English-born Helen Benbow arrived in Australia with her mother in 1854 following the death of her father. She lived in various gold mining towns in Central Victoria for over a decade before journeying back to England. She returned to Australia in 1871. In 1873 Benbow studied art at the National Gallery School, Melbourne, under the tutelage of Eugen von Guérard.
In late 1874 two of Benbow's plays were performed in Bendigo. One of these, For £60,000, then had a second season in Melbourne. Two years later it was performed in Sydney.
Benbow married a sea-captain, Robert McNab, and they had two children. She spent much of the rest of her life travelling, and living in England. After her brief period of theatrical fame, Benbow appears to have written little. With her sister, Anne Agnes Benbow (q.v.), she published the children's book, Australian Wonderland: A Fairy Chain. According to Richard Fotheringham, this book, published in 1899, 'may have been written many years earlier' while the sisters were still living in Victoria.
Source: Introduction to For £60,000, Australian Plays for the Colonial Stage, 1834-1899, Richard Fotheringham (ed.), 2006.
