Senior Australian of the Year Jackie French loves three things in equal measure: wombats, the environment and getting children excited about books.
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The prize-winning author, who was bestowed with the national honour on Sunday, has captured childrens' imaginations for decades with more than a hundred books in a variety of genres.
The 61-year-old dreamed up her first story idea at three years old, becoming an avid reader by age six despite living with dyslexia, and entertaining classmates and siblings with imaginative tales.
French wrote her first children's book Rainstones when she was living in a tin shed and needed money to register her car. It was released in 1991 – though a book on organic gardening, released in 1987, was her first published work.
The Rainstones manuscript was described as one of the messiest the editor had seen – partly because of French's dyslexia, partly because the letter 'e' on her typewriter was affected by wombat droppings.
From her home in Araluen Valley in the NSW Southern Tablelands, French quickly followed up her debut, which was shortlisted in the Premier's Literary Awards, with historical novel Hitler's Daughter in 1999 (which would go on to be recommended in school curriculums) and possibly her best-known story, Diary of a Wombat, in 2002.
Her rural property in Araluen, an hour's drive from Canberra, has served as a silent inspiration behind her fantastical stories, which span a multitude of genres from young-adult to science fiction. French also has a gardening column with the Canberra Times.
French was named the Australian Children's Laureate in 2014, a role of two years that involves encouraging children to embrace the transformational power of storytelling. It is a role she has embraced tirelessly, in addition to her advocacy for children living with learning difficulties like dyslexia.
French is also a director of The Wombat Foundation, which raises funds for research into the preservation of the endangered northern hairy-nosed wombat. The animals have been a fixture in her life for several decades.
Ahead of Australia Day, French called on her fellow seniors to volunteer in their own family or in the wider community, and to tell stories of their childhoods to keep spoken history alive.
