Welcome to the Malemijo website. Malemijo was an experiment in self-sufficiency that started in East Gippsland in Victoria, Australia in 1976. Mario, Lesley, Miriam and Joe Zolin transplanted themselves from suburban Melbourne and took up homesteading on 32 acres (12 Ha) of land bordering State Forest. It was an ‘all or nothing’ move. Mario and Lesley sold the house in Melbourne, took the kids out of school, left their jobs… a complete fresh start, aiming at self-determination and attempting to practise what people in this century are calling sustainable living.
Lesley kept a journal for 5 years – from 1976 until 1981. The Journal blog replicates the journal, and is transcribed by me (Miriam Zolin) from the original hand-written pages. It’s currently a work in progress as each entry is added by hand, with scanned images from the original journal.
The family also produced a magazine called Gone Bush, printed by hand on the Gestetner and collated on the home-made dining table. Gone bush will also be uploaded with the most popular ‘how-to’ pamphlets made available for download in eBook format.
If you’re reading this and want to know more, I’m on Instagram at @miriam.zolin and I’d love to hear from you.