Paintings on gum leaves are a unique Australian tradition, which began in the 1850s or 1860s and still continues today. The earliest practitioner recorded is Arthur William Eustace (1820–1907), who was born in England and arrived in Victoria with his family in 1851. He found work as a shepherd near Chiltern in northern Victoria. While minding sheep, he took with him a box of oil paints and paint brushes, and painted bush scenes on the oval gum leaves of red and white box trees found locally.