Lyle Sansbury was born and raised at Point Pearce on South Australia's Yorke Peninsula. He began his education at the local school but then boarded at the prestigious Scotch College in Adelaide because his mother was eager for him to receive a good education. He stayed at Scotch until Year Eleven, before leaving to find work.
His first job was for the Department of Aboriginal Affairs (DAA) as a clerk. Six months into the job he left to train as a farm manager but left because his pay was too low. He then moved to Whyalla, to work for BHP at the steel works. Sansbury stopped working to do some prevocational training with the Southern Communities Apprenticeships Training Scheme (SCATS). During his traineeship, he questioned why the Nurungga Farming Company, which was set up by the community Grandfathers back in the 1930s and 1940s, was sending its machinery away to be repaired when they could put money back into the community by sending it to the Port Pearce Council garage workshop.
In 1988, he finished his course with SCATS and received his ticket to work with heavy farm machinery. This same year, at the age of twenty-three, he was elected onto the Point Pearce Council. Sansbury's main focus is to make his community more self sufficient.
