Nene Gare was born in Adelaide in 1919. She was educated at East Adelaide Public School and the Adelaide School of Arts before moving to Western Australia in 1939 where, apart from a few years in Papua New Guinea, she continued to live until her death in 1994.
She wrote several novels and was an enthusiastic painter, but is best known for her classic novel, The Fringe Dwellers, which was later made into a highly successful Bruce Beresford film.