Born in Sydney, I moved to Papua New Guinea aged two, was raised back in the harbour city and spent much of my youth playing music in pubs before completing a doctorate in history.

In 2000 I left Sydney for Tokyo, where I lived very happily for three years while exploring the mizu shobai (underworld) as a journalist.

I travelled overland from Japan to Europe via the Silk Road, where I completed a novel, and relocated to Melbourne in 2004, where I continued to publish, and produced radio documentaries about local indigenous communities.

In 2009 I hopped across Asia and ended up in Berlin. My book on my adopted city, City of Exiles: Berlin from the outside in, was published by Noctua Press in 2015. Complementing a growing body of Berlin-related journalism, the book's mix of history/memoir/reportage is the fruit of a rather erratic 20-year writing apprenticeship.