Dave Hartley was born and bred on Queensland's Gold Coast. Dave's people are Barunggam, the traditional owners of the Darling Downs/Chinchilla region. Dave enjoys unleashing his inner ten-year into the pages of his growing collection of published works and will never shy away from writing a whole chapter dedicated to cool bike chases, epic wedgies or hyperactive savage guard dogs. 

Outside of writing, Dave is an artist, plays didgeridoo and works as a primary school principal. He is the author of the Deadly D trilogy published by Magabala Books, co-written with Scott Prince, the author of the TC and The Stinkiest Story Ever in the History Of The Universe and TC and the Curse of the Exploding Doll published by Scholastic in 2019 and 2020, co-author of Strangers On Country with Kirsty Murray illus by Dub Leffler, which won the CBCA Book of the Year: Eve Pownall Award for information books Honour Book in 2021. Most recently, Dave is the author of the Howzat Pat series of action adventure middle grade books with Australian Cricket Captain Pat Cummins, illustrated by Serena Geddes, published in 2024 by HarperCollins.