The Beginning of Life & Family


Thorpe is proud to be a Gunnai, Gunditjmara & Djab Wurrung woman. She was born on August 18, 1973, in Carlton, Victoria. Activism runs in her family's blood. Alma Thorpe, her grandmother, helped start the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service & was a leader in the movement for Aboriginal community-controlled health care. Later, Alma married James Brown, a Scottish-Australian who backed her lifelong fight for equality.


Marjorie Thorpe, Lidia's mother, was also a major activist for Aboriginal rights & worked as a commissioner with the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC). Thorpe grew up in a time of social change & cultural pride. He learned that being a leader means serving others & protecting his community.


Difficulties & Strength


Thorpe's journey to becoming a leader was not easy. She dropped out of school at age 14 to support herself because she was poor & had to deal with domestic violence at a young age. She became a single mother at seventeen & had to raise three kids while dealing with problems & prejudice.


Thorpe was determined to improve her life, so she went back to school through adult education and then went to RMIT University in Melbourne. Her life experiences made her care about families in need & made her want to fight for women's safety, equality & justice for Indigenous people.


She has said many times that the hardest years of her life taught her to fight back instead of giving up. This lesson still shapes her political >


Business & community service projects


Thorpe worked for decades on programs to improve the health of Aboriginal people & build communities before getting into politics. She helped young people find jobs & schools & she started programs to help women become stronger & improve their mental health.


She also started a small business as a self-employed consultant, providing cultural awareness training & community engagement services to councils & organizations all over Victoria. As the Managing Director of Clan Corporation, she pushed for more jobs for Indigenous people, youth entrepreneurship & business projects run by women.


Thorpe's work has always been about giving people power, using culture & education to help them make their own choices.


Political Breakthrough


In 2017, Thorpe became the first Aboriginal woman to be elected to the Victorian Parliament. She represented the Greens in the Northcote seat. Three years later, she was elected to the Australian Senate for Victoria, making her one of the most well-known First Nations politicians in the country.


She works on issues like sovereignty, climate change & reforming the justice system. She is known for being very honest & she has spoken out against colonial stories & criticized token actions that ignore real Indigenous self-governance.


She quit the Greens in 2023 to become an Independent Senator, saying she wanted the freedom to "speak truth without compromise." The move solidified her reputation as a leader who does what she believes is right, not what's easy.


Life & Relationships


Lidia Thorpe is the mother of three kids & the grandmother of one. In 2013, she filed for bankruptcy & later said it was because of financial abuse in a previous relationship. She says that hard time made her stronger & more self-sufficient.


Thorpe has never been married, but she has been in public relationships with Gavan McFadzean, an environmental activist & later James Nicholson, an electronics engineer from Wurundjeri. She now keeps most of her private life out of the public eye & instead focuses on her family, community & political work.

Courage & Controversy


The media has often looked at Thorpe's directness. In 2022, she said that while she was on a law enforcement committee, she briefly dated Dean Martin, who used to be the president of the Rebels Motorcycle Club. A Senate investigation found that she had done nothing wrong, but the event made headlines and sparked debate about the ethics of politicians.


Even though she gets a lot of criticism, Thorpe keeps fighting sexism & racism in politics and won't apologize for her strength or heritage. She says, "I'm a Black woman in power who won't be silenced."


Net Worth & Work Right Now


Lidia Thorpe's net worth is thought to be between AUD 1 million & 2 million as of 2025. This is mostly because of her salary as a senator, her speaking engagements & small consulting projects. She has a home in Preston, Victoria, lives simply & still helps young Aboriginal women through leadership programs.


Thorpe is still one of the strongest supporters of Indigenous sovereignty in the country. He pushes for treaty talks, climate change action & social justice programs based on cultural law.


Final Thoughts


Lidia Thorpe's life, from living in Collingwood's housing flats to working in Parliament House, is a strong reminder that adversity builds leadership. She turned her own problems into a public cause, using her platform to call for truth, equality & respect for Australia's First Nations. Thorpe's legacy lives on in a new generation of Australians who believe that true leadership is about being brave, not comfortable.

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