Blinky Bill tambourine

Tin tambourine with black and white Blinky Bill illustration (24 cm diameter).

Dorothy Wall was born in New Zealand and received training in art from an early age. Migrating to Australia in 1914 she found work with the Sun newspaper as a commercial artist and supported herself with this type of work for many years. Her first children's book Tommy Bear and the Zookies was published in 1920; in this she uses a koala as her main character (but in an urban setting) and this is the forerunner of her most successful creation Blinky Bill. Her next illustrative work was JJ Hall's The crystal bowl (1921). In this her interest in the Australian bush became more pronounced but was hindered by a fantasy element. There were no more ventures into children's book publishing for just over 10 years, when in 1933 she was commissioned to illustrate Brooke Nicholls' Jacko--the broadcasting kookaburra. Jacko was the name sometimes given to the call sign for Radio Australia, which was the distinctive call of the kookaburra. Nicholls' book with illustrations by Dorothy Wall provided an avenue for some education on Australia's bush creatures. It is also the first time that there is a mention of Blinky Bill.

From this brief mention of a koala called Blinky Bill, grew the series of books that Wall wrote and illustrated over the next decade, about a koala who resembled a small mischievous boy, but who nevertheless was true in appearance to the real animal. Blinky Bill: the quaint little Australian (1933) was succeeded by a further three titles featuring Blinky's adventures: Blinky Bill grows up, Blinky Bill and Nutsy and in 1940 Blinky Bill joins the Army.

Capitalising on the success of the books, the first three of these titles were combined in 1939 by the publisher as The complete adventures of Blinky Bill. With the Blinky Bill stories, Wall was able to push a call for environmental responsibility, a call that was also a prominent feature of the work of May Gibbs. Like Gibbs, Wall also wanted to produce a comic strip but was unsuccessful. She attempted to break into animated film and the marketing of Blinky Bill merchandise and novelties. Again she was unsuccessful, partly because of the austerities of the war years.

A few novelty books were produced such as the Blinky Bill Dress-Up Book by Offset Publishing and Blinky Bill's ABC Book. Wall designed a number of novelties including balloons, masks, money box, pull along toys and tray cloths for embroidering. Only a few of these ideas found manufacturers, but not in her lifetime. She had even sent designs for children's chinaware to Wedgwood in England and they sent her a sample but nothing further appears to have eventuated. There were plans for jigsaw puzzles, buckets and spades. Willow Ware's Blinky Bill tambourine appeared probably between 1933-35, using flat bed (off stone) lithography to reproduce the image. The company discontinued using this technique in 1935, replacing it with rotary lithographic (off zinc plate) process. They also produced tambourines featuring Gainsborough's Blue Boy and Disney's Mickey Mouse.

Dorothy Wall died suddenly of pneumonia in 1942, her career sadly curtailed, and much of her potential lost in a desperate pursuit of financial stability.

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