Born on his father's Victorian property, Charles Augustus Flower subsequently worked as a jackaroo in that state before moving to South West Queensland. He lead a varied working life, firstly taking the position as overseer at 'Blythdale' station (east of Roma). From 1882-1883 he worked as an accountant for Frazer, McDonald and Company, the contractors who were building the railway from Roma to Mitchell. In February 1884 he purchased 'Durham Downs' which was situated on the Dawson River, Flower worked this property until 1902 when four years of severe drought were to bring him to financial ruin. He began again, raising sufficient capital to buy another property located in the Roma area. Flower was to remain at 'Garrabarra' until his death at the age of 92 years.
Flower wrote many poems which were inspired by his life experiences as a bushman. Bill Scott notes that some of Flower's poems were either 'written with a certain tune in mind, or else picked up tunes, so that a number of them became popular and were sung widely'. (Downs Images, pp. 92-94.)
