Bob's Backyard

At 72, Greens founder Bob Brown may be retired, but there’s no sign of the environmental warrior giving up the battle to save the planet. And right beside him is his partner, Paul Thomas. Samantha Trenoweth meets the devoted activists.

- Samantha Trenoweth

A gentle, drizzling rain drifts across green-grey hills and collects in tiny pearls on Bob Brown’s hand-knitted jumper. The retired Senator and former Australian Greens leader has quite the fan-base among women of a certain age who provide him with a treasure-trove of homespun knitwear. While Bob feeds the chooks, his partner of 21 years, Paul Thomas, dashes off to put a roast in the oven. A neighbour has whipped up a lemon and poppy seed cake for afternoon tea. It would be fair to say that Bob Brown is enjoying a comfortable retirement. “I’ve never been happier,” he says earnestly.

Bob, 72, and Paul, 61, have invited The Weekly to spend a day with them on Paul’s property, 43 hectares of rolling sheep country and bush land on the Huon River, south of Hobart. Further downhill, they have built a new house on the water, which looks out across the D’Entrecasteaux Channel towards the Southern Ocean and Antarctica. Without companionship, one could feel precariously balanced on the edge of the world here, but there’s no risk of that.

Paul’s family has been tilling the soil along the Huon for five generations and his brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews are dotted through these hills, alongside the sheep and apple trees. Paul’s father passed away last year, but his mother still lives a stone’s throw away. And Bob and Paul have gathered around them a warm, supportive circle of friends, some of whom will be arriving later to share that roast.

“We’re a family that accepts you, whoever you are and whatever you do, and Bob has become part of our family,” says Paul’s youngest sister, Mary. “I think it was initially a bit of a struggle for our parents – being Catholic – to accept a gay son and his partner, and have them sitting around the family dining table.”