Emily Witty was the daughter of George Rawlins and his wife Martha (Freeman). She grew up around Silverton, NSW and along the northern reaches of the Adelaide-Broken Hill railway line. Her father was a teamster, employed by Sir Sydney Kidman. By 1910 she was living at "Mallee Grove", a farm at Oodla Wirra, north east of Peterborough in South Australia. The eldest of 12 children, Witty was very musical, and played the violin at concerts, church events, and recitations. She won a NSW Department of Education Secondary School scholarship, but family circumstances did not allow her to live in Sydney, and she was unable to accept it.
She married Lock Witty, from Peterborough, in the Silverton Methodist Church, and they moved to a shop on Payneham Road in suburban Adelaide where they ran a mixed business. Their first two children, twins Frank and Joyce, were born there. When the twins were two years old the family moved to Oodla Wirra, near Peterboroguh, where they were proprietors of a 24-hour general store and petrol station. Returning to Adelaide, they lived in a boarding house in Durham St, Glenelg for three years, then returned to Oodla Wirra. Their third child, Beryl, was born at Peterborough in 1930.
The Barrier Ranges near Silverton and "Mallee Grove", Oodla Wirra, were the inspiration for both "The Wattle Song" and much of the verse in Golden Days. Whilst living at Oodla Wirra, Emily also wrote for the social pages of local newspapers.
Back in Adelaide, they ran a mixed business on Brighton Road, Somerton Park, then moved to 3 Moseley St, Glenelg where they lived in a block of flats from 1939-48 before moving to a house at 14 Creslin Tce, Camden Park c 1948-1951.
