Frank McMahon grew up in a range of locations around South Australia due to his father's job as a foreman on a postmaster-general's line party. McMahon enlisted with the RAAF during World War II and continued in the service for a further period at the war's end. McMahon then took up work with the Commonwealth Public Service and studied at the University of Adelaide. He graduated in 1962 and soon after moved with the Department of Treasury to a position in Canberra.
Following early retirement, due to ill health, McMahon was able to focus more on his writing. His first collection of poetry, Tide Pools and Other Verse, was published in 1979. In the years after this, McMahon received many awards, particularly for his bush poetry.
McMahon's other interests included Australian history, River Murray folklore and vintage cars.
There is a sound cassette of the launching of Frank McMahon's book The Asphalt and the Stars, recorded at a function organised by the Welsch Cambrian Society of the ACT in 1989, and a video recording of the author reading his poetry at the Australian Defence Force Academy Library in 1990. Both are held at the Academy Library.
Main source: Brendon Kelson, 'Winning Poet Wrote His Epitaph', Canberra Times (22 October 2010): 15.
