Marie Bjelke-Petersen attended schools in Denmark, Germany and London and arrived in Hobart, Australia on the Doric, in 1891. In 1892, she became a Physical Culture teacher in her brother's Physical Culture School in Hobart and taught in other schools until illness forced her to give up this career and devote herself to writing romance novels.
She began concentrating on writing and was awarded the King's Jubilee Medal for fiction in 1935. Some of her fiction is set in Tasmania, and features vivid descriptions of the local landscape. Her novel Jewelled Nights was filmed in 1925. Some of her fiction has been translated into other languages.
Marie Bjelke Petersen lived an independent and successful life full of achievements that were rare for a woman of her era. She remained a proud Tasmanian until her death on 11 October 1969. She was inducted to the Tasmania Honour Roll of Women in 2009 for her service to the Arts. She is the aunt of Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen whose term in office lasted from 1968 to 1987.
She became a gay icon by the late 20th century after it became known that she had lived in an intimate relationship with Sylvia Mills for thirty years.
