ABOUT THE AUTHORS MARAEL JOHNSON & ANDREW HEMPSTEAD
 Marael Johnson has been exploring and writing about Australia since 1983. She has worked as an area editor, writer, and researcher for dozens of travel guides (specifically in the Australia, New Zealand, and South Pacific regions), and has reviewed hundreds of Australia's hotels and resorts for publications that target both leisure and corporate travelers. She is the author of Outback Australia Handbook (prececessor of Moon Handbooks Australia), which won the Society of American Travel Writers' Lowell Thomas Award.
Before taking up travel writing full-time, Marael designed and stitched clothing for rock stars, sold love beads outside American Express offices in Europe, worked as a barmaid in Spain, an artist's model in California, a set dresser, an art catalog publisher, a vintage clothing collector, and a flea-market wheeler and dealer. Then she decided to settle down and become a travel writer. A phone call to a New York publishing house, requesting to work on their Australia title, resulted in a small assignment in Arizona, which cost more to do than the paltry pay. Shortly after returning from Arizona, the publisher's long-time Australia authors had decided to retire, and Marael was designated the area editor.
Marael has completely disproven her mother's theory that "you can't run away," as well as Thomas Wolfe's, who swore "you can never go home again." She does both—very successfully. She is an active member of the Society of American Travel Writers, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the National Writers Union.
 Andrew Hempstead has spent many years exploring, writing about, and photographing his native Australia. He has thoroughly explored every state—uncovering the secrets of Sydney, diving on the Great Barrier Reef, hiking in Tasmania, and eating way too many meat pies. A highlight of working on this edition was being able to spend some extra time exploring the farthest reaches of South Australia, a state often missed by international travelers. He watched sea lions on Kangaroo Island, hiked through the Flinders Ranges, and drove the Birdsville Track—all with his three-month-old daughter in tow.
Andrew has been writing since the late 1980s, when he left Australia for Alaska, linking up with veteran travel writer Deke Castleman to help research and update the fourth edition of Moon Handbooks Alaska-Yukon. In the ensuing years he has authored six guidebooks to Canada and co-authored two books to New Zealand.
While updating the third edition of Moon Handbooks Australia, Andrew spent long hours on the road. But rather than having an itinerary laid out for him by local tourism offices, he traveled incognito, experiencing the many and varied delights of Australia the same way his readers do.
Andrew lives with his wife Dianne and daughter Brio in Banff, Canada, but visits Australia regularly to spend time with family and friends, to keep this guidebook as up to date as humanly possible, and sometimes simply to spend time in a country that he feels is like no other place in the world.
Other travel guides authored by Andrew Hempstead:
Moon Handbooks Alberta
Moon Handbooks Atlantic Canada
Moon Handbooks British Columbia
Moon Handbooks Canadian Rockies
Moon Handbooks New Zealand
Moon Handbooks Vancouver
Moon Handbooks Western Canada
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