The University of Queensland

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Daphne Mayo's studio, 231 George Street, Sydney, 1981
UQFL119 Box 55

Packing the Sydney Studio, 29 June - 8 July 1981

The sorting and dispersal of Daphne Mayo's Sydney studio was carried out for Queensland Trustees Ltd from 29 June - 8 July 1981 and directed by Judith McKay. Austart Services were contracted for packing artworks and valuable assistance was given by the Conservation Department of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Jacqueline MacNaughton, trainee conservator and Tim Collis-Brown took the photographs.

The dispersal of the studio was prompted by the reclamation of 231 George Street, Sydney by the Sydney Cove Redevelopment Authority. Daphne Mayo was the last tenant to leave the building, which was destined for demolition in the near future.

Judith McKay, November 1981.
Sydney Studio Vol.1, p.1
UQFL119 Box 55

Judging from the photographs taken by Tim Collis-Brown, the enormous task of packing and sorting the Sydney studio was a daunting one. Mayo had rarely visited the studio during her twenty year return to Brisbane.

The images of packing the studio reveal the dark, dusty, unkempt and neglected state of the studio. Given the very brief time-frame, 29 June - 8 July 1981 and the extreme difficulty of the task at hand, Judith McKay, Jacqueline MacNaughton, Tim Collis-Brown and Austart achieved remarkable results.

Unravelling the Daphne Mayo collection at the Fryer Library

The collection included more than 100 boxes of personal and professional correspondence, manuscripts, sculptures, artworks, sketchbooks, tools, photographs, books, art exhibition catalogues and periodicals, newspaper clippings, minutes, receipts, financial files, handwritten notes and ephemera.

The majority of the contents of the boxes were in order either chronologically or by subject, ie correspondence, artworks, sketchbooks, photos and postcards, art exhibition catalogues and books etc., but some of the boxes containing newspaper clippings, financial information and records and ephemera were tied with string, wire, nappy pins and in one box of financial records, they were held together with a hatpin!

A selection of items from the Daphne Mayo Collection UQFL119. Photography by Mark Sherwood, 2009

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