Born in Melbourne, Victoria on 20 October 1950,[1] Smart completed her secondary education at Mac.Robertson Girls' High School.
[2] Returning to Monash she completed a PhD with the title "War and the concept of a new social order: Melbourne 1914–1915" in 1992.
[4] Smart has served on the executive committee of the History Council of Victoria since 2009, including as deputy chair from 2010 to 2019.
[5] With Shurlee Swain, Smart is co-editor of the Encyclopedia of Women & Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia.
[4] For the Australian Dictionary of Biography she was a member of the Victorian Working Party from 1979 and advised on women's entries from 1989.