Born in Howick (a suburb of Auckland), Hilary Roots 'had lived in upstate New York as an American Field Service scholar in the early 60s, studied political science at Canterbury University, and had worked in Australian radio and television' before she settled on the Isle of Pines (Melanesia) with her partner Albert Thoma in the mid 1970s.
Roots and Thomas were also also associated with the Noosa Federation of the Arts.
Source: NZ Herald, Courier-Mail.
