Bolger was born in about 1943 and she spent her childhood in the fishing town of Port Albert in South Gippsland.
She failed to gain a school certicate at the Our Lady of Sion at Sale[1] and in 1968 she went to work at The Alfred Hospital as a nurse.
In 1983 she joined the Royal Australian Nursing Federation and she became an organiser who advocated industrial action by the union.
[2] In 1984 Barbara Carson led a successful campaign to remove a clause in the Victoria branch rules of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation that prohibited strikes.
The Federal court restored her membership of the union but she was not allowed to visit her place of employment.
[4] Bolger became a student-rights officer at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology until she enrolled as a mature student of law.
[1] Bolger served on the Australian Labor Party's administrative committee in New South Wales.