Elizabeth Selby lived at Long Bay, New South Wales, with her daughter and husband after coming to Australia. The area was at the time an isolated place surrounded by bush and swamp. Selby's husband worked and stayed in Sydney five days of the week, and in Long Bay Selby describes numerous encounters with intruders at her hut, which had a piece of calico for a door. On page five of Long Bay, and throughout her other selected works, Selby refers to a book she published at Weymouth, 'a short time before I left England', titled The Careless Gleaner. This has not been traced. Throughout her writings she also describes growing up in the Weymouth area.
