Eldest of 3 children of Edward and Lavinia Dreyer, Gwen was born and educated in Adelaide. She served in the Australian Women's Army Service as an ambulance driver in Wagga Wagga and Sydney during the second world war, was discharged in Adelaide, and began nursing. After completing one year of this she married and settled in Sydney, where her husband attended the university for 7 years, than returned to Adelaide. She lived the next 22 years in Adelaide, and it was here that her children were educated. She was a freelance photographer for several years. Her marriage broke up in 1982 and she returned to Sydney, later going to Bribie Island, Qld, for a number of years. For part of this time she ran a hamburger shop, and then a fish shop.
Writing and photography became part of her life when her children were in their teens. Now in her late 70s she has returned to Adelaide (1996) to be near her family and to spend her late years painting water colours and writing to a host of interstate friends
