Bullock team. Tyrrell Photograph Collection, Powerhouse Museum

Rigby's Romance evolved from the fifth chapter of the 1898 typescript version of Such is Life. In that text, the date of Tom Collins' arrival in Echuca is 9 January 1884. Although missing from TS, the date of the record is confirmed by internal evidence, such as Tom Collins’ two arrivals at Deniliquin in the closing pages; ‘2.45, p.m., on a cold winter day, nearly five months after the date of the events just recorded – or, to be precise, on the 3rd of June’ (TS 521); or ‘three o’clock on a Saturday afternoon, six or eight weeks after the date of the events just recorded’ (RR 249).

Situated in the Victorian Shire of Moira, Yarrawonga is 133 km upriver from Echuca.

With his insatiable appetite and his owner's vigilant protection and affection, Tom Collins' kangaroo dog, Pup, is a significant presence in both Rigby's Romance and Such is Life. Bred from greyhound and deerhound stock, kangaroo dogs were used primarily as a hunting dog and adapted well to Australian conditions. Kangaroo dog owned by Mr Dunn of Castlereagh Street, Sydney, 1853 / painted by Thomas Tyrwhitt Balcombe (State Library of New South Wales)

Echuca is located in the Victorian Shire of Campapse on the southern bank of the Murray River.

From "The Mother" by George Crabbe (1754-1832). First published as Tale VIII in Tales in Verse (1812).