Leaving school at seventeen he worked in a variety of jobs including as a registry clerk at Parliament House, laboring and building, printing, stone masonry, Union organiser, and as a courier in Sydney. After traveling in Nepal, India and Northern Pakistan in 1989 he completed an Environmental Science degree at the University of Canberra. Whilst at university Jamie also became involved in the forest preservation movement and blockading. Jamie spent many years working with the National parks and Wildlife Service, specializing in Bushfire ecology. After being injured in a bushfire in 2000 and spending two years in hospital Jamie has now moved in a new direction - writing. Years of conservation experience, combined with a vision born of his personal struggle, give his writing a unique perspective. Jamie has retained his love of travel, places, and the joy of difference. In recent years he has visited Antarctica, the Arctic and Greenland, Laos, China and the countries of Central Asia, Syria and Turkey as well as many other counties.    

Jamie’s first book, “Iso and the Bushfire”, was published in November 2006 and won the NSW Writers Centre’s Open Book Award for Children’s Literature in 2008.

Jd Shaw's poetry has been published in Wet Ink Magazine and the Anthology Everyday Slendor (Poetic Christrie publ.)