Marshall Street was born in Goondiwindi, Queensland, Australia in 1953.
A decade after completing his apprenticeship as a compositor with the Goondiwindi Argus, Marshall Street established and edited his own newspaper in country Queensland: an apprenticeship in wordsmithing that would continue for the rest of his working days.
The many challenges of writing and editing a small-town newspaper were wonderful coaches. A dozen caps hung on the wall of his newspaper office and were swapped according to each story being told – to entertain, inform, applaud, criticise or amuse. Men and women, young and old, rich and poor, powerful or underprivileged, religious or ribald – all had to be engaged in the conversation.
The journalistic diversity developed through those demands shapes his literary voice.