Patricia Maunder launched her media career while completing an arts degree (with honours) at the University of Melbourne. She volunteered at Melbourne public radio station PBS-FM, producing and presenting regular music and film programs for several years, and also began freelance writing. Initially contributing to various Australian street press (including a weekly column for Beat magazine), she stepped up to major publications such as The Age (where she also had a weekly column), The Sydney Morning Herald and UK magazine Muzik. Among the many people she interviewed during this period were film director Peter Jackson and the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s Richard Tognetti.
For some time Patricia balanced freelancing with work at citysearch.com.au, where she was a member of the editorial team for 10 years, the last five as national editor. This dynamic role’s tasks included writing, sub-editing and commissioning content, team management and editorial strategy.
She resigned from Citysearch to return to freelancing in 2007. Patricia once again contributed to The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, and other media such as The Weekly Review, Outback and Bookseller + Publisher magazines, Fairfax book The Good Food Shopping Guide, the ArtsHub website, ABC Radio National’s Book Show and was the Melbourne reviewer for the UK’s Opera magazine. She also used her way with words for clients such as Australia Post and Visit Victoria.
In 2012, Patricia moved from Melbourne to Montreal, Canada. From here she continued to file for Australian publications, including The West Australian, The Saturday Paper and Get Up & Go magazine, while adding Canadian media such as Montreal’s The Gazette, The Vancouver Sun, Quill & Quire and CAA magazine to her roster. She also began writing for other international publications including bachtrack.com and New Zealand’s The Dominion Post. During her time in Canada, Patricia interviewed the likes of Margaret Atwood, Ricky Gervais, Susan Sarandon and opera star Renee Fleming, while travel writing took her from Toronto’s arts scene to Quebec’s ice hotel and Newfoundland’s Viking site.
Since returning to Melbourne in 2016, Patricia wrote her first book: a curated travel guide to Montreal published internationally by Hardie Grant in 2019. She has interviewed people such as conductor Sir Andrew Davis, and continued adding media to her CV. These include Gourmet Traveller, Escape, The Weekend Australian‘s Travel + Luxury, Australian Book Review, Luxury Travel magazine and The New Zealand Herald‘s travel pages. She is Limelight magazine’s lead Melbourne theatre and opera reviewer, produces custom content for clients including Spirit of Tasmania, the City of Melbourne, Journey Beyond and Trinity College, and has been a guest contributor on ABC Radio.
Patricia is a member of the Australian Society of Travel Writers and Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, and upholds their codes of ethics.