Margaret Rocky was born at the Old Laura Station which is approximately 70km west of Hopevale in Far North Queensland. She went to school in Cooktown until she was eight and moved to Lockhart River with her family where she lived at Lockhart Mission for a few years until the family relocated to a newly built council house off the mission site. Rocky left school at the end of Year 7. In 1961 she moved to Mossman because of a water shortage in Lockhart River.
In 1980 Rocky became a foster carer for the first of the many children she would care for over time. She undertook a hospitality traineeship in Port Douglas in 1989 and worked as a house attendant. She has volunteered as an aide at local schools and does community work as an active member of a Home and Community Care group and Elder's Justice Group which is a member of Bamanga Bubu Ngadimunku Incorporated, the association that manages the land, resources, business, employment and education needs of the Mossman Gorge Aboriginal Community.
