Sarah Walls earned a first-class honours degree in French, and also studied law. She spent 15 years as a journalist, including three years in the United Kingdom, working for the BBC and commercial radio in London, and two based in New Caledonia covering the French South Pacific for the Australian press.
Sarah worked for various Australian media organisations during her career as a print and television journalist, including as a reporter for the ABC's Four Corners program, and a feature writer for The Australian and Sydney Morning Herald newspapers. In 1983, she was awarded the United Nations Association of Australia’s Media Peace Prize, and a Gold Citation – Press, for her work in The Australian discussing action necessary to halt the threat of nuclear conflict, and her work on other issues relating to peace and resolution of international, national and domestic conflict.
Following an incident in the late 1980s which left Sarah with progressive physical disability, she gained her translator’s accreditation in 2002 and spent the next 20 years working as an independent French translator.