Eliza Dunlop was born in County Armagh where she was raised by her grandmother following her mother's death and her father's departure for India. According to the Cambridge Guide to Women's Writing in English, Dunlop begin writing as a girl and her poetry appeared in Irish publications such as the Dublin Penny Journal and in The Dark Lady of Doona, a novel written by her cousin William Hamilton Maxwell.
Dunlop migrated to Australia in 1838 with her second husband, David Dunlop, and four of her children. Her husband was Protector of Aborigines at Wollombi and Dunlop developed a strong interest in the culture and language of the Indigenous people of the Hunter Valley region. This interest, together with her nostalgia for Ireland, was reflected in her poetry.
Dunlop's writing was published in a range of Sydney and regional New South Wales newspapers; a collection of her poems appeared posthumously in 1981.
Source: Lorna Sage (ed.) Cambridge Guide to Women's Writing in English (1999)