Gordon Young was the son of John and Annie Forbes. His father became a bank manager and Young grew up in Grafton, New South Wales. His first job was with R. Towns and Company, a shipping firm in Sydney. It was at this time that he met Robert Louis Stevenson in Sydney. In 1894 he sailed to Western Australia to join the gold rush around Kalgoorlie. In 1944 he lived at Apollo Bay, Victoria. Young also wrote The Golden Age of Farming ; Mostly to Americans ; George and his Devils : Three Broadcasts (1942) and My Favorite Tree (1943) for broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Commission.
