Maurice Hardy

Maurice Hardy was born at Wynyard, Tasmania in 1953. He grew up on a dairy farm in Tasmania’s fertile North West region. From an early age Maurice developed a deep love for music, especially country music, and in his mid teens purchased his first guitar. This proved to be the beginning of a journey consisting of performing, traveling, meeting people and establishing himself in the industry. Hardy played in various bands and also became a prolific songwriter; winning many awards for his songs and vocal abilities. He was an invited guest to many country music events and a regular visitor to the Tamworth Festival.
Beginning his working life as a junior clerk at a fuel terminal, he advanced to become Terminal Manager. After twenty five years in the oil industry, Hardy was forced to change employment when a nation- wide merger meant all the dual facilities were either amalgamated or closed. During this period he had a range of differing, part time jobs until securing a position with a national wholesale distribution company.
However, after becoming the victim of sustained bullying and physiological abuse by a corrupt and manipulative overseer, Hardy decided to try music as a full time career.
Relocating to SE Queensland, and with the unyielding support of Vandra (his wife), he began to achieve acceptance in the highly competitive Queensland music scene. By now Hardy had recorded over twenty albums, and together with sales and live gigs, all the hard work and risk taking appeared to be paying off. Fate, however had a few more cards to deal and within twelve months of each other – (Vandra- Hodgkinson’s Lymphoma; Maurice- aggressive prostate cancer), realised the biggest battles were still to come.It was during these long sessions of treatment and recovery, Hardy’s other passion for reading novels come to the fore. Then, without really planning to do so, he sat at his laptop and began to write a story. 95 000 words later and after many months of editing; ‘Shadows of Perfection’ was born. Maurice has currently six completed novels.