Bessie Flower Cameron was educated at Annesfield, an Anglican boarding school at Albany, Western Australia, run by Anne Camfield. After finishing her schooling at Annesfield, she went to Sydney for further education, studying academic subjects such as English literature, history, scripture and also 'feminine' subjects such as piano playing and singing. Bessie's education was used to demonstrate to the wider Australian public how government money was being used in the missions and reserves. In 1866, she became Camfield's assistant and the organist for St John's Church in Albany.
In 1867, Bessie and her younger sister, Ada, were in a group of five Aboriginal women who travelled from Western Australia to Ramahyuck Mission, Victoria. Their purpose was to be married to Christian Kurnai men, a plan devised by the Reverand F. A. Hagenauer, who wanted to ensure Christianity prevailed within the people's belief systems. A highly literate and widely read woman, Bessie became a teacher at the Ramahyuck Mission school as well as assisting Mrs Hagenauer with housework, give lessons to the Hagenaur children, and assist Mrs Hagenauer with sewing lessons in the community. While at Ramahyuck, Bessie caught the attention of a white man, who asked Reverand Hagenauer for her hand in marriage. Hagenauer disapproved of this and in 1868 Bessie married Donald Cameron, a Jupagilwournditch man, living at the Mission. The marriage was not entirely successful and after losing the favour of Hagenauer, the Camerons moved reluctantly in 1883 to Donald's traditional lands near Ebenezar, in western Victoria for some time, returning to Gippsland, though not to the Ramahyuck or Lake Tyers Missions where Bessie preferred to be. Bessie wrote numerous letters requesting permission to live at Lake Tyers and in 1884 was allowed to return.
Bessie never returned to Western Australia.
