He hated school, and his a passion for a life at sea was blighted when he was found to have colour blindness.
During the 1930s Depression, he worked variously as a labourer, manager, salesman, and debt collector.
[1] In a widely publicised case, in 1946 he and "Georgian House Pty Ltd", the publisher of his 1945 novel Love Me Sailor, were prosecuted in the Supreme Court of Victoria for "obscene libel".
[7] This was later overturned on appeal; he served 10 days in prison and was fined £150.
[3][5] His later works included Eliza Callaghan (1957), loosely based on the life of Elizabeth Callaghan, the spouse of Australian pioneer and businessman John Batman, and The Voyage Continues (1969).