Meet the Author

A Writer Shaped by Wide-Open Spaces

I grew up on a 3,000-acre farm in Queensland’s Roma region—no TV, no electricity, just endless skies, curious animals, and the kind of freedom kids today might only find in books. My childhood was spent swimming in dams, riding horses through scrubland, and watching Willy Wagtails—those fearless little birds—dive-bomb magpies twice their size. (A lesson in bravery I’d carry forever.)

When I wasn’t herding sheep or climbing trees, I was reading. Books were my passport to forests I’d never seen, oceans I’d never touched. In Year 7, my teacher, Mr. Ramsden, held up a paragraph I’d written about a fictional forest and told the class, “This one’s going to be a writer.” I didn’t believe him then. But decades later, here I am—proving him right.

Life nudged me toward teaching, not writing. Three degrees and a busy classroom kept my stories locked away… until a Creative Writing course cracked them open. Not long after, a kamikaze duck nearly hit my car—and by Saturday morning, Gregory the Greedy Duck was born. Publishing it felt like solving a mystery (what’s an ISBN, anyway?), but with help from the Toowoomba Wordsmiths, I figured it out.

After a fresh start in Western Australia, I partnered with a Nannup publisher to release Gregory and the Bully and give my first book a glow-up. Now, you’ll find me at Perth markets, sharing my stories between coffee sips.

Some stories take root in childhood. Others sprout from chance encounters—like a duck on a collision course with destiny. But every tale begins with the same spark: the stubborn belief that words matter, and the world needs more of them.