Clark was born in August 1952 and raised by his grandmother, Alice,[1] in an Aboriginal community in western Victoria.
In December 1996, Clark was elected to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) board[1] as the native title spokesman.
[1] In 2000, Clark was charged with the 1981 rape of his cousin, Joanne McGuinness, but a magistrate found there was insufficient evidence to bring the case to trial.
[4] In 2003, it emerged that ATSIC had agreed to allocate $45,000 to fund Clark's legal defence relating to a pub brawl at which he was present.
[1] The victim, Carol Anne Stingel, who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, was awarded $20,000 in compensatory damages and around $71,000 to cover legal costs.
[12] In August 2021, Clark was ordered to stand trial relating to the alleged misappropriation of about $2 million belonging to the Framlingham Aboriginal Trust over a period of around 30 years, along with his wife Trudy and son Jeremy.
[13] In September 2024, after three lengthy County Court trials, Clarke was found guilty of stealing almost $1m from three indigenous organisations over 15 years, taking illegal royalties from eel fishermen, and lying in affidavits.