Jan shares 'Blinky Bill' connection
Pasadena resident Jan Badgery shared the story of her grandmother Dorothy Wall, the author and illustrator of Blinky Bill, as part of South Australia’s History Festival last month.
Born in New Zealand, Dorothy was a talented artist who worked as an illustrator for newspapers and magazines in New Zealand and Sydney where she met and fell in love with Jan’s grandfather, WW1 pilot Andrew Delfosse Badgery.
“They married and bought a home at Berowra on the Hawkesbury River and had Peter, my father, their only child,” Jan says. “When the marriage fell apart Dorothy moved to Warrimoo in the Blue Mountains.”
Observing her son’s fascination with Australian animals in the bush, and his interactions with them, inspired Dorothy to create Blinky Bill.
Dorothy never experienced fame and fortune in her lifetime, despite the enduring popularity of her beloved characters.
“She was up against May Gibbs and her Snugglepot and Cuddlepie series,” Jan says. “When she died of pneumonia, at the age of 49, she was just beginning to make healthy sales.”
Jan’s father sold the rights to Blinky Bill to Angus and Robertson in the 1950s. She and her brother own several original works and have passed on drawings and tracings to the State Library of Victoria to be cared for by experts.
A former art teacher, Jan is a resident of The Parks Lifestyle Village at Pasadena and regularly visits Pasadena Community Centre where she works on her own paintings and painted forms.