Ernie Chapman was the son of a cattle station worker in Borroloola, a non-Indigenous man whom Ernie had never met. Ernie's mother held strong family ties from the Eva Downs area, (Binbinga) Northern Territory.
Throughout the course of Ernie's life, he, like his father, became a cattle worker, stockmen and drover and worked on hundreds of cattle stations. Ernie travelled extensively throughout the Northern Territory, Western Australia and western, south-west Queensland.
In 1935 Ernie met and married his wife at Ivanhoe Station, Western Australia where they were both working. There were two children from that marriage, an adopted son, and step-daughter from his wife's first marriage.
