Dr Frances Burke

Frances Mary Burke, MBE (1907-1994) established Burway Prints, Australia’s first registered textile screen printery in 1937 and was an astute businesswoman, dedicated to promoting innovative and distinctly Australian textile design.

Frances Burke studied at the National Gallery School, the George Bell School and Melbourne Technical College, (RMIT). She successfully organised the financial and marketing aspects of her business that showed innovative textiles in vivid daring colours to a public that was hungry for visual stimulus after the war.

She believed that exposure to, and education about design were vital. She sought to educate her clients in the use of appropriate fabrics to create an ambience for the new wave of interior design and architecture generated by such practitioners as Roy Grounds, Frederick Romberg, Robin Boyd, Guildford Bell, Grant Featherston, Clement Meadmore and others.

In 1970 Frances Burke was awarded an MBE for services to design and in 1987 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the RMIT Faculty of Art.