Dale Harcombe was born in Sydney and was an avid reader and writer as a child, sending poems and stories to the radio-based children's club Jason and The Argonauts. In the early 1980s, encouraged by attendance at a poetry workshops at Blacktown conducted by the poet Jennifer Maiden, Harcombe began submitting articles and poems to literary magazines and newspapers such as LinQ, Westerly, Northern Perspective and the Canberra Times, as well as entering competitions. In 1981 she won the Blacktown City Poetry Competition and in 1982 she was a district winner in the Star Newspaper Creative Writing Competition.

Harcombe has a BA from Deakin University and has worked as a tutor in English at Everest Coaching College and as a tutor in Creative Writing at Parramatta Evening College.