About

Background of Fiona Harper, Travel Writer

Escaping from the harsh outback sunlight of a Gypsy-like childhood in the remote, and somewhat inhospitable scrublands of Western Australia, I emerged with an unquenchable desire to explore the world. Or more precisely, in the days before low cost airlines encouraged everybody to jump on a plane at will, to discover the treasures hidden within my own vast backyard.

As a fiercely independent teenager recently out of school, I slung a backpack over my shoulder and boarded a Greyhound bus heading north from Fremantle into the Kimberley. Camping in the dunes behind Cable Beach, in the days before the cocktail glasses tinkled on the sunset deck of the Cable Beach Club, the hippies, or ‘mung beans’ as this eclectic group were known then, revelled in the freedom of one of the world’s most beautiful beaches. Carefree days revolved around the rising of the sun and the falling of the tide, interspersed with regular expeditions to town where we danced barefoot beneath the stars in the Roebuck Hotel beer garden. Heady, exotic adventurous days that must, according to conservative parents, eventually end.

And end they did, with a well-timed stroll along the Broome jetty offering the opportunity to toss my pack aboard the deck of a 44 foot yacht heading off into the Kimberley sunset. Disembarking six exhilarating weeks later in Darwin, having experienced the awe inspiring beauty of the open sea, combined with the raw wilderness of far-flung anchorages, I emerged with a new passion for sailing and a career in travel. Hitching home to Perth via northern Queensland, it became apparent that the journey had only just begun. Indeed, after clocking up over 35,000 nautical miles on both small and large yachts, the journey is far from over.

As my career evolved across the media, marine and travel industries, eventually I found my niche. To encourage others to explore. To experience far-flung lands. To see the world with an open mind. To engage with others.

A Travel Writer was born…..

Within the travel industry, I’ve worked at the forefront of leisure travel, advising first time travellers who weren’t sure if they needed a passport to visit Tasmania. In the corporate travel world, while working the graveyard shift, I’ve sweated over business traveller emergencies, co-ordinating evacuations for urban corporates abandoned in the jungle clad mines of South America. I’ve up sold, cross sold, even over sold, until I had nothing left to sell in the competitive, commission based world of travel.

In researching destinations, I’ve lost room service crumbs, even my mini bar virginity, in the ridiculously starched linen of opulent hotel beds. I’ve fallen in love with an Arab guide over a hubbly bubbly pipe beneath a starry desert sky while researching middle eastern culture. Trying to overcome a fear of heights, I’ve suffered vertiginous paranoia while crawling across a glass floor hundred of metres above a city (it didn’t work – I’m still terrified of heights). I even once considered, then quickly dismissed the idea, of bungy jumping out of a perfectly sound Auckland building, all in the name of research to sate travel clients and readers in their lust for adventure. Oh, I also managed to squeeze in almost 40,000 ocean miles sailing on large and small power and sailboats across the Asia/Pacific region.

Along the way I’ve learnt an enormous amount about travel, and travel writing, with all its exhilarating, heart stopping encounters that entice us to explore the world. As an insightful Travel Writer, I draw upon this knowledge, plus the idiosyncrasies of the travel industry in order to inform, engage and entertain.

As the founding editor of the only definitive guide to Australian marinas, the Australian Marinas Guide, I’m somewhat of an expert on waterfront destinations, waterfront destinations, islands, yachts, yachting and charters. If it includes water, there’s a good chance I know something about it! Joining a syndicate of specialist travel writers in 2008, Global Travel Writers, I’m excited about our EBook which we released late in 2009. Travel Writing and Travel Photography – From Dreams to Hard Reality is the combined work of some of Australia’s finest travel writers and photographers. It’s for sale in EBook form for just AUD19.95.

As a full writer member of the Australian Society of Travel Writers, I am bound by our Code of Ethics :

* As a representative of the public interest, I serve as a travel critic, as ready to comment critically as to praise. I will not accept payment for writing favourably about travel destinations or operations against my own professional appraisal.
* I shall only describe those destinations or operations of which I have first-hand knowledge, or have access to other reliable sources.
* Participation in familiarisations are regarded as essential working opportunities.
* Hosts of familiarisations will be expected to provide circumstances conducive to full and accurate reporting, not as a favour to writers or publications.

As a freelance journalist, I adhere to the Australian Journalists Association Code of Ethics, and am committed to: