The Walstab family came to Melbourne in the early 1850s during the Victorian goldrush ,the father setting up as an auctioneer and estate agent .
Young George signed up as a cadet police officer and served in Mounted Police escorts guarding consignments from the diggings .
Soon after the Eureka stockade revolt , he resigned and went to India where he served as a cavalryman in the Mutiny, keen on swordsmanship, often giving fencing demonstrations in his younger days .
It was said his campaigning ended when he was severely wounded in the leg, which forced him to abandon his sword for the pen .
Soon after , he joined the "celebrated newspaper ", The Calcutta Englishman , becoming a sub editor and then its editor in his middle twenties .
In 1864 he had published in Calcutta a novel, Back,or,Pique, Repique and Capot , which was well received in London . In Calcutta he met and married Mary Anne Nolan in 1861, with whom he returned to Melbourne where-"in his prime "- he became one of its best known figures .
With a vast knowledge of French language and literature, he wrote for The Argus and Herald . In September 1865 he became the first editor of A.H. Massina's the Australian Journal , which in its 76th year of publication in l942 ran a small feature about him , with the above photo, now in the Little Darwin Collection .
During his busy period in Melbourne he wrote novels , edited the Austrasian Monthly Review , was involved with Marcus Clarke in the Colonial Monthly , was a smart dresser , took up acting , and was a founding member of the bohemian Yorick Club.
At one stage he was appointed a clerk in the Department of Lands Survey and by l880 was receiving 400 pound a year , the highest paid public servant . Late in life he wrote leaders for the Melbourne Herald ; he died in 1907.
