Never financially secure, she wrote prolifically over several genres including poetry, detective, gothic horror, journalism and travel writing.
Her mother, Eleanor, née Atkinson, died when she was very young, so she travelled with her father, civil engineer George Wilson to Montreal, Canada.
When her father left Canada for the Australian goldfields, she followed him after receiving an offer to write about the goldrush for the Ladies Companion.
She soon found it more financially rewarding to work for local newspapers, and several were pleased to publish her poetry, although The Mount Alexander Mail withdrew a job offer after realising she was female[2] In January 1858 her elder son died.
On 25 October 1858, Mary married a Police constable, Percy Rollo Brett (possibly bigamously) at Dunolly, Victoria.