In 1975, Wheatley went to Greece to live, with her then-partner, poet Martin Johnston, son of Australian writers George Johnston and Charmian Clift. It was here that she began to write seriously. The couple lived in the town of Chania, Crete, and in a coastal village in the Peloponnese, and had a routine of writing six days a week. On her return to Australia in 1978 Wheatley lived in the Sydney suburb of Newtown, which provided the setting for her first three books — "Five Times Dizzy", "Dancing in the Anzac Deli" and "The House that was Eureka".