Robert Henderson Croll (1869-1947), author, worked as a clerk in the Victorian public service for over 40 years, but is better remembered for his books and journalism. Son of a Scottish-born gold miner, he began contributing articles in his early 20s, his work appearing in The Bulletin and the Melbourne Argus and Herald as well as many other journals. Croll was an inveterate bushwalker (claiming to have ‘carried his swag’ about 3 000 miles) and extolled the pleasures of bushwalking through his prose, some of which was published in The Open Road in Victoria (1928) and Along the track (1930). Croll was also prominent in Melbourne artistic circles, and through his membership of the Savage Club was connected with art world notables including Arthur Streeton, John Longstaff, Fred McCubbin and David Low. Having published a biography of Tom Roberts in 1935, in 1946 Croll edited a volume of Streeton’s letters to Roberts, Smike to Bulldog. In addition, on the basis of several trips to Central Australia, he was co-author of an early text on Aboriginal art.
