Into the World

Stephanie Parkyn has wanted to be an author since writing her first earnest little stories and poems at primary school in Christchurch, New Zealand. But a love of science, research, and the environment led her to a PhD and a career as a freshwater ecologist. In 2010, she moved to Tasmania with her husband and embarked on her other passions of art and writing. Here she learned of a French scientific expedition and their first contact with Tasmanian Aboriginal people and of the woman who joined the voyage disguised as a man.

Ulli Birvé has performed for various companies in Australia including Playbox Theatre, Melbourne Theatre Company, Hit Productions, Sydney Theatre Company, Red Shed and State Theatre Company of South Australia. She performed in the production Oceans and Utopias in Lisbon for World Expo (directed by Philippe Genty), and for television Ulli played Helen Virtue in the ABC series Something in the Air.