Christobel Mattingley's first school was the Hopetoun School, Brighton. In 1939 her family moved to Sydney, and she attended school at the Presbyterian Ladies' College, Pymble. She began writing poetry and keeping nature diaries and notes on her surroundings. Her first published work, observations of bird life, was published in the children's pages of Wildlife Magazine.
When her father moved to Tasmania to work she attended The Friends' School (1945-1947). She graduated with BA Hons from the University of Tasmania, and worked for the Department of Immigration, Canberra. In 1951 she gained her formal libarianship qualifications, then became Regional Librarian in the Yallourn-Morwell-Mirboo libraries, Victoria. She married David Mattingley in 1953 and they went to England on a two-year working holiday. On their return she worked at Prince Alfred College (Adelaide), one of the first professional librarians to be appointed to a school in South Australia (SA). She spent time at home bringing up their three children, returning to work in 1966 and establishing a library at St Peter's Girls' School. After further study she was made an Associate of the Library Association of Australia (1971). She worked on the library staff at Wattle Park Teachers' College (1971-1972) and at Murray Park College of Advanced Education (CAE) (1973-1974).
Since then Mattingley has been a full-time writer. She says of her writing that 'the feelings come before the words'; that the feelings come from her own experiences as a child, but the stories come from contemporary situations. She enjoys 'people-watching', and says that she finds stories among people everywhere. She has travelled widely within Australia and overseas. In 1977 she was commissioned by the SA Film Corporation to research and write 14 documentary film scripts. In 1977 she compiled the bibliography Recent translations of European fiction for older children and young adults for the Library Association of Australia.
Mattingley was a part-time student in Aboriginal Studies at the SA CAE 1978-1981, and from 1983-1988 she researched and edited the major work, Survival In Our Own Land: 'Aboriginal' Experiences in 'South Australia' since 1836 (1988), which was a watershed in perspectives on Australian history. Her book was shortlisted for The Age Book of the Year Awards 1988 and shortlisted for the SA Festival Awards 1990.
Mattingley herself has a strong feeling of affinity for the land. She is passionate in her concern for conservation, social justice and aid to developing countries. In 1987 the City of South Perth inaugurated annual Christobel Mattingley Awards for Young Writers. She was made an Honorary Doctor of the University of SA for services to literature and social justice issues, 1995 and a Member of the Order of Australia, 1996. She was the recipient of the third Pheme Tanner Award for services to children's literature, 1999.
