The Book of the Bush written by George Dunderdale in 1898 consists of sketches of the early colonial life in Australia of squatters, whalers, convicts, diggers, and others who left their native land and never returned. George Dunderdale (1822-1903), born Lancashire, England, worked as a school-teacher in the USA before joining the gold rush to Australia in 1853. He was later a clerk of courts and a customs officer in the Victorian Western District and Gippsland. His experiences of early colonial life, especially in Gippsland, are related in "The Book of the Bush."