Cirrus@Austlit

After graduating from The University of Queensland with a BA (Hons) in 1970 and an MA in English Literature in 1973, Paul Davies tutored at James Cook University. Within a year, however, he was offered a position with Crawford Productions to work as a series editor and writer. His on the job training in these roles began with the classic Australian police drama, Homicide (1974-75). In all he edited 29 scripts and co-wrote two episodes for the series during its final seasons. One of these, 'Double Take' was written with a team that included Don Battye. Between 1975 and 1976 he a series writer and series editor for The Box (1975-76), and in 1976 he began a three year association with The Sullivans (1976-78) as script editor/writer. After leaving Crawfords, he wrote 'The Tree of Liberty,' an episode for the 1978 mini-series Against the Wind, and contributed scripts to episodes for Skyways (1979).

During the 1980s, Davies wrote for film, television and the stage. From 1982 up until 1991 he was an actor, writer and member of the Artistic Directorate of the Melbourne-based company TheatreWorks. Two of his plays from that period, Storming Mont Albert by Tram (1982) and On Shifting Sandshoes (1988), received Australian Writers Guild Awards (Awgies), with Storming Mont Albert having been first produced by TheatreWorks on a working suburban tram in 1982. It was performed numerous times over the next decade in Melbourne (later produced as Storming St Kilda by Tram) and in Adelaide (as Storming Glenelg by Tram). The play also helped make 'site-specific' plays popular in Australia.

Among Davies's other theatre works are Breaking Up in Baldwyn (1983), which was performed on a riverboat; Living Rooms (1986), staged in a mansion; On Shifting Sands (1988); and Full House - No Vacancies (1989), produced in a Melbourne boarding house. In 1982 he also turned Storming Mont Albert by Tram into a short story for The Journal/The Age Short Story Competition. The following year he did the same treatment for Breaking Up in Baldwyn. Both stories were subsequently published in The Journal. Davies was also nominated for AWGIE awards in 1988 for Storming St Kilda by Tram and On Shifting Sandshoes.

Davies' credits during the 1980s additionally include the feature films Exits (1980, which was nominated for a Greater Union Award at the 1980 Sydney Film Festival), Niel Lynne (1985) and the ABC telemovie Traps (1986). Since the early 1990s, Davies has worked on several major Australian drama series, notably Blue Heelers (1997-1998), Stingers (1998-2003), Something in the Air (2000-2001), and Headland (2005-2006).

During his career Davies maintained an association with tertiary education, while also contributing articles and papers to various academic and industry journals. During the early 1980s he worked as a part time lecturer in film at the Melbourne State College (1980), and in scriptwriting for the Holmesglen TAFE (1982). In 1987 he also contributed the essay 'Location Theatre and Some Early Community Encounters of the Third Kind,' an overview of the early location theatre movement, for Community Theatre in Australia. For two years beginning 1993 he lectured and convened courses for the Southern Cross University (Lismore) in script writing and video production (1993-94), returning there in 2002 to again lecture in script writing.

Since 2000 davies has published more than a dozen articles on industry-related issues in a variety of journals, notably Metro Magazine (published by Australian Teachers of Media). These include 'Negotiating the Story on Australian Television' (2000); 'Writing Kids TV' (2001); 'Writing for Television' (2001, an interview with Neighbours scriptwriter Elizabeth Huntley); 'Looking for the Story Engine' (2003, an interview with producer Roger Simpson); 'Between Fact and Fiction' (2003, an interview with filmmaker John Hughes); and 'Killing Homicide' (2006, an analysis of the sudden demise of Australia's first successful TV series). Other journals and magazines to have published his work are Cinema Papers and Cantrills' Filmnotes.

Between 2000 and 2009 he was also a consultant and script workshop supervisor for QPIX (Brisbane). In 2009 Davies returned to the University of Queensland to begin a Ph D in Drama.