Joanne van Os was born in Sydney and raised in Melbourne, the eldest of six children. After working as a laboratory technician she moved to the Northern Territory in 1976 to be the radio operator at a remote Aboriginal community. Since then, her jobs have included bull catcher, buffalo station owner, home school teacher, electorate officer for an independent MP, boat hire business owner/operator, cartoonist and mother of three children. Her first book, Outback Heart, was published in 2005, and followed by children's novels Brumby Plains, Castaway and The Secret of the Lonely Isles. She lives in Darwin with her husband Lex Silvester on their boat. Ronan's Echo is her fifth book.
