One of four children,[2] he grew up in South Perth, known then as the Queen Suburb,[3] when the area was semi-rural, with market gardens.
In 1932 he joined the printing staff of the Perth evening newspaper the Daily News, working as a linotype mechanic.
Hungerford told the program he wasn't a hero: "I was one of a group of men all doing the same bloody thing.
His war experiences formed the basis of the 1952 novel The Ridge and the River, described by Edward 'Weary' Dunlop as capturing "the essence of jungle warfare as it was fought by Australians".
[9] In 1951 Hungerford joined the Australia News and Information Bureau, where he stayed for 15 years; following which he worked as a freelancer.
In the 1970s Hungerford worked as a press secretary to Western Australian Premiers John Tonkin and Sir Charles Court.
[2] Hungerford's first book to be written, Sowers of the Wind, was based on his experience in Japan following the war.
Sowers in the Wind, was held back by publisher Angus & Robertson because it dealt with the economic and sexual exploitation of the Japanese after the War by Australian occupation forces.
[10][11] Monash University's Robin Gerster told The Age in 2002: "Hungerford... wrote very perceptively and affectionately about the Japanese, which is not a bad effort for someone who fought them."