Zoe Midgley was born in Corinda, Queensland in 1902, the youngest child of Alfred and Sarah Ellen Midgley. Her father Alfred Midgley was one of Queensland's earliest poets and MLA for Fassifern from 1883 to 1887. On 12 January 1924 she married Eugene William O’Leary and two years later had a daughter, June. The marriage did not last and Zoe was left to look after June who was crippled with arthritis until her death.

Zoe was a member of the Communist Party, worked on Tribune, fought for equal rights for women and together with Joan Clarke was made "Women of the Year" in 1969 by the International Women's Day Committee.

Zoe O'Leary wrote 3 books, Girl Fridays in Revolt (with Joan Clarke), The Little Byron: The Life of Alfred Midgley, Queensland Poet, Parliamentarian and Methodist Pioneer, and The Desolate Market: A Biography of Eric Lambert, as well as many poems, articles and short stories which were published in newspapers and magazines.

She died on 31 December 1985.

Yorkshire-born Alfred Midgley was one of Queensland's earliest poets and MLA for Fassifern from 1883 to 1887. After arriving in Brisbane in 1870, he was ordained as a Methodist minister and served various parishes in Brisbane and the Darling Downs before leaving the ministry for politics. He published two books of poetry, Helen Young and other verses (1873) and The poems of Alfred Midgley (1908).