Lowenstein, Hyland House/Scribe 1978
Weevils in the Flour: An oral record of the 1930s depression in Australia is Lowenstein's best-known book. Published in 1978, it was an immediate best seller and was awarded the Royal Blind Society's first Talking Book of the Year in 1980. The foreword of Weevils in the Flour was written by Professor Manning Clark
Professor Russel Ward, reviewing Lowenstein's book in "The Age" said,

Under the hook

by Wendy Lowenstein & Tom Hills Bookworkers Press
Under the Hook – Melbourne Waterside Workers'Remember 1900–1998 is an oral history written in the words of the rank and file wharfies. Whilst interviewing for Weevils in the Flour, Lowenstein met veteran Melbourne wharfie Tom Hills. With Hills collaboration "Under the Hook: Melbourne waterside workers remember 1900–1998", was self-published under her Bookworkers' Press imprint. Whilst the mechanised waterfront in Melbourne employed far fewer wharfies, Under the Hook was almost sold out. The first edition covered the period from 1900 – 1980.
The making of this history of working on the Melbourne waterfront was featured in an episode of ABC Big Country called Lowenstein and Hills. To view this
During the lock-out of the "Patrick's dispute", the Maritime Union workers picketing East Swanston dock asked Lowenstein to record them "making history". This revised and updated 2nd edition of "Under the Hook" which included interviews during the "Patricks" dispute of 1998.

Weevils at work

description and information to be added
The recordings associated with Weevils at Work include the 80 interviews Lowenstein recorded in Pannawonica and Robe River in 1986 – 1988 during the Pekoe Wallsend industrial dispute. These recordings give a vivid picture of working life, changes in working conditions, family life, and the community which were all divided and affected by the prolonged dispute in Robe River W.A. These recordings are held in the Lowenstein Family Collection.

Miscellaneous publications

1. Shocking Shocking Shocking
2. Self Publishing Without Pain
3. Ron Edwards

Lowenstein manuscript collection

Lowenstein family oral history recordings

The Lowenstein Family holds Wendy Lowenstein's personal collection of oral history recordings. These recordings will be available and a full listing is under preparation.

Topics recorded in this collection

A massive collection of 741 hours of Wendy Lowenstein's early oral history interviews and Australian folk material is kept in the National Library of Australia, Oral History Collection. The subject of these recordings is summarised below although most recordings are not individually listed in the NLA catalogue due to the size of the collection.

Topics recorded in this collection

1930's Depression Sound Recordings

Melbourne Waterside Workers

Oral History of Childhood

Ron Edwards Interviews

Australian Outback Interviews 1969

Australian Folklore and Social History

Communists and the Left in the Arts and Community

Miscellaneous Recordings

Unlisted Recordings

TOTAL NLA Lowenstein Collection Duration: 740 hours of sound recording interviews

Social activism

Wendy Lowenstein was a social activist most of her life. In 1955, Lowenstein co-founded the Folk Lore Society of Victoria with Ian Turner and she contributed to and edited the Folk Lore Society of Victoria's magazine Gumsucker's Gazette, later Australian Tradition, for fifteen years. Shirley Andrews and Wendy Lowenstein worked together on the committee which organised the first Festival was held in Melbourne in 1967.
She worked voluntarily for organisations such as People for Nuclear Disarmament and Arts Action for Peace, and protested vigorously whenever she felt funding cutbacks affected culture and the Arts.

Tributes

Richard Lowenstein, "An ear for the ordinary folk: Wendy Lowenstein, 1927–2006" The Sydney Morning Herald, 26 October 2006
Richard Lowenstein – Video Memorial:
Phyl Lobl "Wendy Lowenstein, 1927–2006: A Woman of Worth"
June Factor Dedicated worker with Words in The Australian
Professor Henry Mayer, University of Sydney in his foreword to "The Immigrants"
Mark Gregory "Wendy Katherin Lowenstein