About Cameron

I'm Cameron Sims — an Australian author, voice-over artist and developmental editor with a background in environmental and conservation science.

Growing up in Ballarat

Originally from Ballarat, Victoria, where I grew up and completed my high school and initial tertiary education. Growing up in Ballarat meant that I was fortunate enough to have access to anything I wanted not too far away. Whether it be the beach along the Great Ocean Road, AFL matches or other sporting events in Melbourne, to the amazing national parks only a few hours' drive away, being in Ballarat meant that I had access to everything.

I completed a Bachelor of Veterinary and Wildlife Science (no, I am not a qualified veterinarian 😅) in 2019 and a Bachelor of Environmental and Conservation Science in 2020, both at Federation University Australia in Ballarat.

Wildlife, conservation & North Queensland

With the COVID-19 pandemic still causing major disruptions in Victoria, making employment hard to find, I decided to move to Townsville in North Queensland and complete a Master’s. In 2022, I graduated with a Master of Science Majoring in Tropical Biology and Conservation. I was incredibly fortunate to gain employment immediately post my degree, where I worked in North Queensland as a Field Officer and then Project Officer at NQ Dry Tropics, working on projects that helped graziers increase productivity on their land while simultaneously providing positive outcomes for biodiversity and conservation values. This role was incredibly rewarding, and one of the highlights of it was meeting all the different graziers and hearing the stories they all had.

The PhD that wasn’t

A position arose at James Cook University where I could do a PhD studying the relationship that rangelands have on biodiversity condition. It looked perfect and the exact sort of project I would be into, but unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances and multiple catastrophic flood events, the project never looked like it could come to fruition. Due to this, after only three months, I decided to drop out and move on to the next thing.

Stories, people and curiosity

I packed up all my stuff from Townsville, bought a campervan and surfed down the East Coast of Australia back to Ballarat.

As I travelled down the country, stopping off at random little beaches, walking spots and view points. I met many people from all walks of life who all had amazing stories. This was when I eagerly wanted to pursue story telling form of work more.

For as long as I can remember, I have always been fascinated with stories and by people’s lives. I’m sure you all remember being a kid or even having a kid of your own that always asks ‘why?’ or ‘how?’ Well, I was that kid, and I never really grew out of that. I just love knowing things, learning about others and hearing people’s stories. If someone has a story, no matter what it is or how boring they may think it is, I want to hear it, and I’ve always been like that.

Once back in Ballarat, I spent the next 6 months over the 2025-2026 summer working at Corangamite Catchment Management Authority, doing the same sort of role I had in North Queensland, and I again really enjoyed it.

Being back home also meant I had more spare time, and I chose to dedicate this extra time to really starting to focus on writing my first book Darren and a Kid Called Franky while watching Australia once again completely destroy England in the Ashes.

While I was incredibly disappointed the PhD didn’t work out the way I would have liked, it did open up a major opportunity for me to do some travel and focus on my writing and voice over work.

Where I am now

I have since travelled to Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, Bhutan and Thailand, where I have thoroughly enjoyed experiencing the different cultures and, yes, you guessed it, meeting all the different people along the way and hearing about their stories. Whether they be a backpacker from Europe or the fruit store owner in Galle, Sri Lanka, all the stories I hear are amazing to me.

With this passion, becoming an author and doing voice over work was a no brainer and the perfect thing for me to do. It combines everything I love. Telling stories and using my skills, both with my voice and a pen, to bring whatever the story is to life.

Writing Darren and a Kid Called Franky, and working on my next book, developmental and structural editing was something that fascinated me deeply. Writing a book at times is overwhelming, frustrating and scary. In my experience, this is because the structure of the story or characters is missing something. This is something I am experiencing more so currently as I write my second book, where there were just gaps and pacing issues that needed to be addressed. By fixing these things and planning thoroughly means that writing the book is not only fun and enjoyable, but it is easy and you can finish it a lot faster while not neglecting any part of the story.

My work has taken a few different directions over the years, but the common thread has always been storytelling, communication and people. Today, that means doing this full time and traveling to different countries in between writing fiction, working behind the microphone and helping other writers develop their own stories.