Dame Helen Blaxland DBE (1907–1989), conservationist and fundraiser, studied at the Julian Ashton School of Art in Sydney. She and her husband Gregory Blaxland lived in a nineteenth-century mansion in Woollahra, 'Brush', and were significant collectors of the work of Australian artists including Russell Drysdale, Sidney Nolan and William Dobell. During the Second World War Blaxland worked as a fundraiser for the Australian Red Cross Society, where she stayed until 1951. In 1946, she published Flower Pieces, a book on the art of floral arrangement, with photographs by Max Dupain and Olive Cotton. She served on the council of the new Art Gallery Society of New South Wales in the early 1950s, and in 1959 played a major part in setting up the National Trust, founding its women’s committee and later becoming its vice-president. To raise awareness of the need to preserve Sydney's colonial buildings she initiated the exhibition No Time to Spare, featuring photographs by Dupain, which was shown at the David Jones Art Gallery in 1962. Blaxland was a trustee of the National Parks and Wildlife Foundation and chair of the Australiana Fund, set up to acquire works of art and furniture for the four official Commonwealth residences. Late in life she moved to Camden Park House, to live with her daughter Antonia.
