[3] Mena Abdullah was born in Bundarra, New South Wales, in 1930, the daughter of immigrant Indian parents.
[7] Abdullah started writing poetry, influenced by her love for Australian bush ballads.
[4][8] She met Ray Mathew at CSIRO and he suggested she submit her stories to The Bulletin.
She wrote several short stories with Mathew which were published as The Time of the Peacock in 1965.
[4][9] The collection "depicts the life of an Indian family in rural Australia, evoked in lyrical terms, sensitive to the slightest sway of emotion and thought, conjuring up simultaneously, the pain of exile and the sheer joy of living.