Born in Solihull, Warwickshire, England, Hall came to Australia as a child after World War II and studied at the University of Queensland (1971). In the 1960s Hall began working as a freelance writer, and a book and film reviewer. He also worked as an actor, and was often engaged by the Australian Broadcasting Commission in Brisbane. Between 1967 and 1978 he was the Poetry Editor of The Australian. He began publishing poetry in the 1970s and has since published thirteen novels, including Just Relations and The Island in the Mind. He lived in Shanghai for a period in the late 1980s. From 1990-1993, he served as chair of the Australia Council.

Hall lives in Victoria. In addition to a number of literary awards, he has received an Membership of Order of Australia.

Rodney's memoir "Popeye Never Told You" was launched in May 2010 and was published by Pier 9.

Novels

• The Ship on the Coin (1972)
• A Place Among People (1975)
• Just Relations (1982)
• Kisses of the Enemy (1987)
• Captivity Captive (1988)
• The Second Bridegroom (1991)
• The Grisly Wife (1993)
• The Island in the Mind (1996)
• The Day We Had Hitler Home (2000)
• The Last Love Story (2004)
• Love Without Hope (2007)

Poetry

• The Climber (1962)
• Penniless Till Doomsday (1962)
• Forty Beads on a Hangman's Rope (1963)
• Eyewitness (1967)
• The Autobiography of a Gorgon (1968)
• The Law of Karma (1968)
• Australia (1970)
• Heaven, In a Way (1970)
• A Soapbox Omnibus (1973)
• Selected Poems (1975)
• Black Bagatelles (1978)
• The Most Beautiful World (1981)
• The Owner of My Face: New and Selected Poems (2002)
• The public turns to its hero(?)

Government/Politics

• Abolish the States! (1998)

Non-Fiction

• Focus on Andrew Sibley (1968)
• J. S. Manifold: An Introduction to the Man and His Work (1978)
• Australia - Image of a Nation 1850-1950 (1983) (the text of a photographic collection)
• Home: Journey Through Australia (1988)

Edited

• New Impulses in Australian Poetry (1968) with Thomas Shapcott
• Australian Poetry 1970 (1970)
• Poems from Prison (1973)
• Australians Beware (1975) (a collection of poems and paintings)
• Voyage into Solitude (1978) (a collection of Michael Dransfield poetry)
• The Second Month of Spring (1980) (a collection of Michael Dransfield poetry)
• The Collins Book of Australian Poetry (1981)
• Michael Dransfield Collected Poems (1987)