Hope Ebsworth is descended from the Wangkumarra people and language group, whose lands lie in the Channel Country, in far south-western Queensland. As a young child, Ebsworth lived in a house at Wanaaring, in north-western New South Wales. When Ebsworth was fourteen or fifteen, he, his youngest brother, and their father moved back onto their tribal lands. In his late teens, Ebsworth worked with his father in building the road from Windorah to Birdsville.