Laurence (Laurie) Thomas Hergenhan was born on 15 March 1931 in Bega, New South Wales. He was educated at the University of Sydney, where he completed a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts, as well as the Birkbeck College, London, where he completed a PhD. Upon his return to Australia in 1960, he took up a lectureship at the University of Tasmania. Hergenhan was appointed Reader in the Department of English at the University of Queensland in 1971. He made a major contribution in the research and teaching of Australian literature. He was founding Director of the Australian Studies Centre at the University of Queensland (1979-1982), founding editor of Australian literary studies, and has written widely on Australian literature. In 1992 he received the A.A. Phillips Award for his contribution to the study of Australian literature; in 1993 he became a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities; in 1994 he became an Officer of the Order of Australia; in 1995 he was made an Emeritus Professor. He retired from the University of Queensland in 1993. He died on 21 July 2019.

Cecil Hadgraft was born 8 June 1904 at Melbourne, brought up at Rockhampton, winning an open scholarship to the University of Queensland at 16 years of age. Cecil Hadgraft was a senior lecturer and reader in the English Department at the University of Queensland. He was a prominent Australian literary critic and historian.