Fyvie Dawson grew up in country New South Wales. On leaving school she attended the University of Sydney, where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree, and then Oxford University, where she gained a Diploma of Education. During the early 1930s she went on a world tour with her uncle, and lived briefly in Egypt, where she taught English at the Sanieh Training College, in Cairo. In 1935, whilst returning to Australia on the Strathnaver, she worked as a stenographer for British screenwriter
J.O.C. Orton, who came to Australia to work on the film the
The Flying Doctor. In the mid 1930s her short stories, poems and feature articles appeared in a number of Australian newspapers and magazines. She later married and settled in England.
