Val Bryant was born on the Bowraville mission in New South Wales. She has worked in factories and held positions as a waitress, housemaid, and nursemaid, but found that racism prevented her from realising her dream of office work. When she moved to Sydney, she worked as a phonogram operator at the General Post Office. Bryant trained to be a teleprinter operator before obtaining a position in the Prime Minister's Department as a receptionist-typist.
It was not until Bryant was working as a field officer for the Department of Aboriginal Affairs that she began to realise the inadequate services for Indigenous people with substance abuse problems. In 1974, she founded Benelong's Haven, a rehabilitation centre for Indigenous Australians, in Sydney. Under Bryant's direction, nearly all Benelong's Haven employees were Indigenous people, most of whom were recovering from substance abuse themselves. Bryant believed that they would be better able to help support those who came to the Haven's clientele. For six months, Bryant self-funded Benelong before the Australian Government gave a grant to support the services provided. The centre expanded, offering services at a number of places in New South Wales and Western Australia. Valerie Bryant-Carroll was awarded the World Healing our Spirit Medal in 1994. In 2000 she received a Doctor of Education, honoris causa from the University of Newcastle. (Source: Some Aboriginal Women Pathfinders: their difficulties and their achievements, Women's Christian Temperance Union of Australia, [1980], pp 14-26)
