George Robertson (5 July 1825 – 23 March 1898) was a Scottish-Australian businessman as an early bookseller and publisher of Australian literature.
In those days there were no publishers' representatives in Australia, and the great problem for the bookseller was to forecast what would be popular, and order a sufficient number of copies to meet the demand.
Around 1873 large premises were built in Little Collins Street, with provision for stationery, book-binding, lithography, etc., and branches were opened in Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane and Auckland.
Commencing January 1875 he published the quarterly magazine Melbourne Review[1] whose contents consisted chiefly of essays of quality and diversity.
[5] The need for encouraging local literature was not then fully appreciated, but Robertson published such books as Gordon's Sea Spray and Smoke Drift (1867), Kendall's Leaves from Australian Forests (1869),and James Brunton Stephens' The Black Gin and other Poems (1873).