Rachel Henning was born in England. In 1854 she went to Australia, but returned to England in 1856 due to homesickness and the hot climate. However, in 1861, she returned to Australia where she settled permanently. She first lived with her brother and sister on their property in Queensland, but married in 1866 and later moved to a property near the New South Wales south coast.

Rachel's descriptive letters, mainly addressed to her sister in England, provide a detailed account of nearly 30 years of pioneering life in Australia. The letters were first published by The Bulletin

The Bulletin

The Bulletin was an Australian weekly magazine that was published in Sydney from 1880 until January 2008. It was influential in Australian culture and politics from about 1890 until World War I, the period when it was identified with the "Bulletin school" of Australian literature. Its influence...

 in 1951 and 1952. They were collected in book form and published by Angus and Robertson in 1963, with a foreword and illustrations by Norman Lindsay

Norman Lindsay

Norman Alfred William Lindsay was an Australian artist, sculptor, writer, editorial cartoonist, scale modeler, and boxer. He was born in Creswick, Victoria....

. Literary critic Debra Adelaide writes that 'they are valued for their vivid portrayal of station life in the second half of the nineteenth century and for her own humour and frankness about the life she led'.

Further reading

• Adelaide, Debra. 1988. Australian women writers: a bibliographic guide. London, Pandora. ISBN 0863581498
• Adams, David. ed. 1986. The Letters of Rachel Henning. Angus and Robertson, Sydney. ISBN 0 207 14981 X
• Australian Dictionary of Biography entry
• Full text of her letters at Project Gutenberg