Florence Broadhurst
  Shanghai 1925-26
  © Powerhouse Museum

By the time of her death in 1977 Florence Broadhurst had lived and worked in Australia, Asia, and England; performed professionally on stage; been befriended by royalty; exhibited her paintings; and started an internationally successful wallpaper company whose success was based upon her own designs. She also found time to run a trucking company, start up a dress salon, play marbles with a strong competitive streak and agitate for women’s rights.

One of her earliest major achievements was to win a singing competition in 1915 and she followed this by performing in various towns and cities in Queensland. She appeared with the Smart Set Diggers in Toowoomba, and the Bundaberg Daily News described Florence Broadhurst as a “promising contralto”.

By the early 1920s Florence Broadhurst was performing in India, South-East Asia and China as a musical comedy star. Known as Miss Bobby Broadhurst and performing with the Globe Trotters, Malaysia’s Pinang Gazette and Straits Chronicle said she showed “a characteristic beauty of expression which set the hallmark on her abilities as a singer”.

In 1926 Florence Broadhurst founded a modern academy of arts in Shanghai, known as the Broadhurst Academy

The China Press newspaper described this venture as follows:

“Miss Broadhurst ATCL as principal has associated herself with Melsa, the famous violinist; Kournitz Boulueva, professor of piano; Miss Jean Armstrong, journalist and short story writer of note; Madame Boulueva, classical dancer from the Imperial Theatres of Petrograd and Moscow; who together with many assistant teachers for Ball-Room dancing, physical culture, elocution, English, painting, drawing, Pen Painting, etc, have broken away from the old method and are introducing art, under ideal conditions, and the most competent masters, in an elaborate studio, at reasonable tuition rates.”

Also in Shanghai, she was responsible for a concert by a band of artists styling themselves the “Frothblowers’ Concert Party” performing before the Shanghai Defence Force at the request of its commanding general.

From the exotic melting pot of 1920s Shanghai, Florence Broadhurst moved to London, where by 1933 she reinvented herself as Madame Pellier, running a dress salon in exclusive Bond Street.

In 1949 Broadhurst returned to Australia after living in Worthing, Sussex in the UK. She and her family wanted to escape the grey skies and post-wartime rationing and eventually settled in Sydney.

Florence Broadhurst painted enthusiastically and prolifically, exhibiting her paintings at the David Jones Art Gallery and entering the Archibald Prize for portraits. A painting of her was also exhibited as an Archibald entry.

From painting, Broadhurst moved into the business for which she is most famous and which is now enjoying a worldwide revival, handprinted wallpaper.

Broadhurst's revolutionary wallpaper business was established in 1959 and monopolised the quality end of the Australian market by the mid-1970s. She also exported to America, Peru, Paris, the Middle East and Norway.

Florence Broadhurst abandoned convention and the restrictions of mass production, rapidly leaving the traditional, conservative handprinted wallpapers behind. Instead she created hundreds of unique and luxurious patterns. She combined fuscia pinks, lemon yellows, lime greens, vivid oranges, turquoise, blacks, metallic silvers and gold – all perfectly matching her own flamboyant personality.

Florence Broadhurst printed onto transparent mylars, foils and metallic papers. She called her revolutionary handprinted creations “Vigorous designs for modern living”.

Florence Broadhurst worked actively until her death in October 1977 at the age of 78.