John Worth grew up in Western Australia, and spent much of his early life working in the back country of that vast state. The bush was in his blood, but he nurtured other dreams.

Shortly after marrying a young schoolteacher, he and his wife took themselves off to Europe, where he studied sculpture in Munich and London. Returning eventually to Australia, Worth began his career as a sculptor, working and exhibiting, mainly in Perth and later Melbourne.

Later, still working mainly in bronze, Worth moved to Brisbane. After some years, he also began painting seriously, exhibiting in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. Beginning around the same time as this gradual shift to painting, he also began to write, continuing to do so for the last twenty years. Now living near Byron Bay.