About
Born & lives – Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Places lived – London, UK; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Sydney, NSW; Warmun, WA; Port Germein, SA
Education – Masters (Writing and Literature), Deakin University
Selected experience – A portfolio career – from aeronautics to art, music business to boutique retail, jewellery creation to teaching–training, music research to both general and specialist writing and editing.
Since rediscovering writing, it’s gone like this:
Author since 1993
Freelance writer & editor since 1998
Tutor, postgraduate writing, Deakin University 2010–13
Related & unrelated-but-interesting enterprises:
Artist, botanical art & travel sketchbooks, since 2022; solo show 2024
Radio presenter, music & music writing, PBS106.7FM, since 2006
Trainer, Dance Steps for the Self-Employed for Editors Victoria and Writers Victoria, 2012–21
Business manager, Warmun Art Centre, Warmun, WA 2007–08
Band booker & manager, 1992–96
Owner, maker, wholesaler, retailer, Coyle’s Richmond, Fitzroy & Melbourne 1980–96
Travel – As often as possible!
2025 – Hunter region, NSW. Darwin, NT; Thursday Island, Qld; Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji. England, France, Portugal, Canary Islands.
2024 – Texas, Florida & Louisiana, USA. Te Ika-a-Māui, Aotearoa; Tuamotu, Marquesas & Society Islands; Japan, South Korea & Taiwan.
2023 – Te Ika-a-Māui, Aotearoa; Tasmania; Townsville, Qld; Canberra; regional Victoria.
2022 – South Australia; Western Europe & UK; Far North Queensland.
At the moment, I’m …
researching blueswomen and the Band for my coming radio shows; planning activities in Melanesia to continue our exploration of the Pacific in April; reading Simon Winchester’s Pacific and seeing those 2013 climate-change predictions being verified in tropical cyclone Alfred
Books
Cancer Treatment Breakthroughs (Wilkinson Publishing, 2022) – co-written with Tim Ladhams
In the End: A Practical Guide to Dying (Fernlea Community Care, 2022)
Wordy-Gurdy
Wordy-Gurdy morphed out of Jackey’s freelance music–travel–lifestyle writing, funded mostly by editing for Lonely Planet (2003–13) and lifestyle and health magazines.
We added publishing to editing and proofreading in 2011, with Indian Summers: Mumbai and beyond by Ian Cochrane (Wordy-Gurdy 2011).
Jackey was headhunted in 2011 as business-magazine founding editor of Strategic Super Investor (Summit) and Inside Small Business (Octomedia).
Wordy-Gurdy’s publisher client list includes Black Inc., Bonnier Publishing Australia, Burnet Institute, Deakin University, Lonely Planet, Major Street Publishers, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Octomedia, Wild Dingo Press, John Wiley & Sons, Wilkinson Publishing.
Authors include Ali Corke, Dr Charlie Corke and Ian Cochrane; fiction and nonfiction authors, academics and small businesses.
Jackey has/is
Master of Arts (Writing & Literature)
Certificate 4 (Training)
Member, Institute of Professional Editors and Writers Victoria.
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