Michael Hill's family were from the Rockhampton area on his father's side, and Bundaberg on his mother's side. From a young age, Hill was taught a strong work ethic as his family's motto was, 'If you don't work, don't come to the table.' By the age of eight, Hill was picking beans and cotton, as well as chipping (weeding) cotton. He was also taught how to drive, and while his father was away he would drive himself and his brother to school, parking the car out of sight. His education was not consistent as his father moved around for seasonal work. By the time Hill was thirteen he left school to work full time.
Hill worked in many jobs in Queensland including the sugar cane industry and ringbarking trees. In 1964, Hill with his brothers and cousins went to Murray Valley (Victoria), for seasonal fruit picking work. For six to seven years, he was contracted to pick fruit in Robinvale for Johnnie James, Carlton footballer and Brownlow Medallist, travelling down to Victoria for each fruit picking season. When he was twenty-four, he headed to Brisbane and found work as a taxi driver for three years which he credits with teaching him communication and management skills. By 1975, he settled in Sunraysia, to do more fruit picking work but was asked to be the bar manager, which he did for six months. When that job was finished, he bought into a Block Farm, 31 acres of grapes for sultanas, in Robinvale as a share farmer and then as sole owner. He worked the block for ten years.
While Hill worked on the Block, he gave up his drinking, drugs and alcohol, and became a Christian. He became a Drug and Alcohol Counsellor at the Murray Valley Aboriginal Co-operative in Robinvale, and then later sold his block and moved into Mildura to take up a position as Community Development Officer for Drug and Alcohol Counselling, for the State Government.
(Source: A Story to Tell: The working lives of ten Aboriginal Australians, (ed.) Gallagher, N., Cambridge University Press, 1992)
