I grew up in Auckland, New Zealand, and graduated with a Bachelor of Optometry in 1991. After graduation I moved to Adelaide for what was supposed to be two years, but then I met a beautiful Australian girl, who became my wife. After living in Sydney for some years, we eventually found ourselves living in Hobart, Tasmania. Brian Sims was just about to retire from the Lions Low Vision Clinic in the Royal Hobart Hospital, and he ‘volunteered’ me to take his place. Mentored by Andrew Maver, I found I had a (previously undetected) aptitude for low vision, especially as it involved a lot of ‘thinking outside the box’ (I’ve always had trouble staying in the box!).

A lot of years passed, and I gradually realised that my clinical experience only partially meshed with the low vision theory I had learned, and started to ponder why some things worked really well, and other things seemed to work rarely or never. The result is the theoretical framework I present in this website, which I hope others will refine.

I still live in Hobart, with my wife Tracey, and two fine sons (Matthew and Angus).

Freycinet National Park. Top: Mt Wellington, Hobart. (Photos by Paul Graveson)