 She studied music at the Victorian College of the Arts before completing a doctorate in History or Sociolinguistics .Albiston's first collection of poems, "Nervous Arcs", won the Mary Gilmore Award, received runner-up in the Anne Elder Award, and was shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Prize.Her next two books were documentary collections, respectively concerning the first European women in the Port Jackson and Botany Bay settlements; and Jean Lee, the last woman hanged in Australia.