A lifetimes' training, experience
and skills are incorporated into producing just the right
words and images for the right occasion. Which means that you
will receive exclusive copy, crafted to meet your individual
requirements. Images can often be supplied too!
Background of a Travel Writer
Escaping
from the
harsh outback sunlight of a Gypsy-like childhood in the remote, and somewhat inhospitable
scrublands of Western Australia, I emerged with an unquenchable desire to
explore the world. Or more precisely, in the
days before low cost airlines encouraged everybody to jump on
a plane at will, to discover the treasures hidden within my own
vast backyard.
As
a fiercely
independent teenager
recently out of school, I slung a backpack
over my shoulder and boarded a Greyhound bus heading north from
Fremantle into the Kimberley. Camping in the dunes behind Cable
Beach, in the days before the cocktail glasses tinkled on the
sunset deck of the Cable Beach Club, the hippies, or 'mung beans'
as this eclectic group were known then, revelled in the freedom
of one of the world's most beautiful beaches. Carefree days
revolved around the rising of the sun and the falling of the
tide, interspersed with regular expeditions to town where we
danced barefoot beneath the stars in the Roebuck Hotel beer
garden. Heady, exotic adventurous days that must, according to
conservative parents, eventually end.
And end
they did, with a well-timed stroll along
the Broome jetty offering the opportunity to toss my
pack aboard the deck of a 44 foot yacht heading off into
the Kimberley sunset. Disembarking six exhilarating weeks later in Darwin, having experienced
the awe inspiring beauty of the open sea, combined
with the raw wilderness of far-flung anchorages, I emerged with a new passion
for sailing and a career in travel. Hitching home to Perth via
northern Queensland, it became apparent that the journey had
only just begun. Indeed, after clocking up over 35,000 nautical
miles on both small and large yachts, the journey is far from
over.
As my career evolved across
the media, marine and travel industries, eventually I found my niche. To
encourage others to explore. To experience far-flung lands. To
see the world with an open mind. To engage with others.
A Travel Writer was born
Travel Industry
Experience
Within the travel industry, I've worked at
the forefront of leisure travel, advising first time travellers who weren't
sure if they needed a passport to visit Tasmania. In the corporate
travel world, while working the graveyard shift, I've sweated
over business traveller emergencies, co-ordinating evacuations for urban corporates abandoned in the jungle clad mines
of South America. I've up sold, cross sold, even over
sold, until I had nothing left to sell in the competitive, commission
based world of travel.
In
researching destinations, I've lost room service crumbs, and indeed,
my mini bar virginity, in the ridiculously starched linen of opulent
hotel beds. I've fallen in love with an Arab guide over a hubbly bubbly
pipe beneath a starry desert sky while researching middle eastern culture. Trying
to overcome a fear of heights, I've suffered vertiginous paranoia
while crawling across a glass floor hundred of
metres above a city. I even once considered, then quickly dismissed the idea,
of bungy jumping out of a perfectly sound building, all in the
name of research to sate travel clients and readers in their
lust for adventure. Oh, I also managed to squeeze in almost
40,000 ocean miles sailing on large and small power and sailboats
across the Asia/Pacific region.
Along the way I've learnt an enormous amount
about travel, and travel writing, with all its exhilarating, heart
stopping encounters that entice us to explore the world. As an
insightful Travel Writer, I draw upon this knowledge, plus
the idiosyncrasies of the travel industry in order to inform, engage and
entertain.
Copywriting
But travel writing is not all I do. As an accomplished features writer
with scores of publishing credits, I'm also quite a talented commercial
Copywriter. And so modest too! I can write copy for your
website, newsletter or press release, regardless of the subject.
Anything really, that requires succinct, dynamic text to engage your
target audience.
As a member of the Australian
Society of Travel Writers, I am bound by our Code of
Ethics
:
- As a representative of the
public interest, I serve as a travel critic, as ready to
comment critically as to praise. I will not accept payment
for writing favourably about travel destinations or
operations against my own professional appraisal.
- I shall only describe
those destinations or operations of which I have first-hand
knowledge, or have access to other reliable sources.
- Participation
in familiarisations are regarded as essential working
opportunities.
- Hosts of familiarisations
will be expected to provide circumstances conducive to full
and accurate reporting, not as a favour to writers or
publications.
As a freelance journalist, I adhere to the
Australian Journalists Association Code of Ethics, and am committed
to:
- Honesty
- Fairness
- Independence
- Respect for the rights of
others
