Martin Johnson grew up in a workman's camp in Humbug Scrub, South Australia during the building of the South Para Reservoir. When he was fifteen years old he ran away to join the Navy. He was discharged for medical reasons in 1971. He later worked as a brick maker and timber feller. Johnson's first book of poems, After the Axe-men, was published in 1995. He was a guest reader at the 1994 Adelaide Writers' Week and at Montsalvat in 1995 and a founder/coordinator of the 'Poetry in the Pub' readings at Gawler in South Australia. He received several writing grants and in addition to poetry wrote social history including an anecdotal history of timber felling at Mt Crawford 1929-86, titled A Kind of Madness (1990) and Twenty Houses : An Anecdotal History of the Building of the South Para Reservoir 1948-1959 (Redfin Perch & tin-of-worms Inc., 1992). Published in numerous literary journals and magazines throughout Australia, Johnson has also performed and taught poetry, giving workshops and readings at schools, writers' groups and private functions.
