Tommy McRae

He is believed to have been a stockman for Andrew Hume (nephew of explorer Hamilton Hume) of Brocklesby station at Corowa, New South Wales, between 1849 and 1857 and in around 1865 was at David Reid's station on the Upper Murray' and previously at Barnawartha where McRae's first drawings were collected between 1861 and 1864 by sculptor Theresa Walker (Mrs. G.H.

These contained illustrations of traditional Aboriginal life, including ceremonies, hunting and fishing, with individuals and animals predominantly silhouetted in landscapes of sparse trees and earth.

[6] McRae's work was included in the first edition of K. Langloh Parker's Australian Legendary Tales (1896), from original drawings sent to the editor Andrew Lang by his brother in Corowa.

The artist was uncredited in the work, but the correct attribution was discovered when later investigation of Lang's papers found an inscription with the original drawings.

[7] In the 1860s McRae settled on the shores of Lake Moodemere at Wahgunyah, Victoria where Roderick Kilborn, a Canadian vigneron and telegraph-master, became a patron and protector for the artist in the early 1880s.