 The writer Joseph Furphy worked as a <unk> for 10 years in the area around Hay from 1872 . Later , using the pen name Tom Collins , Furphy wrote Such Is Life set in the Riverina during the drought and depression of the 1890s and drawing on his experiences as a <unk> . Although a slow seller , the novel was described as " fitted to become an Australian classic " by A.G. Stephens , the literary critic of The Bulletin . 
