Barbara Janet Baynton (née Lawrence; 4 June 1857 – 28 May 1929) was an Australian writer known primarily for her short stories about life in the bush.

Baynton was born in 1857 at Scone, New South Wales, the daughter of Irish bounty immigrants,[a] John Lawrence and Elizabeth Ewart.

[1] The fictional narrative of her birth gave her "entrée to polite circles as a governess" and, in 1880, she married Alexander Frater, the son of her employers.

However, in 1887, Alexander Frater ran off with her niece, Sarah Glover,[2] and Barbara moved to Sydney and commenced divorce proceedings.

Alfred Stephens, a close friend, reviewed the book in the Bulletin and stated: 'So precise, so complete, with such insight into detail and such force of statement, it ranks with the masterpieces of realism in any language.

Percival Serle, however, found that The building up of detail, however, is at times overdone, and lacking humorous relief, the stories tend to give a distorted view of life in the back-blocks.