 In 1877, her husband took her up-country, to the Paroo River in South West Queensland.Her experiences there are described in one of her poems, "New Country", and her next seven years in that country had a great influence on her writings.Her husband died in 1884 through over-work and exposure during a drought of that year, when their losses of stock were so great that Mrs Foott was faced with selling her interest in the property and moving to Toowoomba, Queensland.