When Ruth Goble was a child her father's work took the family to Darwin, to Wellington, where she started school, and to Perth. However, most of her education was in Adelaide. She trained and worked as an architect from 1941 to 1962, then following some years of illness, trained as a Group Worker. She worked for the State Theatre Company in Drama-in-Education, at Carclew as a professional actor, and has taken workshops in acting and craftwork. She has also worked as an occupational therapist. She has lived for short spells in Calcutta, Weisbaden and Kokura (Southern Japan).
Goble began writing in 1974, writing plays (with very little success, she says) until 1992. She was a founding member of the South Australian Writers' Theatre in 1984, and took part in organising about forty-eight public play readings. She 'discovered' poetry writing in 1996 at the 'Strong Words' workshops held at the Port Community Arts Centre, and following this, organised public readings of local writing at Port Adelaide and Semaphore, and self-published three selections of her own writing.
