Rocky Marshall grew up near the sea, moving later with his family to a soldier settlement block at Yundi on the Fleurieu Peninsula between the wars. He left school at 14 and worked as a rural and industrial labourer. During World War II he served in the RAAF. A life-long storyteller, Rocky Marshall did not publish his first work until he was 57 years old. He specialised in folk and children's literature and spent much of the last decade of his life travelling across Australia, attending folk festivals where he recited his work and played the harmonica, visiting schools and writing. He contributed to a number of publications.
He won several local awards including the Kapunda Bush Verse Award in 1984 and 1986, the South Australian Folk Federation Song Writing Award in 1984, and the Laura Literary Award in 1989.
