Val Bryant became the first Aboriginal person to work in the Prime Minister's Department in Canberra, as a receptionist-typist. She also trained as a teleprinter operator and worked for the Overseas Telecommunications Corporation, before studying at Sydney Technical College for her School Certificate examination.
She started working with Aboriginal Alcoholics as a field officer with the Department of Aboriginal Affairs before establishing Benelong's Haven, the first Aboriginal alcohol and drug rehabilitation centre/hostel, in the inner Sydney suburb of Marrickville in 1974. She ran the hostel virtually single-handedly for six months before the Government gave her a grant. She has run six such centres in New South Wales and Western Australia.
In recognition of her services to the Aboriginal community, Val was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1978 and the World Healing Our Spirit Medal in 1994. She was presented with the award of the degree of Doctor of Education by the University of Newcastle.

Sources used to compile this entry: Beeson, Margaret J (compiled by), Some Aboriginal women pathfinders : their difficulties and their achievements, Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Australia, Adelaide, [1980], 80 pp.