RAHS Day Lecture – Finding the Outrageous Fortunes

Detecting the adventures of crime writer, Mary Fortune, and her criminal son, George

Event Date & Time: Wednesday, 3 September 2025 @ 1.00 pm – 2.00 pm

Event Location: History House, 133 Macquarie St, Sydney NSW 2000

Cost: Free

Event Description:

The saga of journalist and crime writer Mary Fortune and her criminal son, George, forms a most unusual chapter in Australian history. Mary was a woman of mystery, her life adventurous, to say the least. It spanned several continents and included long stints on the Victorian goldfields and ‘Marvellous Melbourne’ from 1853 to 1911. It included a bigamous marriage to a police trooper. She was gaoled for drunkenness. She had a long, prolific career writing crime fiction (in addition to various genres of journalism). Her illegitimate son, George, became a career criminal – meaning that while Mary was writing about crime, George was committing it.

In the field of crime fiction, Mary was a true pioneer, with no role models to emulate. Only a decade after the establishment of the Victoria Police, she was referencing cutting-edge technologies and detective methodologies. Many of the devices and conventions we take for granted are to be found in her stories, predating the work of Arthur Conan Doyle by some thirty years. Despite all this, she was almost forgotten after her death, her identity and the scope of her achievements being obscured by the multiple pseudonyms she used during her lifetime. Meanwhile, her son George become ‘famous’ for pulling off one of Melbourne’s most notorious bank robberies. His troubled life became something of a classic tragicomedy.

Uncovering the mysteries of Mary and George has been a lengthy adventure in literary detection for co-authors Lucy Sussex and Megan Brown, with the 2025 publication of Outrageous Fortunes being the culmination of the last ten years of their quest. This lecture will offer a glimpse of their discoveries about Mary and George and highlight the literary and historical significance of their respective stories.