Before taking up full-time writing in 1973, he undertook the classic writer's apprenticeship by working in a variety of jobs, ranging from greenskeeper to an extended period in the Siverwater oil refinery, on the river downstream of Parramatta.

[1] This latter job inspired his second (and best-known) novel, The Unknown Industrial Prisoner, which brought him recognition in the early 1970s.

He is one of only four Australian writers to win the Award more than twice; the others are Thea Astley (4) and Tim Winton (4), and Peter Carey (3).

His work concentrates on "... sweeping existential issues and their impact on the lives of those oblivious to them... haunted by the plight of society’s underclasses and the great silence about them.

Characters in his early novels are factory workers, the unemployed, the homeless, and those lost to alcohol or beset by mental illness."