She studied literature at the University of Western Australia and art in Henri Van Raalte's Perth studio.

Blue North, an historical novel about life in the 1870s, was serialised in The Bulletin and published in 1934, while Sheba Lane used contemporary Broome as its setting.

Younger Sons was a carefully documented novel of Western Australian settlement and The Fatal Days (1947) focussed on Ballarat, Victoria, during World War II.

Her extensive research entailed the use of material from Dutch archives and of E. D. Drok's translations of Pelsaert's journals, as well as trips by sea and air to the probable site of the wreck.

Amongst the many articles she wrote during the 1940s and 1950s for Walkabout,[4] in January 1955,[5] Henrietta diverged from general opinion and closely estimated the Batavia's correct resting place.

In her best-known play, Men Without Wives, she extended her work beyond the one-act genre and won a sesquicentenary drama prize in 1938.