Nada Hunter

1918 - 2005

NADA HUNTER , painter/prinmaker, member of the VAS and MSWPS, born in Donald, had two brothers,

Nada joined the WAAF at the outbreak of WW2 in 1939 and was engaged as an intelligence analyst throughout SE Asia. Her artistic ability enabled discriminating reading of high altitude photography of enemy territory – she could pick the camouflage. She continued her secretive work after the war in Intelligence Signals and Communications based at Victoria Barracks and later moved to ASIO, one of the few artists to become a “spook”. She lived in Paris and Mallorca in the late 1940s and early 1950s. During the 1960s she was sent to Broome gathering information about unwanted assemblies near the sensitive Exmouth Gulf and completed her assignment as a ‘mole’ at the Singapore station.

But, during this time, the spy did come in from the cold and studied painting initially under the highly regarded, but rather solemn Tasmanian artist, Jack Carrington-Smith. That training was augmented by studies in Paris at the Académie Julian where she learnt techniques developed by the post impressionist artists which can be seen particularly in her brilliantly colourful floral works.