David Reeves and Jim Graham, teachers from The Armidale School, first conceived a musical based on the children's novel Seven Little Australians in the late 1970s.

[1] The original production of Seven Little Australians opened in Melbourne at the Comedy Theatre on 22 June 1988.

The cast included John O'May, Melissa Bickerton, Alyce Platt, John Murphy, Judith McGrath, Judith Roberts and Noel Mitchell.

[2] The production moved to the Adelaide Festival Centre from 20 November 1988,[3] and also played in Tasmania.

Leonard Radic in The Age called it "a comfortable family-style show: warmhearted, sentimental and ever so wholesome", with the music "bright, conventional and homogenised" while "the book and lyrics follow a familiar pattern too".