In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, multi-award-winning journalist and author Kate Legge chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about her choices while crafting Kindred: A Cradle Mountain Love Story.
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
- The remarkable true love story of Gustav Weindorfer (an Austrian immigrant) and Kate Cowle (a trailblazing Tasmanian mountaineer), and how their shared passion for Cradle Mountain ignited one of Australia’s earliest conservation movements.
- How Legge braided biography, nature writing and love story to seamlessly intertwine Gustav and Kate’s romance with their love of Tasmania’s wilderness, making the landscape a vivid character in the narrative.
- How Kindred is structured, with each chapter covering a stage of Kate and Gustav’s journey.
- The novelistic storytelling techniques Legge used to bring history alive.
- Kate Legge’s reflections on humanity’s relationship with nature while crafting Kindred.
- The resonant parallels between the Weindorfers’ era and today, echoing contemporary themes of sustainability, women’s agency and equality.
- A moving epilogue to their story: in 2024, Kate’s ashes were finally laid to rest beside Gustav’s in Cradle Valley, reuniting them at last and underscoring the enduring legacy of their love and vision.
