[2][3] Van den Broek was born in New Zealand and studied at the University of Auckland, completing a diploma in architecture in 1956.
She continued to study while working in her practice, completing two qualifications at the Queensland Institute of Technology: a post graduate diploma in town planning in 1966 (her thesis topic was the relationships between open space and urban development) and a postgraduate diploma in landscape design in 1969 (her thesis was on the native plants of Brisbane).
[6] In the early 1980s van den Broek moved to Melbourne and while working there joined the landscape committee of the National Trust in Victoria.
She then moved to Sydney to become a landscape architect with Blacktown Council and continued to work for the National Trust in New South Wales.
[1] The same year, she presented a co-authored report to the National Trust surveying children's playgrounds in Sydney.