Peter Watt has worked as a soldier, an articled clerk to a solicitor, prawn trawler deckhand, builder's labourer, pipe layer, real estate salesman, private investigator, police sergeant and adviser to the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary. He has lived and worked with Aborigines, Islanders, Vietnamese and Papua New Guineans, able to speak, read and write in Vietnamese and Pidgin. He was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree (University of Tasmania), a Postgraduate Diploma of Training and Development (University of New England) and an Associate Diploma of Justice Administration (Charles Sturt University). Watt has lived in Maclean, on the Clarence River in Northern New South Wales. The major influences on his writing are Wilbur Smith, James A. Michener and Ion Idriess .
