Barbara Vernon (writer)

Barbara Mary Vernon (25 July 1916 – 16 April 1978) was an Australian playwright, screenwriter and radio announcer. Her plays include The Multi-Coloured Umbrella. She was the headwriter and script editor of the TV drama series Bellbird

Biography
Vernon was born in 1916, the youngest child of four to medical practitioner Murray Menzies Vernon and Constance Emma Elliot (née Barling). She attended the New England School in Armidale, New South Wales, before entering the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force in 1943, rising to rank of Corporal, before being discharged in 1946. She joined radio the Northern Broadcasters radio station radio 2NZ. Vernon started to write plays because she was involved with amateur drama and they could not afford to pay for the copyright of plays.

Her first play was "Naked Possum" in 1956, staged by Dame Doris Fitton, her second professionally performed play was the award winning "The Multi-Coloured Umbrella" and this was the first Australian play broadcast by Australian television. She retired in 1976 and died from a cardio in Darlinghurst, New South Wales on 16 April, 1978 at St Vincents Hospital aged 61

Select Works

 * The Passionate Pianist (1957) – adapted for TV.
 * The Multi-Coloured Umbrella (1958) – adapted for TV in 1958
 * Bellbird (1967) – head writer, script editor
 * The Sleeping Planet (1968) – play
 * Pastures of the Blue Crane (1969) (TV series) – script editor
 * Certain Women- contribution's as editor (unknown episodes)