Fiona Austin grew up in a mid-century house in Sydney designed by architect Ted Scully. Her early exposure to all things mid-century was engendered by her parents who had a strong appreciation of contemporary design which, as she recalls, even extended to her father building a mid-century modern dolls house for her, as a child.

During her design studies at Swinburne College of Technology in Melbourne, Fiona was fortunate to have been taught by a lecturer named Maurice Cantlon who was not only a talented artist but who also had a strong interest in art history and architecture, in particular, Australian architecture. He spent dedicated time with his first-year students showing them around Melbourne and teaching them about architectural styles and architects that shaped Melbourne, including Robin Boyd and Walter Burley Griffin. After graduating, Fiona worked on staff for three years at Home Beautiful Magazine and then went on to edit The Period Home Renovator magazine, whilst studying restoration and conservation at RMIT. While her children were small, Fiona freelanced for three years, writing about design for the then “Home” section of the “Age” newspaper and Home Beautiful Magazine. In 2001, Fiona and her husband, Craig, and their two sons, purchased a mid-century house in Beaumaris. Over time, Fiona became distressed at seeing many mid-century houses being demolished and replaced with faux provincial-style houses and other generic volume builds. Fiona started photographing Mid Century houses and interviewing the owners, then started the BoMo -Beaumaris Modern Facebook page in an effort to link up possible purchasers of mid-century houses with houses for sale in Beaumaris. Fiona has recently co-authored and produced ‘Beaumaris Modern’, a book about Beaumaris mid-century houses.

Check out:

Beaumaris Modern at local book shops;

www.ricketspointbeaumaris.com.au

www.thecnr.com.au