We of the Never-Never

Jeannie Taylor was educated at home, matriculated from Melbourne University in 1887 and two years later set up a school with her sisters. This operated from their home in Hawthorn. In the late 1890s she met Aeneas Gunn and they were married in 1901. They then moved to the Northern Territory and the Elsey Station, a cattle property which her husband part-owned and managed. Mrs Gunn quickly adapted to bush life, winning the admiration of those who had said the life was too hard for a woman. Unfortunately her husband died after 13 months on 16 March 1903, of malarial dysentery. His widow returned to Melbourne to live with her father. She wrote two books about her experiences on Elsey Station. The little black princess (1905) and We of the Never-Never (1908). The identities of her characters in the latter were stylized to protect their privacy. By 1945 the book had sold 32,000 copies. It continues to remain in print.

During World War One and afterwards, she was active in welfare work for soldiers and ex-servicemen especially those of the Monbulk area. She was patron of many fund-raising activities associated with ex-servicemen and in 1946 helped to organize a club room and library for the Monbulk sub-branch of the Returned Sailors', Soldiers' and Airmen's Imperial League of Australia. In 1939 she was awarded an OBE.

This copy of We of the Never-Never carries the signatures of the real-life counterparts of her characters: it was used as part of a fund-raising effort for the Hermannsburg Mission in Central Australia. A pipe line was required to carry water to the mission (see Kwatja kwatja, kwatja!: kuprilya kwatja pintja). Gunn wrote 'I inscribe this copy, with much pleasure, for the Hermannsburg Mission Appeal Fund for an adequate water supply. With many thanks. Sincerely yours Jeannie Gunn. Melbourne March 25 1934.' The book is considered a significant landmark in Australian literature. Gunn documented an Australia different from anywhere else, underwriting an Australian legend of life and achievement in the outback. The book provided a taste of a place where men and women could still live heroic lives in places far removed from the urban landscape of the reader.

In 1988 the book was referred to as a "minor masterpiece of Australian letters" by New Literary History of Australia. p. 249.

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