SYDNEY (AFP) ― Internationally acclaimed Australian author, Colleen McCullough, whose novel “The Thorn Birds” sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, died on Thursday aged 77.

The best-selling writer passed away in hospital on Norfolk Island, which lies in the remote waters off Australia’s eastern coast, her publisher said in a statement.

HarperCollins Australia publishing director Shona Martyn said McCullough had overcome a string of health and eyesight problems to continue writing through dictation.

“Ever quick-witted and direct, we looked forward to her visits from Norfolk Island and the arrival of each new manuscript delivered in hard copy in custom-made maroon manuscript boxes inscribed with her name,” she said.

“The world is a less colorful place without Col.”

McCullough wrote 25 novels during her career, including her first book, “Tim,” which was made into a 1979 film starring Mel Gibson. The last, “Bittersweet,” was published in 2013.

“The Thorn Birds,” her second book set in the Australian outback, became a high-rating television series starring Richard Chamberlain and Rachel Ward in 1983.

The paperback rights for the novel ― published in 1977 ― were auctioned for $1.9 million which was reported as a record at the time.

She also had a fruitful scientific career, establishing the neurophysiology department at Sydney’s Royal North Shore Hospital and spending a decade as a researcher at Yale Medical School in the United States.

Tributes flowed in for one of Australia’s most internationally acclaimed writers, who is survived by her husband Ric Robinson.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott described her as “a unique Australian personality and Norfolk Island’s most famous resident.”

Fellow Australian author Tara Moss described McCullough as irreplaceable.

“She was fierce, funny and so supportive of other writers. Irreplaceable.

RIP Colleen,” she said on Twitter.

Random House Books tweeted: “It is very sad to lose Colleen McCullough. Her contribution to storytelling is the stuff of legend, she will be greatly missed.”

Penguin Books Australia also said it was “saddened” to hear of the “internationally acclaimed” author’s passing.

“RIP Colleen McCullough. I can’t think of anyone who took such a miserable childhood and turned into a life of such luminous achievement,” tweeted 702 ABC Sydney presenter Richard Glover.

McCullough was born in Wellington in New South Wales and most of her childhood was spent in Sydney.

In interviews, she spoke of growing up in a family of warring parents, with a mother she once called “deliberately cruel” and an absent father who was found out after his death to have had “at least two other” wives.

In a happier memory, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation described her telling of having once gone to town on a coat-buying mission with money from her mother but opting to buy a typewriter instead.