Nadia Wheatley began writing full-time in 1976, after completing postgraduate work in Australian history. Her work includes the biography, The Life and Myth of Charmian Clift, which received The Age Book of the Year for Non-fiction (2001) and the New South Wales Premier’s History Award for Australian History (2002). Nadia’s books for children and young adults reflect her commitment to social justice, multiculturalism and the environment, as well as her interest in history and the land.

Over the period 1998-2001 Nadia Wheatley and artist Ken Searle worked as consultants at the school at Papunya, an Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory. As part of this work, they helped forty staff and students produce their own book, the multi-award-winning Papunya School Book of Country and History.

In 2005 Nadia and Ken developed an innovative Harmony project with Muslim, Catholic and state schools in Sydney’s south-west. Using Indigenous principles of learning, they took students on a bush walk through a nearby valley, and engaged the children in a holistic exploration of science and history. The resulting picture book, Going Bush, was shortlisted for the Arts Non-fiction section the 2007 Awards of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.