It has been claimed that Grahame Webb, biologist and businessman, was the inspiration for the original 'Crocodile Dundee' character. As a child Webb lived on a property at Condobolin in the central western plains of New South Wales. He obtained a Bachelor of Science degree with first class honours and the University Medal at the University of New England, Armidale, and gained his PhD in 1973. At the time of publishing Numunwari (1980), he was a research fellow at the University of New South Wales.
Webb received a Clunies Ross Award for Science and Technology in 2001. He has been director of Wildlife Management International Pty. Ltd., a Darwin-based company providing wildlife management services around the world. He has also acted as vice-chairperson of the IUCN Crocodile Specialist Group and chairperson of the Australia New Zealand Sustainable Use Specialist Group. He has written and published nonfiction books about crocodiles; for example, Crocodiles of Australia (1989), for which he won a Whitley Award.
