Joseph Furphy was an Australian author and poet who is widely regarded as the "Father of the Australian novel". He mostly wrote under the pseudonym Tom Collins and is best known for his novel Such Is Life (1903), regarded as an Australian classic.

Shepparton is a city located on the floodplain of the Goulburn River in northern Victoria, Australia, approximately 181 kilometres (112 mi) north-northeast of Melbourne. As of the 2021 census, the estimated population of Shepparton, including the adjacent town of Mooroopna, was 53,841.