Patricia Shaw read History at university and consequently assisted the Governor of Queensland as a textwriter. Since 1983, she has led the Oral History Department of the Library of Parliament and written two works of non-fiction regarding Australia's era of settlement.

Shaw was 52 years old before she began to write fiction. Among her many novels, most of which centre on the settlement of the Australian hinterland and which earned her the sobriquet of "Australia's Chronicler", the most widely known are River of the Sun (1991) and The Opal Seekers (1996).

Patricia Shaw is also actively involved in the protection of Australia's native animals and birds.

"Corine International Book Award 2004" (readers' choice award) for The Five Winds.

Non-Fiction

• Brother Digger (1984)
• Pioneers of a Trackless Land

Fiction

• Valley of Lagoons (1989)
• River of the Sun (1991)
• The Feather and the Stone (1992)
• Where the Willows Weep (1993)
• Cry of the Rainbird (1994)
• Fire Fortune (1995)
• The Opal Seekers (1996)
• Glittering Fields (1997)
• A Cross of Stars (1998)
• Orchid Bay (1999)
• Waiting for the Thunder (2000, the sequel to The Feather and the Stone)
• On Emerald Downs (2002)
• The Five Winds (2003, the sequel to Orchid Bay)
• Storm Bay (2005)
• Mango Hill (2007, the sequel to Valley of Lagoons)