Joanne van Os - Australian Author
Joanne van Os lives in Darwin, Northern Territory with her husband barrister Lex Silvester and their daughter Ali. She has spent the last 30 years in the NT, in a variety of occupations including bull catcher, pet food shooter, tourist operator, illustrator and cartoonist, and now writer.
She left the family home in Melbourne at 20 to take up a job as radio operator at the remote Aboriginal mission of Port Keats (now known as Wadeye) in the Northern Territory. Like so many other Territorians, she only intended to stay a few months, but fell in love with the bush and has been here ever since.
After meeting her first husband while at Port Keats, Joanne spent the next decade with him in the bush, chasing wild cattle bulls and buffalo, pet food shooting and eventually running their own buffalo station on the northern floodplains. It was a wonderful and exciting lifestyle, and brought her into contact with some fascinating characters and and gave her amazing experiences, all of which have provided endless inspiration for writing.
Her first book, a memoir called Outback Heart, was published by Random House in October 2005. Brumby Plains, an adventure/mystery novel for children aged 9 - 12 and also published by Random House, is her second book, and was released in July 2006.
As well as husband Lex and daughter Ali, her family includes her two sons Callum and Shaun Ansell, her step-daughter Sophie and son-in-law Jim McEwen and three delightful grandsons, and her step-son Tom Silvester. Joanne is busy writing the next Brumby Plains book, and is currently researching an adult historical fiction set in the Northern Territory.
 |
Castaway Children's fiction > More Info Published by Random House Australia 2007 ISBN (TBA) |
 |
Brumby Plains Children's fiction > More Info Published by Random House Australia 2006 ISBN 1 74166 147 1 |
 |
Outback Heart A memoir > More Info Published by Random House Australia 2005 ISBN 1 86325 502 8 |