Eva Browne-Paterson

Eva Browne-Paterson, (born 16 January 1962 as Eva Dawn Linney) is an Australian author of children's fiction, best known for her Island Critters series. Eva's stories are based on Keswick Island where she lives in the Whitsundays in Queensland.

Early Life

Born in Subiaco, Perth, Western Australia, the daughter of Eva Linney, (Nee Hau, Nee Takimoana), a Maori from New Zealand and her father Albert Linney, an Englishman from Blackpool in the United Kingdom. She moved with her family to New South Wales when she was 2 years old and lived in the western suburbs where she first attended Five Dock West Infants School, followed by Haberfield Demonstration School in her primary years. She attented Fort Street High School for 2 years before moving to New Zealand when she was 13. They settled into Pakuranga and she completed her schooling at Pakuranga College in Auckland.

Eva left school after gaining her school certificate and immediately started work as a Girl Friday for Coca Cola in Mt Wellington, Auckland. In 1978, she moved back to Australia to make her own way and lived in Petersham, Sydney. She worked as a secretary during the day and attended Petersham TAFE during the evenings to learn Gregg Shorthand. She then proceeded to Sydney TAFE to undertake the Gregg Shorthand Instructor course and taught at Granville TAFE the following year when she was 19.

Mid-Life

She married Royston Browne at 22 in Lidcombe, NSW and had her only child, Clayton, 2 years later. They moved to Gorokan in the Central Coast and by the time she was 26 she was widowed. She managed Bowen's Photographics at Lake Haven Shopping Centre for several years, then worked as a desktop publisher for BHP Research and other engineering companies for the following 10 years.

Her mother passed away when she was 33 and 3 years later in 1998, she met Brian Paterson, a Scot from Gosford who had 3 children, Melanie, Nathan and Jessica Paterson. They married a year later and both changed their last name to 'cover all the children'. A few years later, they moved into her parents home to look after her stepfather Keith Smith, who passed away from cancer at 83 years. During those years she worked for Modular Mining Systems as a Technical Document Writer and Business Systems Administrator while building an online marketing business part-time.

In 2006, once most of the children had left school, they made a sea change and moved north to Keswick Island to escape the rat race and live in peaceful surroundings. Eva continued working her online marketing and graphic design business for another 10 years until 2016.

Later Life

Since 2006 Eva has lived 32kms NE of Mackay on Keswick Island, the southern-most Whitsunday Island in the Cumberland Group. Nestled in the midst of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, Keswick is home to ~14 residents who form a close-knit community. She lives with her husband Brian in Jasmine Cottage around 120m above sea level with views over the Coral Sea. Surrounded by bushland and with Mackay in distant sight they live a quiet, idyllic life in harmony with the native fauna.

Keswick Island Fauna

Keswick has about 60 different species of birds, butterflies that flutter in the thousands some years, lizards, frogs and non-venemous snakes. (Not to forget the many different types of insects, her favourite being the friendly mozzie!) The Coral Sea abounds with tropical fish on the fringing reefs, turtles, sharks & hump back whales during the winter months. The water is beautiful and warm for swimming or snorkelling most of the year and is an amazing aquamarine colour, much like you'd see in the Bahamas. This all makes for the perfect setting in which to write stories about the locals.

Bibliography

Eva's stories are based on local fauna on Keswick Island and are aimed at children. Her writing style is lyrical and rhyming, and she started illustrating her books from the fourth story onwards.

Island Critters Series

The Curlew That Couldn't Sing (2017)
The Monitor That Caused A Cave In (2017)
The Frog That Wanted To Fly (2017)
Critter's Christmas On Keswick (2017)

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