Robert Maddison is my pen name. My real name is Bill Phillips. A little bit about me - I have a PhD in Zoology and I’m also a former senior executive in the Federal environment bureaucracy in Australia. Then for nearly three years, I was Deputy Secretary General of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands based in Switzerland.
After that posting I was a freelance consultant, working mostly across Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. Finally, I then set up and was CEO of the not-for-profit organisation, RiverSmart Australia for more than ten years.
So, I’ve worked in environmental politics, and all its’ machinations, for most of my professional life. Now I’m using these real life experiences to help shape eco-thrillers: a sub-genre with a focus on corruption in the environmental arena.
I’ve just completed a trilogy, starting with 'Flood Country', followed by ‘Trumped up Corella' and completed with ‘Cotton Trash’. While these are works of fiction, the story lines are inspired by real events; the names, places etc all completely fictitious.
I was in born Lake Cargelligo in western NSW, spent nearly 30 years living in Canberra and then retired to write and live on a houseboat on the Murray River in Mildura until late 2024. I recently moved to live in the 'Land of Smiles', Thailand. I enjoy fiction writing. I see it as a way to entertain you the reader while also passing on some insights into the realities that go on behind the scenes in the sometimes ugly politics of the environment. I hope you enjoy my stories.
Robert Maddison is my pen name. My real name is Bill Phillips. A little bit about me - I have a PhD in Zoology and I’m also a former senior executive in the Federal environment bureaucracy in Australia. Then for nearly three years, I was Deputy Secretary General of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands based in Switzerland.
After that posting I was a freelance consultant, working mostly across Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. Finally, I then...
Water theft, corruption, intrigue… at the height of a ten-year drought in Australia’s outback.
Jack Miller, former Sydney Morning Herald journalist, follows his instincts to rural Dawson to do a follow-up piece on a headline that read ‘Angry farmer accuses bureaucrat of corruption’.
Little did he know what he was about to unleash as he set about...
A fire in August 1991 at the Coode Island Hazardous Chemicals Storage Facility in inner Melbourne is the inspiration for this roller coaster of political manoeuvrings, corruption and violence—all designed to see the facility relocated to a site which just happens to be home for a critically endangered species—the Orange-bellied Parrot—of which...
Cotton Trash is the gripping third installment in the eco-thriller series featuring investigative journalists Jack Miller and Sharon Davis. Set in rural Australia, the duo receives an anonymous tip about unusually high cancer rates in their community. Their relentless investigation uncovers a web of corruption involving politicians, bureaucrats,...
