Nadia Wheatley (born 30 April 1949) is an award winning Australian writer of children’s fiction and non-fiction, adult non-fiction and biographies, and newspaper and journal articles. Her works often focus on "the difficulties faced by Aborigines or non-English-speaking newcomers to Australia, ... environmental issues and the effects of social change”. She has been involved in developing projects to raise children's awareness about their environment and local history.
Nadia was born in Sydney and brought up as a foster child, spending most of her youth in the Strathfield area and attending Meriden School. She began an Arts Degree at the University of Sydney in 1966, intending to major in English, but she changed to History and graduated with Honours in 1970. She later graduated from Macquarie University with an MA Honours degree.
In 1975, Wheatley went to Greece to live, with her then boyfriend, poet Martin Johnston, son of Australian writers George Johnston and Charmian Clift. It was here that she began to write seriously. They lived on both Crete and Astros, and had a routine of writing six days a week. In 1977, they went to London via Yugoslavia, and over the next year they visited Ireland, England and Scotland, before going back to Greece, and then returning to Australia in 1978. On her return to Australia, she lived in Newtown.
Wheatley's first book was Five Times Dizzy. Published in 1983, it was a critical success, and garnered many literary commendations and awards. Since then she has written many children's fiction and non-fiction books, most of them being shortlisted for and, often, winning awards.
She also wrote a biography of Charmian Clift (2002) which won that year's Premier's reading challenge at the New South Wales Premier's History Awards. In 2006, she was a judge for these awards. She was also, in 2006, the University of Canberra's May Gibbs Fellow.
Increasingly, Wheatley has become involved in programs which further social, cultural and environmental awareness, particularly in children. She and Ken Searle took part in the Australian Society of Authors funded mentorship program for Indigenous writers. The result of their involvement was Mary Malbunka’s children’s book When I was Little, Like You (2003, Allen & Unwin).
Nadia's book, Going Bush, grew out of a Harmony Day project developed in 2003 by eight inner-Sydney city schools. The initial plan was to break down barriers between the communities but it developed into a larger project which included learning about the environment, Indigenous culture, and living in multicultural communities, and involved sixteen Muslim, Catholic and government schools. In 2005 Nadia Wheatley and Ken Searle were invited by the committee to work with the children on "the theme of freedom". Wheatley and Searle used an educational model they had developed with others in the 1990s at Papunya School in Central Australia which "puts country at the core of the curriculum". The result was the book, Going Bush, which captures what the children learnt through exploring a section of urban bushland along Wolli Creek.
