He was born in Mathoura in New South Wales to labourer Benjamin Hipworth and Margaret Tully McKenzie.
After the war he farmed near Kerang, and he remained in the military with the 17th Light Horse, becoming commanding officer in 1936.
Shortly after his return from the war in 1945, he was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly as the Country Party member for Swan Hill.
He defected to the newly renamed Liberal and Country Party in 1949 and assumed the position of Assistant Minister of Public Works, Housing and Electrical Undertakings, which he held until 1950.
He lost his seat to a Country Party candidate in 1952, and contested it again as an independent Liberal in 1955, 1958 and 1961; on the last occasion he was formally expelled from the Liberal and Country Party for opposing an endorsed candidate.