Lilly Smith used to say to anybody who would listen: “Nobody lives in Darwin – they just pass through on the way to somewhere else.”

That was 46 years ago.

She has long been a well-known and respected Darwin textile artist and style icon who uses Tactile Arts, the studio on a hill next to the Museum and Art Gallery, to print her fabrics and sell them through shops and craft fairs.

Lill is known for her vibrant, colourful art, which includes dyeing and printing.

“Darwin says colour to me.”

She conducts workshops at Tactile Arts from time to time, teaching students how to dye and print their own textiles and clothing.

Lill says she always wanted to SbOeMaEnOaFrLtIiLsLtY–’S“CfoOrLaOsURfaFrUL WORK back as I can remember”.

Her ambition was supported by her parents, but her mother Joan urged her to get a “real job” as a back-up.

Tasmania-born Joan had artistic flair as well – she trained as a weaver in Norway and taught the craft to Zulu women in South Africa.

Lill was born in South Africa and moved to Australia with her parents at the age of eight when her father Chris got a posting to Canberra with the South African diplomatic corps.

She went to an all-girls school where she excelled in some subjects, particularly art, but was “not so good” at sport and mathematics.

Lill was only 13 when her father died suddenly and her mother was left to look after two children on her own.

“It was a terrible time, a terrible shock. Suddenly, my mother went from living a full-on and interesting life in the diplomatic corps to being alone and having to watch every penny.”

The family moved to Launceston, where they were welcomed with open arms by relatives.

But Tassie never suited Lilly.

“The cold winds used to get to me. I hated it. I knew Tasmania was not for me.”

After what she calls “several unsuccessful attempts” at a career, Lill moved to sunny Queensland with friends.

She was reading a magazine article one day about an Englishman, Andy Martin, who had taken on the lease of Middle Percy Island, now mostly a national park but then clapped-out sheep country.

Andy had plans to lure tourists to the Island so she applied to work there with the idea she would work in hospitality and paint in her spare time.

She got the job and went to catch the ferry to Middle Percy from Mackay.

“The store boat to the island only ran every two weeks. It always left at night so the harbour master couldn’t see that it was often badly overloaded.

“I imagined the island to be lovely and green, a tropical paradise, a version of Green Island off Cairns. It was nothing of the sort.

“Steep, rocky cliffs met my disbelieving eyes on that first voyage.

“The anchorage, though, was in a delightful little bay fringed with bushland and palm trees, and a beautiful white sandy beach.

“I stayed on and off for a few years and had many adventures. But it was hard work. My first lessons were to learn to cook and how to work with pack horses.

“ After a few years I felt there was a whole big world out there to see and I was butting my head up against a wall on a remote island.”

Lill got a lift from Mackay to Darwin and immediately took a job at the Walkabout Hotel in Nhulunbuy – and stayed there for three years.

When her then partner got a good job in Darwin, she packed her bags for what she thought would be a brief stay in the Northern Territory’s capital.

But as with so many Territorians, Darwin drew her in – a multiracial, happy, friendly, bizarre little town clinging on to the vastness of Australia by its fingertips.

“I loved the opportunities, the people, the lifestyle … everything. Kids brought up here have a great attitude to life, I feel.

“When I arrived in 1979, Darwin was buzzing with activity with rebuilding after Cyclone Tracy and adding new buildings, so there was plenty of work.

Also, mining and land rights were both being vigorously explored in Kakadu. Money seemed to be readily available.”

Lill started a small T-shirt printing business supplying local souvenir shops – her printing was carried out on the dining room table and had to be moved to make way for meals.

Her printery expanded into a workspace in the city and she was able to sell it after a few years.

The self-taught printer studied adult education at Charles Darwin University and then took a job at Nungalinya College teaching textile art to adult Aboriginal students.

“What a wonderful time that was. For the first year, I kept one step ahead of the students, studying the next subject just before I taught it.

“I was so lucky having terrific fellow staff members and such great students. We laughed a lot at each other’s mistakes and enjoyed some amazing, creative journeys. We all loved it.

“Somehow the other two staff members and I managed to create enough of our own work to have an exhibition of our own each year. I’m not sure how we did it as the course was full on.

“After 10 years, the textile art course was disbanded when the funding stopped. It was very sad for staff and students.”

During this time, she also taught some courses in textile art with the School of Fashion at CDU and when they finished she taught at Bachelor College until those courses came to an end as well.

Lill, whose eye-catching fabrics were sold to make women’s clothing at Raw Cloth until the shop closed
a few years ago, studied in Europe and the United States after winning a Churchill Scholarship in 2004.

Now, for her latest creative adventure, she is printing smaller lengths of fabric with one-off screen- printed designs, which her friend, Kerrie Horgan, is making into an exclusive range of blouses, dresses and cushion covers to sell in the Tactile Art shops and craft fairs.

Lill enjoys working in her studio at Tactile Arts most days – a revered and well-liked doyen of the Northern Territory’s vibrant art scene. TQ