Peter Pinney was a grandson of the colonial administrator Sir Hubert Murray. He was educated in Sydney, and joined the army in 1941. After a brief training in the Middle East, he served with Independent Companies in New Guinea and the Solomons. After the war he spent fifteen years travelling in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. An adventurous traveller, he often moved round the world without money or passport. Many of his books are accounts of these travels.
Pinney returned to Australia in 1961 and settled in Brisbane. He lived on a houseboat in Doboy Creek for two years, before setting off to north Queensland. He and his wife, Estelle Pinney, spent five years cray fishing in the Torres Strait, returning to Brisbane in 1972. He became a script writer for television and film, and wrote for The Sullivans, The Flying Doctors and Carson's Law.
Pinney also wrote magazine and newspaper articles, and he compiled a book of African folk tales.
