Hazel McKellar grew up in a family of eleven children during the Depression years on the fringe of Cunnamulla and is the daughter of David and Annie Wharton. Hazel married a man named Bert McKellar who was a drover. She accompanied him on musters for twenty years.

Hazel McKellar was the founder of Cunnamulla Australian Native Welfare Association and assisted in the establishment of the South West Queensland Native Aboriginal Cooperative Society. In 1980, Hazel was central to the push for a sacred Aboriginal burial site in Tinnenburra to be registered as a historical site by the Heritage Commission. In 1981, McKellar was the recipient of the Scotties' Achievement Award.