Jane Sutherland was one of the leading female professional artists in Melbourne during the late nineteeth century. Reflecting her love of the Australian bush, she was memeber of The Field Naturalists Club of Victora, which was formed in 1880 for the purpose of exploring natural history through excursions into the bush. In 1891, to encourage this interest among school children, prizes were offered for certain collections. Sutherland’s young field naturalists remind us of the adventurous Woolcot children of Ethel Turner’s classic novel for children Seven Little Australians (1894).