Peter Cochrane graduated with a BA (Hons) from La Trobe University in 1974. Four years later he was awarded his PhD. Cochrane worked in the South Australian Parliamentary Library early in his career and went on to hold positions in various universities including Honorary Associate in History at The University of Sydney.
In 1992 Cochrane received the Fellowship of Australian Writers Award for Non-Fiction and in 1996 was awarded a Harold White Fellowship. In 2007 Cochrane was a co-winner of the Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History. Also in 2007 Cochrane won the Age Book of the Year award for Non-Fiction and the overall Book of the Year prize for Colonial Ambition.
Major source: National Library of Australia, Papers of Peter Cochrane, Manuscripts Finding Aid.