 When Hornung was 17 his health worsened ; he left Uppingham and travelled to Australia , where it was hoped by his family that the climate would be beneficial . On his arrival he was employed as a tutor to the Parsons family in <unk> in the <unk> , south @-@ western New South Wales . In addition to teaching , he spent time working in remote sheep stations in the outback and contributing material to the weekly magazine The Bulletin ; he also began writing what was to become his first novel . Although he spent only two years in Australia , the experience was " the making of him and ... the making of his career as a writer " , according to Rowland . Another biographer , Mark Valentine , wrote that Hornung " seems to have regarded this period as one of the most satisfying of his life " . 
