Cirrus@Austlit

This story appears to contain autobiographical elements, and to some extent might be drawn from Harriet Patchett Martin's experiences in Queensland - it involves Aline Beaumont, 'the only daughter of a long-widowed parent', who came to Australia with her husband, Captain Beaumont, 'one of those gentlemanly and agreeable ne'er do wells whom other men characterise as "no man's enemy but his own" ', who took up a Customs appointment at the northern town of Stony Hollow. The setting appears to be Queensland - the capital Bristowe (Brisbane), the northern ports of Ellenborough (Maryborough) and Stony Hollow (possibly Rockhampton), whilst the character the Hon. William Thornhill, the Collector of Customs at Bristowe, might be based on William Thornton, Queensland Collector of Customs from 1859 to 1882, and also a Queensland M. L. C., who was the step-father of Margaret Ellen Day (possibly Mrs. Henry Day (q.v.), the dedicatee of Martin's Under the Gum Tree).