Dora Birtles was suspended from Sydney University for a poem written for the periodical Hermes. Her future husband Bert Birtles (q.v.) was expelled for a similar reason. With her university education interrupted, Dora Birtles studied teaching and was posted to a school in Newcastle. While there she began a novel for children, Pioneer Shack, based on an incident in her own family, which she finished in 1933. After the publication of her novel The Overlanders (1946), Pioneer Shack was published in 1947 and a further novel for children Bonza the Bull in 1950. Dora Birtles also wrote an account of a sea voyage from Newcastle to Singapore, North-West by North (1935)
Source: An Interview with Dora Birtles by Kerry White, Reading Time 32.3 (1988): 21-22.