Meder grew up in the Principality of Bukovina, a multicultural locality then under Romanian administration. As early as 1775 Bukovina had a non-Romanian population constituting 25% of the total and it has been part of Moldavia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Russia, Romania and the Ukraine. Meder's family were fluent in four languages. She went to Hamburg as a refugee and published work in Germany and Switzerland through the Heim Verlag. Meder settled in Australia with her husband and children. She studied at the University of Queensland in order to regain her qualifications to tutor in biology and then worked fulltime as a teacher.
