About the Author
I grew up at Speers Point on Lake Macquarie, NSW, and in the 1980s
completed a PhD in Astronomy at Mt Stromlo Observatory, Australian
National University. Astronomy is a difficult commitment for someone
with children, so I moved into Internet technical services in 1988,
working at CSIRO and then at the University of Newcastle. From 1996 to
2000 I was System Manager and Director of Internet Services at the
pioneering ISP Connect, then Executive Director of the Internet Society
of Australia until 2006.
In 2001 the charming and charmed life of a pearling lugger inspired me to write Redbill: From Pearls to Peace. It took me into a whole new world of maritime history and the extraordinary people linked to that strange, nurturing vessel.
In 2005, intrigued by the untold stories behind the published works of Alan Villiers, once a world-famous maritime writer, I wrote a biography based upon his diaries. It helped me discover the amazing lives of Redbill's dinosaur cousins, the gigantic four-masted steel windjammers of the early twentieth century.
Today I still work in Internet areas, with Lancewood website design and management, and IPv6Now, Australia's only dedicated IPv6 services and training company. I have two adult sons, Alex and Joe, and two whippets, and live in Melbourne.
Header image from Making Cape Naturaliste, watercolour, Ross Shardlow 2004