Born at Fremantle to sawmill benchman Terence Edwin Anstey and Eva Annie, née Donovan, Olive and her family moved to Sydney when she was eighteen months old.
She moved back to Western Australia in 1934, learning shorthand and typing at Perth Technical College before starting work at a box factory in 1935 at the age of 15 (continuing her studies at night).
Passing her final examinations in 1944, she won election to the local council of the Australasian Trained Nurses Association.
She campaigned in 1946 for better pay and conditions before returning to Sydney to study midwifery, running a small private hospital from 1947.
On the night of 18–19 August 1983 she died suddenly at Shoalwater and was buried in Karrakatta cemetery.