Noel Blair grew up on Cherbourg Mission in south-eastern Queensland. Blair started work at the age of fifteen as a manual labourer. Blair was taken against his will to Quoin Island near Gladstone to work on a tourist resort. His pay was sent back to Cherbourg but he never received it. Blair tricked his employers into taking him to the mainland where he escaped on a train. The police found him at a relative's house and took him back to Cherbourg where he stayed briefly before running away again.
Blair was nearly seventeen when he was reunited with his mother. After he turned seventeen he was granted an exemption ticket at the urging of his father. Due to the exemption ticket, Blair was forced to ask permission to go back onto the missions to visit his family. Throughout his life, Blair held many jobs but as he got older he chose to hold positions that helped develop his community.
