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Welcome to my world

With a background in daily newspapers, I am an award-winning freelance journalist, specialising in travel and tourism. I am a regular contributor to a wide range of print and online publications. My latest projects have been the completion of two new travel books, Sustainable Travel for Dummies and Solo Travel for Dummies (Wiley, 2024), and publication of the academic book Rethinking Travel Writing (co-written with Dr Ben Stubbs, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).

In 2016, I won the Best Travel & Tourism News Story category of the Australian Society of Travel Writers (ASTW) Awards for Excellence. I have also been a finalist for Best Sustainable Travel Story (2021), Best Australian Story under 1000 words (2021), Best Best Use of Digital Media (2013 and 2014), Best Responsible Tourism Story (2012), Best Australian Story over 1000 words (2012), and Travel Book of the Year (2014) for  A Glass Half Full and other travel stories, a collection of some of my work.

I am also the author of the best selling Great Australian Pubs (Explore Australia, 2012), and of Frommer’s Australia, and have been the author or a contributing author for many other guides including Australia for Dummies,  Frommer’s Easy Guide to Australia, Frommer’s Melbourne Free & Dirt Cheap, Frommer’s Melbourne Day by Day, Frommer’s Portable Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, Rough Guide to Australia and Explore Australia.

I am the co-editor and a contributor to two anthologies, Best Foot Forward: 30 Years of Australian Travel Writing (2006) and Red Dust & Wanderlust, Tales of Travel in Australia (2010). In 2012 I edited and co-ordinated the anthology Snapshots of Sri Lanka, to benefit a children’s charity in that country.  I have also written and co-written several other books.

A creative and professional writer, I also provide images to accompany my words. I have been a contributing writer for a number of online Australian travel guides for the USA and UK markets, and am currently the “Queensland expert” travel writer and hotel reviewer for The Telegraph (UK). I have undertaken content writing projects for a range of companies including Google, Air New Zealand, Hilton Hotels, Tourism & Events Queensland and Spicers Retreats.

I regularly participate in lectures and courses on writing, freelancing and media. Since 2012, I have been a part-time lecturer and tutor in journalism, working with the University of Queensland School of Communication and Arts, Queensland University of Technology (QUT)’s Creative Industries faculty and the University of South Australia (remotely).  I hold a Doctor of Creative Industries degree from QUT (my research interest is in ethics in travel journalism).

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