He played a major part in the discovery of the famous Dutch East India Company shipwrecks of the 17th and 18th centuries on the Western Australian coast.

His book Islands Of Angry Ghosts on his expedition to the site of the Batavia, lost in the Abrolhos Islands in 1629, won the Sir Thomas White Memorial Prize for the best book written by an Australian in 1966. It covers the loss of the Dutch East Indiaman, the mutiny and massacre on the island, and the retributions.

Wreck on the Half Moon Reef is another of Edwards' books, on the loss of the Zeewyk in 1727. Recent titles include Shark - The Shadow Below, and Port of Pearls (on the north-west town of Broome and its pearling industry). He lives in Perth, Western Australia and was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia on June 8, 2009.