Cirrus@Austlit

Estelle Pinney grew up in Mareeba and Cairns in North Queensland. She left school at fourteen to work in her grandfather's photographic studio. During the Second World War, Pinney worked in a hand grenade factory in Brisbane, before joining an ambulance unit as a driver for the US forces.

She began writing in the 1960s, while she was working as a beauty consultant for Coty and Revlon. In 1963 she married writer Peter Pinney (q.v.). She became a deckhand on his crayfishing boat in the Torres Straits, where they conducted much of the research for their book, Too Many Spears. After the sale of the boat, the Pinneys returned to Brisbane.

Estelle Pinney has worked in a variety of jobs in her life, including photographic colourist, door knocker for radio surveys, programme arranger/news writer (Radio Daru PNG), breakfast cook for a small motel (one of the first at Airlie Beach, North Queensland), registered deckhand, unregistered nurse, barmaid at Weipa, and beauty consultant. She has lived in Brisbane for many years.