Evan HenryThomas arrived in Hobart Town in August 1822. An editor and lawyer in Ireland, he worked at a variety of jobs in Tasmania, including teacher, legal adviser, innkeeper and pastrycook. He contributed poetry to the Hobart Town Gazette in the year of his arrival and was appointed editor in 1824.
Thomas had married in 1823 and following the sale of his wife's hotel, he moved to Launceston where he became a commission agent and auctioneer. After visiting England in 1830-1831, to claim his share of an inheritance, he returned to Launceston, taking an appointment as notary public and conveyancer.
Thomas was an active member of the Launceston amateur dramatic association and his three-act play, Bandit of the Rhine, has the distinction of being the first original single play to be wholly written and published in Australia. Several other plays were planned but never written.