The Australians is a nine-part series by William Stuart Long, a pen name attributed to Vivian Stuart. Moffitt created a detailed outline of over 100 pages for the series, including some key dialogue. Stuart then wrote books 1-8, departing somewhat from Moffitt's original outline. Stuart died partway through writing the ninth book, The Empire Builders, and Moffitt was asked to finish the book. He estimates that he wrote about a third of the book.