The Olley family moved to Tully in far north Queensland in 1925, with Margaret boarding at St Anne's in Townsville in 1929, before returning to New South Wales in 1931.

[3] James V. Duhig reporting on her 1962 sell-out show at Johnstone Gallery in Brisbane wrote; "Margaret Olley has reached the flood tide of her art and has stepped up to the top rank of our artists," noting also that all the paintings sold at preview for a gross of £3000, then an Australian record for a woman, but attracted no interest from Brisbane Art Gallery.

[15] On 10 June 1991, in the Queen's Birthday Honours list, Olley was made an Officer of the Order of Australia "for service as an artist and to the promotion of art".

[17] The opening night was attended by about 350 people among whom were the Governor-General of Australia, Quentin Bryce, who gave an address, in which she said that Olley's work was often just like the artist, "filled with optimism".

[18] Other attendees at the opening included Penelope Wensley, the Governor of Queensland, Edmund Capon, Ben Quilty and Barry Humphries.

[22] After Olley's death, the Art Gallery of New South Wales used funds donated by its Collection Circle to purchase Nasturtiums, a painting by E. Phillips Fox as a memorial to her.

[23] Her ideas about art were explored in conversations held between 19 October 2009 and 22 September 2010 with author Barry Pearce, whose book based on them was published in the year of her death.

[28] The critically acclaimed[29] film interprets Olley's style, passion and artistic evolution through the reflections of her peers, including former National Gallery of Australia director Betty Churcher, curator Barry Pearce and Ben Quilty, whose portrait of Olley won the 2011 Archibald Prize.