Australian children's book author and journalist Mary Grant Bruce, popularly known as Minnie Bruce, lived from 24 May 1878 to 2 July 1958. She was best known for the Billabong series, which focused on the exploits of the Linton family on Billabong Station in Victoria and in England and Ireland during World War I, though all of her thirty-seven books were well-received in Australia and abroad, particularly in the United Kingdom. Mary Grant Bruce, the fourth child of a family of five and a direct descendant of Irish and Welsh Australians, was born in Gippsland, Victoria as Minnie Grant Bruce. She was the child of Eyre Lewis Bruce and Mary (Minnie) Atkinson Whittakers. It was distinguished by fervent patriotism, detailed depictions of the wonders and perils of the Australian landscape, and lighthearted, everyday conversation honoring the craft of yarning. As a champion of what Bruce saw as the quintessential Australian Bush values of independence, hard physical labor (for women and children as well as men), mateship, the ANZAC spirit, and Bush hospitality against more opulent, self-centered or stolid urban and British values, her books were also notable and influential.