 Brownbill was born Fanny Alford, the youngest of seven children, in Modewarre, Victoria, to an Australian father, James Alford, and English mother, Ann Abbot.In 1913, she became a housekeeper to William Brownbill, a baker and widower with four children.They married in 1920, and that same year, William entered Parliament as the Labor Member for Geelong in the Legislative Assembly.