It was first published in The Bulletin magazine on 12 March 1881,[1] and later in the poet's collection Where the Pelican Builds and Other Poems (1885).
E. S. Wilkinson, in "The Brisbane Courier" in 1932, writes that the poem was inspired by the story of two brothers, Cornelius and Albert Prout.
In December 1877 they set off from western Queensland towards the South Australian/Northern Territory border area and were never heard from again.
Mary Hannay Foott, who lived in the region from where the men set out, heard the tale from the grieving parents, and based this poem on the brothers' search.
"[3] The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature states that the poem "records, from the viewpoint of the waiting women, the tragedy that so frequently struck the pioneer families - the loss of loved ones who were drawn by the lure of the land further out.