Wall, Dorothy, 1894-1942.

Blinky Bill and Nutsy : two little Australians / story and illustrations by Dorothy Wall. (Sydney : Angus & Robertson, 1939)

Born in New Zealand in 1894, Dorothy Wall migrated to Australia in 1914. Wall had training in art and would support herself through a series of commercial jobs that included illustrating fashion designs, and book jackets. An earlier book, Tommy Bear and the Zookies (1920) has a koala as its central character. Blinky is first found in Brooke Nicholls’ Jacko the Broadcasting Kookaburra (1933) but Wall developed the character more fully as the archetypal Aussie larrikin. Blinky Bill and Nutsy: Two Little Australians (1937) introduces a new friend for Blinky. Nutsy is an orphan adopted by Mrs Bear. In this book, Wall simplified her drawings in an attempt to make them for adaptable for animation.

When Mickey Mouse was chosen to be King of Melbourne’s Moomba festival in 1977, there was a public outcry and a campaign to replace him by Blinky Bill.

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