Journalist and historian Peter Hancock (1953-) was born in England and migrated to Western Australia with his family when he was 10. After finishing school, he tried his hand at a range of jobs including prawn fisherman, delivery driver, courier rider, farmhand, roadworker and soldier, before settling on a career as a singer/songwriter in which he travelled Australia, won a brace of songwriting awards and appeared on several national TV shows.
In 1979, however, he decided it was time to get "a serious job" and undertook a journalism cadetship with The Albany Advertiser newspaper, in south-west Australia. From there he went on to hold positions on all WA's major newspapers, including his most recent post as morning editor for the PerthNow news website.