[1][2] The son of New Zealand painter Gottfried Lindauer, he was born in 1888 in Auckland, and grew up in Woodville, spending a considerable part of his boyhood in the native bush.

He trained as a teacher and after two years service in WWI with the US Army, he returned to New Zealand.

In 1927 Lindauer married Elsie (née Lovell), and in 1931, after the births of four children, the family moved to Russell where he had been appointed headmaster of the primary school.

[3] In 1935, Josephine Tilden and a team of phycologists from the University of Minnesota came to Russell to collect seaweeds and enlisted his help to provide a place (the local school) to handle their material.

[1][2] They also invited him to participate, and thus began his lifelong quest to collect New Zealand seaweeds.