Ethel Turner (1872 -1958) was an Australian novelist and children's writer. She started her writing career at eighteen with her sister Lillian, with whom she founded the Parthenon, a journal for young people. Originally published in 1894. Seven Little Australians gives an authentic taste of Australian childhood in the Sydney of the 1890s. Captain Woolcot strains to uphold his standards of decency while his spirited, assertive daughter resists them. The alliances among his children heightens the battle, yet tightens family bonds. The sequels The Family at Misrule (1895) and Little Mother Meg...

Nursery tea is more an English institution than an Australian one; there is a kind of bon camaraderie feeling between parents and young folks here, and an utter absence of veneration on the part of the latter. So even in the most wealthy families it seldom happens that the parents dine in solemn state alone, while the children are having a simple tea in another room: they all assemble around the same board, and the young ones partake of the same dishes, and sustain their parts in the conversation right nobly.