Kilmeny Niland was an Australian artist and illustrator. While best known for her children's book illustrations, she worked in a wide range of genres, including animation, wildlife art, miniatures, portraits, cards and prints. She won numerous prizes in national and international competitions, and one of her portraits was purchased by Australia's National Portrait Gallery

National Portrait Gallery (Australia)

The National Portrait Gallery of Australia is a collection of portraits of prominent Australians that are important in their field of endeavour or whose life sets them apart as an individual of long-term public interest...

, in Canberra

Canberra

Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...

.

With her twin sister, Deborah

Deborah Niland

Deborah Niland is an Australian artist, well known as a writer and illustrator of children's books. Some of her most popular books include Annie's Chair, When The Wind Changed, Mulga Bill's Bicycle, and Chatterbox...

, she illustrated a children's version of Banjo Paterson

Banjo Paterson

Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, OBE was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author. He wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural and outback areas, including the district around Binalong, New South Wales where he spent much of his childhood...

's poem Mulga Bill's Bicycle

Mulga Bill's Bicycle

"Mulga Bill's Bicycle" is a poem written in 1896 by Banjo Paterson.The poem is a ballad. Each line is a fourteener, having fourteen syllables and seven iambic feet....

.

Life

Kilmeny Niland, and her twin sister, Deborah

Deborah Niland

Deborah Niland is an Australian artist, well known as a writer and illustrator of children's books. Some of her most popular books include Annie's Chair, When The Wind Changed, Mulga Bill's Bicycle, and Chatterbox...

, were born in Auckland, New Zealand, to New Zealand-born Australian author Ruth Park

Ruth Park

Ruth Park, AM was a New Zealand-born author, who spent most of her life in Australia. Her best known works are the novels The Harp in the South and Playing Beatie Bow , and the children's radio serial The Muddle-Headed Wombat , which also spawned a book series .-Personal history:Park was born in...

 and her husband, author and journalist, D'Arcy Niland

D'Arcy Niland

D'Arcy Francis Niland was an Australian novelist and short story writer, best known for The Shiralee.-Life and writing career:...

. She had three older siblings, Anne, Rory and Patrick, who had been born in Australia.

The family returned to Sydney and lived in Neutral Bay and then Balgowlah Heights. The twins were educated at Saint Cecilia's Primary School and Stella Maris College

Stella Maris College (Manly)

Stella Maris College, is an independent Catholic girls school founded by the Good Samaritan Sisters in Sydney, Australia. The college is located in Manly, on Sydney's Northern Beaches....

. Both then studied art at the Julian Ashton Art School.

Their father died in 1967, and some time after their mother took them to London with their brother Patrick who had been offered a place at the Royal Academy of Music

Royal Academy of Music

The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...

.

Kilmeny Niland married writer and researcher, Rafe Champion

Rafe Champion

Rafe Champion is an Australian writer. He was born in the Australian state of Tasmania, and grew up on a farm in the northern part of that state, near Irishtown...

, in 1979. They had four sons, Leo, Hugh, Patrick and Tom.

She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1991. In May 2008, she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and died of the disease in February 2009.

Career

Kilmeny and Deborah started their career by working free-lance in London. Their first collaboration, The Little Goat, was published in 1971. By this time, the sisters were back in Australia, living in Cremorne

Cremorne, New South Wales

Cremorne is a suburb on the lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Cremorne is located 6 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of North Sydney Council....

. They collaborated on eleven more books. They also worked on animation at Eric Porter's studios in Sydney.

During her lifetime, she published 47 books: 12 were illustrated by her with Deborah, 13 were written and illustrated by her, and 34 were texts by others which she illustrated.

Awards and nominations

• Visual Arts Board award, 1974, for Mulga Bill's Bicycle (with Deborah)
• IBBY Honour Diploma, Illustration, 1976 for Mulga Bill's Bicycle
• Whitley Awards
  Whitley Awards (Australia)
  The Whitley Awards have been awarded annually since 1979 by the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales . They commemorate Gilbert Whitley, an eminent Australian ichthyologist, and are presented for outstanding publications, either printed or electronic, that contain new information about the...
  
  , Best Children's Book, 1980, for Feathers, Fur and Frills
• Faber Castell Grand Prize at the Combined Australian Societies of Miniature Art, 2000

As illustrator

• An Aussie Night Before Christmas (2005)
• Blossom Possum : The Sky is Falling Down-under (2006)
• Callie's Castle (1985)
• Callie's Family (1988)
• Clancy of the Overflow
  Clancy of the Overflow
  "Clancy of The Overflow" is a poem by Banjo Paterson, first published in The Bulletin, an Australian news magazine, on 21 December 1889. The poem is typical of Paterson, offering a romantic view of rural life, and is one of his best-known works.-History:...
  
  (2002)
• Fair Dinkum Aussie Christmas (2007)
• Fairy Tale Picture Dictionary (1979)
• Fey Mouse (1988)
• The Gigantic Balloon (1975, with Deborah Niland)
• The Gingerbread Man (2006)
• Grandad Barnett's Beard (1988)
• How Many Dogs in the House? (2004)
• Just Like That (1986)
• Matthew and the New Baby (1986)
• Mulga Bill's Bicycle (1973, with Deborah Niland)
• My brother John (1990)
• Old Witch Boneyleg (1978)
• One-eyed Jack and Other Rhymes (1975)
• Pancakes & Painted Eggs : A Book for Easter and All the Days of the Year (1981)
• Riverview Kids (1971, with Deborah Niland)
• Roger Bandy (1977, with Deborah Niland)
• Sheep shape (1992)
• Tell Me a Tale : Stories, Songs, Verses and Things To Do (1974, with Deborah Niland)
• Tell Me Another Tale : Stories, Verses, Songs and Things To Do (1976, with Deborah Niland)
• The Farm Alphabet (1973, with Deborah Niland,)
• The Haunted Castle (1979)
• The Land and the Spirit : An Australian Alphabet (1992)
• The Little Goat (1971, with Deborah Niland)
• The Ugly Duckling (2006)
• The Window Book (1992)
• The Zoo Alphabet (1980, with Deborah Niland)
• Travelling Songs of Old Australia (1966, with Deborah Niland, uncredited)
• Wishbone (2002)
• What Am I? (1974, with Deborah Niland)

As author and illustrator

• Animals at Home (1995)
• Animals at Large (1995)
• Animals at Play (1994)
• Animals at Work (1994)
• An Aussie Day before Christmas (2008)
• A Bellbird in a Flame Tree (1989)
• Birds on a Bough : A Counting Book (1975, with Deborah Niland)
• Bright Eyes and Bushy Tails (1984)
• Fat Pat (2008)
• Feathers, Fur and Frills (1980)
• My World (1981)
• Two Bad Teddies (2009)
• Two Tough Teddies (2007)