"Bill" Tipping was born in Moonee Ponds, and attended St Kevin's College, Melbourne where he was school captain in 1933.

[4] As a journalist, Tipping covered several world events, including the 1956 Melbourne and 1960 Rome Olympics,[5] the South African Sharpeville massacre of 1960 (for which he received a Walkley Award), the Chicago Riots of 1968, and the Apollo 11 Moon mission.

In 1953 he described the plight facing the family of an intellectually disabled boy, 'Michael', whose parents tied him to a stake in the backyard rather than send him to the government's Kew Cottages.

With support from the Herald and Dr Cunningham Dax, then chairman of Victoria's Mental Hygiene Authority, Tipping became a vigorous campaigner for disability rights.

Shortly before his death a large public meeting was held in the Melbourne Town Hall in order to establish the EW Tipping Foundation to support people with a disability.