Luigi Strano was born at Castellace in the province of Reggio Calabria, Italy. He finished his formal education at the age of sixteen and migrated to Australia during the Depression. He found varying types of work, principally with the Cinzano company as a machine operator. In his free time he pursued his linguistic and literary interests, learning Latin, Greek, Spanish and French. From 1940 he taught Italian at the Dante Alighieri Society while also working as an official court interpreter and translator. In 1959 he established a real estate agency, and in 1966 became a Justice of the Peace. In 1967 and 1969 he won the Montano trophy for poetry, awarded by the Sydney Italian Circle. He moved to Mount Wilson in the Blue Mountains when he retired in the 1970s. In 1985 he was awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree by the University of Wollongong, New South Wales.
Luigi Strano's cousin and compatriot is Alfredo Strano (q. v.).
