The Australian Women's Register

Schooled at the Presbyterian Ladies College, in Adelaide, South Australia, Nancy Cato began her professional writing career as a cadet journalist on the Adelaide News at age 18. Later an art critic for the same newspaper, she also became a freelance writer. In 1950 she edited the Jindyworobak Anthology.

Actively involved in the Fellowship of Australian Writers and the Australian Society of Authors during the 1950s and 1960s, Cato’s books include Green grows the vine, Brown sugar and All the rivers run, which was made into a TV mini-series. She published other prose works in addition to two volumes of poetry, and contributed to Australian literary magazines. A major work was Mister Maloga, the story of Daniel Mathews and his Maloga Mission to Aboriginal people on the Murray River in Victoria.

Cato married Eldred Norman, and travelled extensively overseas with him; the pair had one daughter and two sons.

Nancy Cato strove for ultimate skill as a writer, and for protection of the Australian environment, particularly in the face of developers on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. She was awarded the Alice Award by the Society of Women Writers in 1988; the Advance Australia award for environmental campaigning; an Honorary Doctor of Letters, University of Queensland; and was a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).