Monty Walgar was born on Bryo Station, in between the towns of Pindar and Yalgoo, Western Australia. His father was a stock man, and the family had to move where he could find work. When Walgar was four his father died and his mother was left to support her ten children by herself.
Workers from the Native Welfare department visited the station where Walgar's mother was working and told her that she had to put her children in school. Walgar and his family moved to Mullewa reserve but his mother moved them out of there because it was overcrowded. The family was moved to Mogumber settlement by Native Welfare, and then Walgar and his younger brother were taken from their mother and sent to the Tardun mission run by the Pallottines priests and nuns.
At Tardun mission, Walgar had to work and study. He was often in trouble and flogged with either a diver's hose by the priests or a cane by the nuns. When he was thirteen he joined a group of boys who ran away from Tardun but they were caught and punished by the priests. By the time he was fourteen, Walgar started fighting back the priests and nuns who hit him, in return he was made to leave Tardun mission.
Walgar started his stock-work career at Meka station. He learned how to fix windmills and fences, and mustered sheep for shearing. He moved from there to Badja station, where his brother got him a job. When the mustering was over he moved into Yalgoo. From there he moved to different stations working and moving on when the job finished.
Walgar began drinking alcohol at the age of fourteen and struggled with alcoholism for over thirty years. Walgar spent time in jail for assault and resisting arrest and alcohol abuse, aggression and incarceration caused the end of his first long term relationship.
In 1974, at the time of Cyclone Tracy, Walgar was working on Giralia station near Exmouth Gulf. Everyone had left the station, except for him and Mal, the shearer. Although the cyclone did not pass directly overhead, the wind and rains caused extensive damage to the station. Walgar and Mal spent a long time clearing up the debris and fixing up buildings that had come apart.
In 1975, Walgar was hit by a car and dragged because his belt buckle caught on the car's bumper. Walgar was flown to the Royal Perth Hospital by the Royal Flying Doctors service. He suffered from burns, fractures, a dislocated pelvis and lost sight in his left eye.
By the 1980s, Walgar was trying to give up his alcohol with the help of his brother Rex. However it was not until 1985, Walgar became sober.
In 1993, Walgar started a new career, teaching Aboriginal culture to school children.
