Her native language is Mercian, an Eastern Islands dialect, and she became more articulate at English while studying drama at Heatley High School, Townsville.
[2] She left Townsville to "find her feet", but settled on Murray Island, where her parents lived, to raise her three kids[3] and externally study a double bachelor degree in Arts and Education (majoring in drama and literature) at Melbourne's Deakin University, where she is member of the Golden Key National Honour Society.
[4] For Whaleboat's performance in RAN Remote Area Nurse she was nominated for the 2006 Australian Film Institute Award for Best Guest or Supporting Actress in a Television Drama.
[5] Other roles include Warwick Thornton's film The Darkside[6] and the TV productions The Straits (2012), Mabo (2012)[7][8] and Blue Water Empire (2019).
[9][10] A big lover of literature, Whaleboat is also a published poet, her poems "King Kebisu" and "Coconut Sails" feature in the anthology book "Mangoes on Fire" launched by the Tropical Writers Group of Cairns.