Education and Training

2014                  Master of Creative Media (Animation and Interactive Media)

Thesis ‘How Using Narrative Can Improve Learner Engagement, Motivation and Comprehension in Instructional Design’

Vice Chancellor’s List Award

2003                   Certificate IV Workplace Training and Assessment, VUT

1996                   Grad Dip Animation and Interactive Multimedia, RMIT

Special Jury Prize

1990                   Advanced Certificate of Professional Writing and Editing, RMIT

1989                   Video Production, Open Channel

1982-4               Dip. Mus, Canberra School of Music

Linked In Profile

Awards

Ian Reed Foundation Prize for Radio Drama (ABC)

Eleanor Dark Foundation Writers Fellowship, Varuna

ATOM Secondary Student Jury Award, 1997

Winner, Best Health, AIMIA Awards, 2005

Winner, Best Multimedia, ATOM Awards, 2004

Winner, UN World Summit Awards, 2005

Writing, music and composing highlights

  • 2025. Be/Longing Between Mountains. Artist Residency, Bowery Theatre in collaboration with Nela Trifkovic, exploring songs and sounds of belonging.
  • Documentary, Meet Me In The Middle of The Air, about Voluntary Assisted Dying for ABC Radio National’s Earshot (Podcast released 30/11/22) Radio National nomination for Prix Italia, 2023.
  • Documentary, Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps, commissioned and produced by ABC Radio National’s Street Stories about the place of song in Cuban life.
  • Playwright-in-Residence Melbourne Theatre Company,1996/97
  • Wrote and composed There Goes the Neighbourhood

Won a prize in the ABC Ian Reed Award for Radio Drama, shortlisted for New Dramatists, New York, supported by Playworks, Sydney

Performed: La Mama, Melb. 1994 (Voted one of The Age’s top ten)

La Boite, Brisbane   1996, ABC Radio’s Fictions

  • Composer, Let There Be Song, commissioned work in 3 movements to celebrate Brunswick Womens Choir 20th anniversary, 2011

          Songs of peace and reconciliation commissioned by Brunswick Women’s Choir, 2006

  • Writer /Director, Poets Will be Prosecuted, Mallacoota Easter Festival Community Play, 2004
  • Founding member of The Tea Bags – music street theatre ensemble. Sydney, Canberra, Maleny and Melbourne International Festivals, ABC TV’s Big Square Eye and Holiday, FEIPP and other local events, recipients of Melb. City Council Cultural Development and Aust. Council, Creative Development grants. Also Arts in Working Life grant, CCDU, Aust. Council working with Catering staff in hospitals.
  • Music Director/Composer, Outside In, Melbourne International Arts Festival, 2004 – A performance and installation with residents of Fitzroy Housing Estate, exploring 4 decades of immigration
  • Composer, Wilderness Society TV ad, Channel 7 and SBS
  • Composer, Music Director, Baggy Pants, Polyglot Puppet Theatre
  • Music Director, Loose Arrangement, St Kilda Community Choir, La La Ville, Yarraville Community Choir, Brimbank Multicultural Community Choir, Whittlesea Choir, Many Moons (elderly Chinese choir), St John’s and Yarraville West Primary Schools choirs.
  • Composer, Music Director of Belonging, a large-scale, multicultural community theatre project with Brimbank City Council
  • Choir director and community coordinator, Song Nation, Big West Festival, 2003. A big choral event with community groups including Asylum Seekers Resource Centre.
  • Composer, Musical Director of High Rise – a large-scale community performance with Polyglot Puppet Theatre at Carlton High Rise flats. Re-staged as Rising Higher  at North Melbourne Town Hall Arts House (director – Susan Giles)

High Rise won the Health Promotion Through Community Participation Award from Vichealth, 2003

  • Playwright/composer-in-residence, Ararat – researching & writing a musical for the Ararat Town Hall Centenary, Musical Chairs (director – Susan Giles)
  • Composer & Musical Director for 1995 Blue Lake Festival Opening and Closing Events, Mt Gambier    
  • Performed Jen the Generic Housewife for ABC Radio National’s Livewire, Australian National Gallery and various other events and venues
  • Wrote and performed songs and skits for ABC Radio’s The Health Report , Coming Out Show – including Running Up a Frock which won Women and Media Award, 1994
  • Wrote and Performed Pills – I Love ‘em to Death (Carlton Courthouse, Universal 2, Melb, Belvoir St, Syd, ABC Radio National)
  • Artist in Residence, Mallacoota, Wrote script and music and directed community plays, Never Trust a Lyre Bird, Poets Will Be Prosecuted for Easter Arts Festivals   
  • Writer in Communityresidence, Accessible Arts, based in Wagga -funded by Literature Board of the Australia Council. Produced a music video, play and book with different groups, mainly disabled and elderly.      
  • Devised, wrote and performed in Routines Ritual Rhythm, a play with music, Deakin University School of Nursing (also composer/music- director)
  • Program Artist/writer with Kids Thrive, songwriting for social change. (see below) 
  • Producer, writer/content developer, designer for Underworld – an educational, interactive, musical, detective investigation into the reproductive system incorporating video and animation (2D and claymation). Underworld is part narrative, part documentary, part musical and part information resource.

Winner, Best Health, AIMIA Awards, 2005, Best Multimedia, ATOM Awards, 2004, Best e-Health, UN World Summit Awards, 2005

ATOM Secondary Student Jury Award, 1997, AIMIA finalist, screened at Cafe Provincial Comedy Film Festival, Eat My Shorts Film Festival, WOW Film Festival, SBS TV

Education and Resource Development Highlights 

  • Sessional Trainer/Learning Designer at Safe and Equal, developing training about organisational and systemic resistance to Primary Prevention (of gendered violence).
  • Program Developer at Odyssey Institute (Odyssey House Victoria’s RTO). Learning design tasks include collaborating with trainers and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), research, writing, editing, audio and video production, designing interface and learning objects and developing material for LMS (Moodle). Leadership tasks include coordinating multiple organisations, staff and learning materials in the transition to Moodle and coaching trainers with technology.
  • Trainer, facilitator, learning designer, Co-Health, Facilitating the creation of a dynamic, performative training session with service users and service providers involving workshopping, script-writing and delivery of training.
  • Learning Designer, The Learning Hook, Writing video scripts for Australia Post induction training. “Wow!!!” Lindy Clarke, Learning and Development, AusPost
  • Resource writer/learning designer, Circulus, Field, Learner Friendly, Ashley Institute, Cutting Edge Group, Elatum Group, developing training resources, including assessments, assessment guides, storyboards for interactives for VET – certificate and diploma training packages. Subject areas include, Diploma in Leadership and Management, Hospitality, Warehousing. “Your story boards are the best we’ve ever had”, Head Programmer, Circulus Education. 
  • Program Artist/writer with Kids Thrive, songwriting for social change. Developing skills and writing songs with primary school groups on the theme of cultural empathy, with a focus on trauma, learning and behavioural development. Program development, delivery and evaluation.
  • Tutor, Victoria University of Technology, Art, Design and Multimedia, designing and developing classes, teaching interactive design, research and overseeing major student projects
  • Writer/lecturer/course designer for Online Multimedia Course, RMIT: (Sound) Sound designer, Online Multimedia Course, RMIT
  • Music skills development and songwriting with children, grades Prep – 4, Yarraville West Primary School 2012 – 2016
  • Wrote and designed interactive educational resources for Sciencetrek, Department of Employment, Education and Training
  • Voice Teacher, Northern Metropolitan College of TAFE, 1995 Tutor, NICA (National Institute of Circus Arts), Swinburne University
  • Manager, Spotlight Project, Victoria University, 2005 Designed and delivered an accredited course of studies in the performing arts delivered to participants from the Horn of Africa.

Publications:

Routine Ritual Rhythm, School of Nursing, Deakin University, Geelong, 1994

Underworld, Dataworks, Melbourne, 2004

Using Stories In Instructional Design, Training & Development, October 2014 pp.10-13

Care Factor, The Big Issue, 27 July – 9 August 2018, No 567 pp. 20-21

The Gathering of Kindness Anthology, Hambone Publishing, 2024, Leave Your Dignity at the Door, pp. 21, Young James the Brave pp. 168