Jeannie Gunn’s words in We of the Never Never paint vivid pictures of the isolation, the struggles and problems day to day activities were for the settlers, the treatment of the Aboriginals and the obvious but accepted (back then) racism that was all around. This Australian classic has been read by many and is an important historical book. The bush hospitality meant they shared everything they had.

The size of the remote cattle property meant the men were always off doing something or other. Her courage and tenacity in the face of it all meant respect from the men. With initial resentment from the stockmen, it wasn’t too long before they warmed to the “little Missus”. The homestead wasn’t much, but they would make do. But cross it they did and eventually after three days and sixty five miles, they arrived at the Katherine.Īnother three hundred miles over rough terrain and tracks only the stockmen could see, they finally arrived at The Elsey. Once leaving the relative comfort of that vehicle, it was horseback with their first setback being stuck on the wrong side of the Fergusson River with the country experiencing “the Wet”. Jeannie Gunn died on the 9th June 1961 and is buried in the Melbourne General Cemetery.It was 1902 and with the “little Missus” being told she shouldn’t be joining her husband when he ventured to the homestead, “The Elsey” in the Never Never of the Northern Territory because a white woman didn’t belong, the determination of them both to go saw them on board a train from Darwin. Gunn presented her completed manuscript to the Monbulk RSL in 1953 and the book, My Boys - A Book of Remembrance, was published for the first time in 2000. During and after World War I she worked tirelessly to support the servicemen of Monbulk, Victoria who she referred to as 'my boys.' She was awarded an OBE in 1939, 'in recognition of her services to Australian Literature and to the disabled soldiers and their dependents.' In 1948 she began to work on a book recording all the details of the volunteers from Monbulk who had served in the Boer War, the Boxer Rebellion and World War One. Mrs Aeneas Gunn was the author of The Black Princess, published in 1905, and We of the Never Never, published in 1908. Aeneas James Gunn 'The Maluka' died on 16 March 1902 of malarial dysentery only 13 months after the couple had moved to the area. The plaque, at the grave of her husband Aeneas Gunn, is dedicated to Jeannie Gunn author of The Black Princess and We of the Never Never.

We of the Never Never by Jeannie Gunn