This biography is republished from The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia. Written by Kathryn Mcleod, National Film and Sound Archive. See below for full attribution.
Born: 20 January 1932, Australia
Died: NA
Country most active: Australia
Also known as: NA
Wendy Blacklock was born in Sydney in 1932. She acted in some of the most iconic Australian television series of the 1970s, including Skippy, Homicide and Boney and also had a long-running role as ‘Mummy’ in the popular Australian television series Number 96 (1972-1977).
In the early 1980s, Blacklock changed direction, dropping acting and moving towards a career as a producer. In 1982, she established the Australian Content Department of the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust. With funding from the Australia Council, the Australian Content Department was ‘designed to nurture, produce and tour independent artists and small companies’ (Van Straten, 2007). This move was hugely successful, with the Trust producing and touring more than 40 shows in Australia and overseas between 1982 and 1990. In 1990, the department became Performing Lines Ltd. Under her role as general manager, Blacklock lead the company as it continued to develop opportunities for emerging theatre artists.
For her outstanding contributions to performing arts in Australia, Blacklock was appointed a member of the Order of Australia in 1992, won the Live Performance Australia’s James Cassius Williamson Award in 2003 and was the Premier’s personal nominee for the NSW Women’s Honour Roll in 2005.
Kathryn Mcleod, ‘Blacklock, Wendy’, in The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia, Australian Women’s Archives Project, 2014, https://www.womenaustralia.info/leaders/biogs/WLE0488b.htm, accessed 16 January 2022.