At the age of 16 or 17, she returned to New South Wales to live with her grandmother, and there she was instructed in watercolour painting by Henry Curzon Allport.
After the death of her father (1861), the family returned to the Sydney property, "Rhodes" (1870), where Annie remained for the rest of her life.
[2][3] By August 1881, Anna had amassed a considerable body of work, and she contacted Ferdinand von Mueller in Melbourne, for help with identifications and advice about publishing.
Eventually, in 1887, she self-published (Flowers of New South Wales[4][5]( (a small collection of her paintings), but the poor quality of the lithographs let her down (as did her text, which betrayed little botanical understanding).
Plants illustrated were: Ceratopetalum gummiferum, Acacia spectabilis, Epacris longiflora, Zieria laevigata, Blandfordia nobilis, Darwinia fascicularis, Ricinocarpos pinifolius, Epacris microphylla, Sprengelia incarnata, Gompholobium grandiflorum, Bauera rubioides, Melaleuca linariifolia, Eriostemon silicifolius, Kennedia monophylla, Clematis glycinoides.