From Bedford's Introduction to Bush Yarns and Town Sketches we read of Hervey Phipps: 'A camel herder, farm help, station hand, boundary rider, prospector and mine-owner (he once had two Coolgardie claims, so rich that they made him poor), he has touched most of the activities of open country.' He 'carried a swag' in Queensland, South Australia, New South Wales and Western Australia, and also spent time in Rabaul, PNG. In the mid to late 1930s he worked as a radio broadcaster for Melbourne's 3DB/3LK.
Hervey Phipps also published the serials 'The Cromarty Pearls' and 'The Bird of Paradise', and the Introduction to Bush Yarns and Town Sketches adds: 'A goldfields serial "The Golden Zone" was published for "Smiler" Hales in the good days of Western Australia, and "Smiler" published it in the front pages of the Coolgardie Review '.
