The Historical Literature of Australian Domestic Interior Design 1945-1975

Abstract

This article surveys the formation of the historiography of Australian domestic interior design and decoration from 1945 to 1975. The review aims to understand the inclusions and omissions of Australian interior design history, indicate their possible causes and propose methods for re-evaluation. From its inception, the history of interior design in Australia was framed on architectural lines and its practitioners viewed as tangential to the central disciplines of the built environment and decorative arts. Despite a subsequent flowering of community and museum interest in mid-century design, scholarship on professionally designed interiors has been limited. Amongst thousands of post-war Australian practitioners, all but Marion Hall Best have escaped substantial attention. Diminished by a lower status in history’s hierarchies of practice, professional interior design in Australia remains largely unstudied. It is ripe for mining by scholars open to new perspectives on global debates and the shaping of contemporary practice.