Tullie C. Wollaston worked as a surveyor for the Geological Survey Department of Adelaide before becoming an opal miner and dealer. He travelled extensively throughout Australia, and records his 1898-1899 journey by camel from Adelaide to Western Queensland in Opal: The Gem of the Never Never (1924), a book that is part survey of Opal mining in Australia, part autobiographical writing, part poetry and part fiction. Wollaston travelled in the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States of America establishing markets for Australian opals. He published Our Wattles (ca.1916) as well as a number of pamphlets on controversial social issues. Wollaston is also well known for propogating and selling internationally the 'Claret Ash' tree he discovered in the Adelaide Hills in 1910 and his gardens at Brighton and in the Adelaide Hills received international attention.
