The Shoalhaven Coast

Distinguished and Famous people from The Shoalhaven Coast

🎨 Arthur Boyd

Arthur Boyd's Shoalhaven paintings grew from a sustained relationship with the river country around Bundanon. Following a first visit in 1971, he and Yvonne Boyd acquired local properties and shared their home and studio with other artists, including Sidney Nolan. In 1993 they gave Bundanon to the Australian public. The gift established a place where landscape, art and creative activity could continue together. Boyd's connection was residence and artistic work along the river, with a lasting public institution as its consequence.

🎼 Deborah Cheetham Fraillon

Soprano and composer Deborah Cheetham Fraillon was born on Yuin Country at Nowra in 1964. Removed from her mother as an infant, she was raised by an adoptive family in Sydney and later reconnected with her Aboriginal family. Her career has combined performance, composition, education and artistic leadership. In 2023 she became the inaugural Elizabeth Todd Chair of Vocal Studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Her identity and cultural connections also informed a sculptural portrait by Anna-Wili Highfield: ochres from Gulaga and possum pelt were incorporated with her participation. Nowra is her documented birthplace, while her subsequent training and career developed much more widely.