Rolf Heimann was born in 1940 in Dresden and grew up in East Germany. After he was expelled from the communist youth organisation, at 15 years of age, he escaped into West Germany. At 18 Rolf migrated to Australia.

Ralf’s first job in Australia was grape picking in Mildura, but since then he had to work at various occupations; in factories and as a fettler at the Queensland railway. He wrote and sketched wherever he travelled. His special interest was marine biology and skin diving, and he published a book about Australian fishes.

Ralf’s travels took him through the Pacific and the Caribbean. After taking part in an anti-nuclear protest voyage in 1974 he bought his own yacht “La Flor” and skippered her in 1975 into the nuclear exclusion zone of Muroroa, protesting against French nuclear tests.

For two years Ralf lived on his yacht, often sailing long passages single-handed. During this time Ralf became a regular contributor to the Australian “Nation Review”, published the travel book “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” and the novel “Wattle and Dope”. His dedication to environmental issues led to several arrests and following false police evidence Rolf spent some time in Melbourne’s Pentridge jail.

When he met his future wife in Samoa, Rolf took her to Melbourne and shortly after they had two children. Ralf has published two cartoon books – “Unfair to Hippocrits” and “No Emus for Antactica”, and for four years edited  “Access” a national magazine. In 2003, Ralf was voted Cartoonist of the Year and he was also awarded the Wacom Prize for best Australian computer illustration. Some years later he was awarded the Jim Russel Prize for Services to Cartooning.

Ralf represented Australian cartoonists at meetings in the USA, Germany, Cuba, Hungary, Germany, France, Korea, Japan, Indonesia and China, co-organised cartoon exhibitions in Indonesia and China and contributed cartoons and articles to dozens of publications. He published about 50 books, mainly for children; some were translated into 14 languages and sold millions worldwide.

For some years Rolf was a Vice President of the Australian Cartoonists Association and gave talks about Australian cartooning at universities in Beijing, Nanjing, Guiyang, Guangzhou, Washington, and Havana. He also acted numerous times as a judge in International animation and cartoon competitions, and has produced a dozen short films as well as co-writing film scripts. He translated short stories and poetry, wrote a radio play that was broadcast in Germany and was invited to several writers’ conferences overseas. He is currently on the Board of the Australian Cartoon Museum.